Two national parks in Yorkshire—the Yorkshire Dales and North Yorks Moors—have earned a designation as international dark sky reserves, free of the light pollution that makes it hard for many of us to see stars and for astronomers to study them. The designation makes it the largest dark-sky reserve in the UK.
International dark-sky reserves are designated by the Arizona-based International Dark-Sky Association, which requires both a large enough area of core darkness, and a surrounding population committed to the project and to development of dark-sky activities.
Yorkshire has hosted an annual Dark Skies Festival in the area for the past few years, encouraging ‘astrotourism’ and other star-gazing activities; last year almost 8,000 participated.
Worldwide, there are now sixteen designated dark-sky reserves, five of them in England.
I take your point. Where we live, there are no streetlights (for several kilometres around) and, while we often grumble when we stumble around with a torch to the post box at the end of the lane, we would not really want any. On those occasions when the clouds disperse, the starlit skies are wonderful to look at – and we do not need a torch!
I, too, live in an area with no street lights. However, my across-the-street neighbor has decided to “remedy” the situation with year-round outdoor Christmas lights. While I suppose she has the right, what happened to my right to a dark sky, a dilemma. So these days my favorite thing to see is the Space Station going over, brighter than anything but the moon.Sign up for notices for your location:https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/signup.cfm
For those of us living in centers of light pollution (if that’s truly the concept), even clouds would not dampen the excitement of truly dark sky. When my children were young we often camped in Maine; it was a revelation to them how bright the stars were, and how many, against a seemingly black sky. To anyone who’s never seen that…find a way!
It is complicated: there are Dark Sky Parks, Reserves, and Sanctuaries.However, I believe there are now 18 (not 16) International Dark Sky Reserves, including 5 in England (and 2 in Wales). The problem with Dark Sky Reserves in the UK, of course, is that the skies are often dark for another reason … and star-gazing is difficult through dense clouds!