Date: February 1, 2012
Title: Dark Skies Crusader Challenges Cities during February’s GLOBE at Night Campaign
Podcasters: Connie Walker, Rob Sparks, Monica Mayne, Chuck Dugan, Johnathan Siquerios and Carmen Austin
Organization: National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO)
Links: http://www.noao.edu
http://www.darksky.org
http://www.globeatnight.org
http://www.facebook.com/GLOBEatNight
http://twitter.com/GLOBEatNight
http://visiblesuns.blogspot.com/
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/earthobservatory/CITIES_AT_NIGHT_THE_VIEW_FROM_SPACE.HTM
Description: With half of the world’s population now living in cities, many urban dwellers have never experienced the wonderment of pristinely dark skies and maybe never will. This loss, caused by light pollution, is a concern on many fronts: safety, energy conservation, cost, health and effects on wildlife, as well as our ability to view the stars. Even though light pollution is a serious and growing global concern, it is one of the easiest environmental problems people can address on local levels. To provide opportunities for public involvement in dark skies preservation and energy conservation, we invite the public to participate in the GLOBE at Night campaign (www.globeatnight.org).
Bio: Podcast co-author, Connie Walker is an associate scientist and senior science education specialist in the Education and Public Outreach (EPO) group at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) in Tucson, Arizona. She directs the worldwide citizen science campaign on monitoring sky brightness called GLOBE at Night (www.globeatnight.org). She also chaired the global cornerstone project on Dark Skies Awareness for the International Year of Astronomy (www.darkskiesawareness.org).
Podcast co-author, Rob Sparks is a science education specialist in the EPO group at NOAO and works on the Galileoscope project (www.galileoscope.org), providing design, dissemination and professional development. He also pens a great blog at halfastro.wordpress.com.
Monica Mayne is an Administrative Assistant at NOAO.
Chuck Dugan is a public program specialist for the NOAO Kitt Peak Visitor Center.
Johnathan Siquerios is a biology major at the University of Arizona.
Carmen Austin is an astronomy major at the University of Arizona.
Sponsor: This episode of the “365 Days of Astronomy” podcast is sponsored by — NO ONE. We still need sponsors for many days in 2012, so please consider sponsoring a day or two. Just click on the “Donate” button on the lower left side of this webpage, or contact us at signup@365daysofastronomy.org.
Transcript:
Intro theme music
Donnie (in the style of a television sports show) : And welcome to the Dark Skies Center! I am Donnie Darko and joining me today is the legendary Dark Skies Crusader!
DSC: Greetings, friend! Dark Skies to you!
Donnie: And Dark Skies to you! I am just thrilled you could join us today for our coverage of GLOBE at Night 2012. Thousands of measurements have already been submitted in January and now we are ready for the February quarterfinals. It’s shaping up to be an exciting campaign. Could you tell us about this week’s matchup?
DSC: Sure Donnie, this week we have two great cities in the southwestern region going at it. Tucson, our defending champion, is fresh off defeating Phoenix in January, takes on Denver who narrowly squeaked by Albuquerque in the first round.
Donnie: Tucson is a traditional powerhouse when it comes to dark skies due to all the astronomy, but what about Denver?
DSC: Well, Denver has become more environmentally conscious over the years. Air pollution can get bad due to the local geography so Denver is working on saving energy. One part of energy conservation can be improved lighting design.
Donnie: We are just about ready to begin the competition, but let’s check in with the Captain of the Tucson Nighthawks, David Donaldson.
David: Thanks, Donnie. We have great clear skies tonight, Orion is visible high in the sky and we have our team ready to go.
Donnie: What will it take to win this year?
David: Well, we are all on the west side of Tucson. Each team member has a smart phone ready to enter their data. We plan on starting on the west side and each person will drive down a major east-west street taking a data point once per mile. We will observe Orion, compare it to the charts on the GLOBE at Night website, enter our data, and move on as quick as we can until we hit the mountains on the east side.
DSC: Tell us a little about your team, David.
David: Well, we have team members ranging from seven year old student to an 85 year old retiree. The great thing about GLOBE at Night is that anyone can participate!
DSC: Thanks, David. Now let’s check in with the Captain of the Denver Stars, Christine Chapman.
Christine: Thanks, DSC. We decided to use iPads this year to enter our data. We like the bigger screens and they work great with the GLOBE at Night website. We have our team all gathered in downtown. We are all going to fan out radially from our starting point in downtown. In addition, we have a lot of people who are making observations from their homes. Every observation counts!
Donnie: Wow, two very different strategies here, but we have seen cities have success with both methods in the past.
DSC: We sure have, Donnie. Astronomical twilight has just ended so the competition can begin! And there they go!
Donnie: The first data points are coming from both cities right now. Tucson is finding darker skies on the west side of the city but I expect their readings will indicate brighter skies as they move toward the city center.
DSC: We are seeing the opposite in Denver as they chose to star downtown. Wait, we have a glitch in Tucson. Something happened on the north side. Let’s go back to David.
David: Well, DSC, the cell phone network had a glitch up here. Fortunately, we were prepared. We printed out the data collection sheets from the GLOBE at Night website so we can write down our data and enter it when we are back in range.
Donnie: Sounds like you were prepared there. Way to go David! Let’s check in with Denver.
Christine: Thanks, Donnie. We have seen very few stars in the early going here, but that is starting to change. Our fastest teams have just found their first magnitude four skies in a small park north of downtown! We hope to find even darker skies as we hit the outskirts of the city.
DSC: Thanks, Christine. As we know, excess nighttime lighting has a variety of negative consequences. For more on that, we are joined by Dr. Lillian Thurman.
Dr. Thurman: Thanks, DSC. Today I would like to highlight research being done in Tucson using GLOBE at Night data. The Arizona Department of Game and Fish, in cooperation with the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, is using GLOBE at Night data to study the foraging patterns of the lesser long nose bat.
Donnie: And what are they finding?
Dr. Thurman: The bats appear to be avoiding the most light polluted areas of Tucson as they travel from their roost to their foraging areas. Maybe bats aren’t so blind after all! This is just one of many examples of how light pollution effects wildlife and the types of research that we can do if we have enough light pollution data. However, we need cities to collect hundreds of data points in order for us to get a clear picture of lighting levels around the cities! That’s why programs such as GLOBE at Night are so important.
DSC: Thank you, Dr. Thurman. The competition is nearing its final phase so let’s check in again with David in Tucson.
David: Thanks, DSC, we encountered some heavy traffic and bright lights going through downtown Tucson. Turns out there was a production of “Starlight Express” at the Tucson Music Hall that was just getting out. But we fought through that traffic and are now making a beeline toward Saguaro National Park East. We expect to find some REALLY dark skies out there!
Donnie: Thanks, David. And we will send it to Christine in Denver for one last comment.
Christine: Our strategy of staring downtown will really pay off. We got away from the brightest lights very quickly and our team of citizen scientists is finding some great sites. The Rocky Mountain Arsenel National Wildlife Refuge on the northeast side is a surprisingly good site for being so close to Denver. It’s really rewarding to enter our data into the GLOBE at Night database and then be able to go there just a few minutes later and see it plotted on the map!
Donnie: Thanks, Christine. DSC, on the Tucson map, I notice a bright area over on Tanque Verde road near Sabino Canyon Road. Any idea what that might be?
DSC: Why that must be the sports fields at Udall Park. They turn off the lights when the fields are not in use so it’s not always that bright there. You can see someone took a measurement in Reid Park and it is darker there than the surrounding area. That is why we need to take lots of measurements around the city, to find these types of variations.
Donnie: All right, we are nearing the end of the observing window for the evening here and the last measurements are coming in. And it looks like tonight’s winner is
Connie: Connie: Our second GLOBE at Night campaign for 2012 runs from February 12th – 21st. During this time, every clear, moonless evening starting from at least an hour after sunset, you can make GLOBE at Night Observations and submit them to our database. All the information you need, finding charts for Orion, the magnitude charts and tools to find your GPS coordinates, and more, are available on the GLOBE at Night website at http://www.globeatnight.org. If you wish to submit data with smart mobile phones or tablets, go directly to http://www.globeatnight.org/webapp. You can submit as many data points as you take from different locations around your city. Multiple observations are encouraged! Help us surpass our goal of 15,000 observations and your city can be a winner! Be the city to get the most measurements and win a feature article on our website and Facebook page. This is Connie Walker, director of the GLOBE at Night program and the cast of characters from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory thanking you for listening to this episode of the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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