A group of 30 or so people gather in a dark car park on a hillside east of Snowdonia between named storms. The dark skies officer at the North Wales Dark Skies Partnership asked if everyone had warm hats and decent shoes.
A group of people walk up Moel Famau in the Outstanding Natural Beauty area. We are here for an introductory astronomy session, one of a series of events organised for the first Welsh Dark Skies Week at several locations across the country. The red lights on torches and headlamps provided will allow night vision to develop, not just for the rocky path ahead, but also for optimal stargazing.
The idea is to learn a little about the universe and the damage it does by light pollution, and hopefully to encourage participants to contribute less light in the evening. The group pushes on into the cold February night, with young ash trees on the hillside to the left.
If you want to guarantee clouds, all you have to do is arrange an astronomy event, says astronomer and college lecturer Rob Jones.
Light pollution is amplified by low clouds on the fringes of this dark place. The small town of Ruthin is as bright as Las Vegas Boulevard. Chester glows as though it is a fire, its light bouncing off the clouds above.
Robertson tells the group about the problems of too much light, especially the ultra-bright LEDs that have become commonplace over the past decade. She begins to explain how this can affect the health of people and animals but doesn't go far before the clouds start to melt. Our eyes are dilated like Ibizan clubbers and the stars are small.
If you want to guarantee clouds, all you have to do is arrange an astronomy event
Jones uses a green laser pen to talk to us through individual stars. He introduces the blue supergiant, which is the most visible star in the constellation. Betelgeuse is an ancient star that is on its way to supernova and is also a part of Orion. The star is so far away from Earth that it could have exploded before Columbus sailed to the New World.
A six-year-old boy who asked his parents to bring a hot-water bottle up the hill with him, has his mind blown by this knowledge, information he seems to accept more readily than the news that, no, that flashing
I think it went well, but I wasn't sure how things were going to go. It seems to have gotten people's attention.
The main aim is to improve appreciation and desire for dark skies, which is why creating stargazers, or astral photographers, or nocturnal animal spotters, is a happy byproduct of the week. Wales is already blessed with two official international dark dky reserves. Robertson and her team are applying to the International Dark Sky Association to have more regions classified. There are events in national parks and AONBs all over the country during the Welsh Dark Skies Week.
With our eyes already helpfully dilated like Ibizan clubbers, the stars – little and otherwise – twinkle-twinkle above
Outside the Dark Skies Week, Robertson and colleagues run events throughout the year, including a pop-up planetarium in the winter. In the summer there are owl walks, bat box making, night swimming, and glow worm walks. Go Stargazing's Dark Sky Sites is a good guide to places that are accessible at night and safe for the public to stargaze without having to trek miles. Part of the process to become a Dark Sky Reserve or Park is having the local authority adopt planning rules that enforce a high standard of lighting.
It is more about resident health, whether that is people or animals, than it is about benefits. We don't want to take people's lights away, but we want them to use the right lights in the right places.
She is quick to acknowledge that the widespread shift to LED lighting reduced the carbon footprint of conventional bulbs, while simultaneously reducing the energy bills of both households and local authorities. That is bad for human and animal health. It's like crossing the road from carbon emissions to being hit by a bus of biodiversity collapse.
Some species have found it harder to orient themselves as human settlements have grown larger. This affectsmigratory birds and insects, and the basis of many food chains. She says that light is one of the easiest things to fix.
Welsh Dark Skies Week will return next year. Discovery in the Dark Wales has information on dark sky adventures.
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