Dark Skies

Rural Northland is a great place for astronomy because of the lack of both light and air pollution. The skies here are naturally dark and the air is pure with the breeze from the Tasman sea, so the stars shine like diamonds in black velvet. On a moonless night, the Milky Way stretches brightly across the entire horizon and the Magellenic clouds leap out in contrast as dense white galaxies.

In most developed parts of the world, it is no longer possible to see even the Milky Way, because of light and air pollution. In cities like London it is difficult to see more than a couple of the very brightest stars on a clear night. When Deborah lived in the UK, she was the Oxfordshire representative and a major fundraiser ("Swimming for the Stars") for the Campaign for Dark Skies and a committee member of the Abingdon Astronomical Society (AAS).

When Deborah's local council planned to add a swathe of high streetlights to the only remaining dark part of her village, she successfully petition the villagers against the intrusion of artificial over lighting. A BBC TV crew came and filmed an observing session of the AAS at her house and aired a program to highlight the issues. The text version with pictures can be seen here. The number of new streetlights planned was drastically reduced, and the belisha beacons were shielded.

Deborah also assisted many Oxfordshire residents in blocking the light from streetlights near their houses or observing sights, by liaison with the council to organise their provision and installation of light shields or black paint.

Come and see the starry splendour of the southern skies and the full glory of the Milky Way from naturally dark Northland New Zealand.

For comparison with New Zealand (left), look at these maps of the light pollution over Europe, N America and Japan: