Is anybody taking care of this?:

Roger Leiton Thompson

Grupo de Descontaminacion Luminica Red Chilena de Astronomia CTIO Grupo Centauri – U. de La Serena.

Copyrights of this image: IDA

Increasing the Chilean awareness of dark-sky preservation

Who we are?

Chilean amateur astronomers (mostly associated with universities and schools) began to work jointly (1998) in the Chilean Network of Astronomy (Red Chilena de Astronomia, R.Ch.A) with the following objectives: education, outreach, amateur research and DARK-SKY preservation.

Light Decontamination Group, (Grupo de Descontaminacion Luminica), G.D.L, a branch of R.Ch.A., created in 2001 to coordinate activities in order to promote preservation of Chilean dark skies for astronomical, educational and environmental purposes inside the astronomical and public community.

Motivations of the G.D.L.

Love for the wonders of the sky!

Preserve our natural and cultural heritage for future generations (we do not want children to see the stars only in books!)

contribute to saving economic resources

e.g.:good illumination dark-skies astronomical tourism. (save $$) (gain $$)

Objectives of G.D.L.

To combat the LP problem from different angles: education, astronomy, engineering, social & economic impact, urban design, laws.

To contact specialists and volunteers from different areas to produce and collect information about LP based on Chilean reality

from specific to universal!

To stimulate local activism throughout the country.

The Team

Roger Leiton, CTIO, Centauri/ULS (leader) Farid Char, Univ. Catolica del Norte (webmaster) Patricia Ramirez, G.D.L. /R.Ch.A (translation editor)

Collaborators (pictures and outreach activities) Monica Montory Rastro/ Univ. de Concepcion. Guillermo Yañez Univ. Diego Portales Juan Seguel Rastro/Univ. de Concepcion. Jose Ojeda Centauri/Univ. La Serena. Jorge Fernandez Centauri/Univ. La Serena. Moira Evans SAVAL Eduardo Unda R.Ch.A, Univ. of Southampton-UK Carlos Milovic ACHAYA Mario Campos Colegio Cristobal Colon, Santiago. Nestor Figueroa ACHAYA Pablo Muñoz ASAT Arturo Gomez CTIO Guillermo Damke Centauri/Univ. La Serena. Carlos Corco Centauri/Univ. La Serena. Sergio Torres Centauri/Univ. La Serena.

Work in progress … (I):

“CAMPAIGN FOR DARK SKIES”

Web site: creating a site in Spanish for all the produced and collected information on light pollution:

http://www.polucionluminica.cjb.net

Informative Bulletin: an electronic publication to inform others of the group’s status, news from Chile and other countries, opinions, etc.

e.g.: Malcolm Smith wrote a short article for the first issue . Thanks Malcolm!!

Collaborating with IDA: translation of IDA Information Sheets to Spanish

Work in progress … (II)

Photographic Urban Catalog: panoramic images of the cities and its light contamination.

We want to show to Chileans how their cities are sending light and money to the sky.

La Serena’s glow behind CTIO. Night view of Lota: city with employment problems but sending

light and money to the sky.

A “light” sample…

VALPARAISO: 293.000 inhab.

TALCAHUANO:277.000

VICU~NA: 22.400 inhab. ANTOFAGASTA: 250.000 inhab.

DISPUTADA DE LAS CONDES (MINING)

SANTIAGO: 4.700.000 inhab.

Population Source: Anuario Demografia I.N.E., 1998

Work in progress … (III)

Taking images of bad and good examples of illumination in different cities to track future improvements.

Poorly illuminated monument in Antofagasta(only 120 km south from Paranal!!) Luminaries

in University of La Serena…

Work in progress … (IV)

“Permission to Dream”: Collaboration with Space Frontier Foundation to a) introduce students to science and related areas, b) to connect children and teachers with astronomy experts, and c) providing telescopes and classroom support.

In this moment,we are in the selection process

for a school …

A school will work with Alan Hale (Yes!, the discoverer of comet Hale-Bopp) for ~ 1 year using a amateur telescope lent (and hopefully donated) by Space Frontier Foundation.

Dreams for the future…

Emphasis on detection of bad illumination examples and their solutions in campuses of Chilean universities

become a solution example for rest of the city.

Construction & development of a Dark-Sky Meter based on Flodquist, 2001, Sky & Tel., 101, 138. to make light pollution maps of urban skies.

Recruit collaborators to our efforts; to continue stimulating regional activism, and to keep the community informed.

March 4th

New IDA section for Chile!!!

Main Goal:- overall coordination of the current

individual efforts in Chile.

… March 6thAntofagasta:Public Talk

Santiago:- Starparty- Public Talk

Concepcion:- Radio transmision http://radio.udec.cl:8000

- Starparty (if no clouds!)

Everyday, Chilean Network of Astronomy is receiving a summary of this conference.

Thanks to …

Malcolm Smith, (AURA) Pedro Sanhueza, (OPCC) Elizabeth Alvarez del Castillo (IDA) Maxime Boccas (Gemini) Rene Mendez (CTIO, currently at ESO)

… for all the support and good advice.

Grupo de Descontaminacion Luminica

http://www.polucionluminica.cjb.net

Red Chilena de Astronomia

http://www.redastro.cjb.net

Grupo de Descontaminacion Luminica

http://www.polucionluminica.cjb.net

Red Chilena de Astronomia

http://www.redastro.cjb.net