It seems that some NZ astronomers would like to create a heritage park in the skies:
Canterbury astronomers are pushing to have the Mackenzie District designated as the world’s first United Nations’ Heritage Park in the sky.… An astronomy professor at Canterbury University, Phil Butler, says there are already measures to protect the university’s Mt John Observatory from light pollution. But Professor Butler says world heritage status would bring greater publicity to the study of astronomy and also economic benefits in the form of star gazing tourists.
[Via NewsRoom.]
Sounds like a fabulous idea to me.
Interesting quirk of timing though… TV One have created a new promo video that they show several times per day. I’ve seen it twice now, the first time without sound, and it’s mystifying.
It shows bunches of people getting together with light sources — car headlights, torches and so on — and after a countdown, they all shine them up into the sky at the same time.
It’s not clear why they’re doing this: to waste a monumental amount of electricity, to signal expected arrivals from space, to totally wash out anything astronomers might be trying to look at — it’s a puzzle.
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Loved the linking here – Paradox and irony are so attractive – and thanks for the link to the TVOne clip it reminded me of Fry’s comment in the Roswell episode on Futurama
Fry: I’ve never seen a supernova blow up, but if it’s anything like my old Chevy Nova, it’ll light up the night sky.
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