Next week the U’s Department of Physics & Astronomy will go dark.
They’re not shutting down or going anywhere — rather, the department is celebrating “International Dark Skies Week” for the first time at the U. Their purpose is to spread awareness of light pollution.
The department will host events throughout the week. There will be a movie night hosted by the South Physics Observatory (part of the department), the Utah Film Center and the Natural History Museum of Utah at the Main Library in downtown Salt Lake City on Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m. A stargazing party will be at the South Physics Observatory on Wednesday from 7 to 11 p.m.
Paul Ricketts, the South Physics Observatory manager and an AstronomUr Outreach staff member, said events are normally held weekly, but next week will focus solely on dark skies.
“We like to celebrate the night sky every week at the observatory where we promote cleaning the skies of light pollution by showing people what they miss and how they can help,” Ricketts said.
International Dark Skies Week was initiated by the International Dark-Sky Association, which was founded in 1988.
“Dark Skies Week is a celebration of the night sky,” Ricketts said. “It’s a way to help spread the word that our skies are being pushed away by lighting that’s wasteful, expensive and whose effects are disastrous for health and the environment.”
Yessenia Sontay, an undeclared freshman, said the dark skies event will enlighten her about pollution and its effects. She thinks the experience will be well worth it, and the stargazing party will have the biggest impact
on students.
“I feel that visually, if we see what’s going on above as well as what we are doing to our planet,” Sontay said, “more people would realize that we need to change the ways we use energy.”
Students will have the opportunity to see Saturn, Jupiter and a destroyed 25 million-year-old particle of light from the galaxy as well.
“Students should leave the events with a better understanding of the world and universe around them,” Ricketts said. “And every person is affected by light pollution in one way or another.”
For more information on dark skies, you can visit darksky.org.
@chriswritine