BBC may axe The Sky at Night

[vernon]

Can badgers fly?

Yes

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Is it any wonder - as the night sky is increasingly blotted out by light pollution. Who in the UK really gets to see a really 'dark' sky nowadays ? TSaN is a great programme, but how can you interest folk in stuff they have no longer any chance of seeing or participating in/ enjoying?

The great panic tonight on the news about the 'frightening prospect of the lights going out' made me laugh - our still fairly rural county here (Cambs) is lit up like Las Vegas at night as even the smallest of villages is infested with orange streetlights every 10 yards or so - just switch the feckers off FFS!

Galloway.

 

[hopless500]

Yes

I've not seen that one!!!!!!!!
There were even snakes!

 

[Glow worm]

(most of the time, unless it's foggy)

You can just about see the Milky Way overhead from our village, but anything to the SW is obliterated by Cambridge. Sadly, as this recent light pollution map shows, only small patches of Norfolk remain light polltion free, It's really only bits of Wales, parts of Cumberland and Northumberland and the far NW of Scotland where you get proper dark.

 

[Bollo]

Galloway.

George Galloway? Might work, and he'll do anything for a bit of airtime.

 

[hopless500]

Light pollution is getting to be a problem in a lot of places. But we do pretty well here on the whole. As does the West coast of Cornwall - we had a fab view of the Halle-Bop comet all those years ago. Full on tail and everything. (Lived in Nottingham at the time where the comet was just a blob). Great fun stumbling back in the pitch-black up the hillside and across the cliffs to the campsite pi$$ed as lizard-like things!

 

[hopless500]

And we get the Milky Way too
although the 1st sighting of that for me was Yorkshire

 

[RedRider]

Can badgers fly?

No, but flies can badger.

 

[hopless500]

No, but flies can badger.

 

[slowmotion]

I would be happy if they just played the intro and outro music, with photos in between. Patrick Moore came to my school when I was fifteen and gave a talk. A brilliant and enthusiastic communicator. A very hard act to follow.

 

[asterix]

Is it any wonder - as the night sky is increasingly blotted out by light pollution, who in the UK really gets to see a really 'dark' sky nowadays ? TSaN is a great programme, but how can you interest folk in stuff they have no longer any chance of seeing or participating in/ enjoying?

The great panic tonight on the news about the 'frightening prospect of the lights going out' made me laugh - our still fairly rural county here (Cambs) is lit up like Las Vegas at night as even the smallest of villages is infested with orange streetlights every 10 yards or so - just switch the feckers off FFS!

Agree that much of the English sky is swamped by the light from towns and cities, however it's still possible to see fantastic views of the sky in Scotland away from Central Belt and probably also large parts of Wales. Maybe there is a need for 'sky' tourism?

France has taken a sort of lead this year :

New York Times:
France Will Dim Its Lights to Conserve Energy
or Daily Mail:
Bankrupt Frogs France set to save £600m - by turning off the lights

 

[GrumpyGregry]

You can just about see the Milky Way overhead from our village, but anything to the SW is obliterated by Cambridge. Sadly, as this recent light pollution map shows, only small patches of Norfolk remain light polltion free, It's really only bits of Wales, parts of Cumberland and Northumberland and the far NW of Scotland where you get proper dark.

View attachment 29891

Galloway

 

[GrumpyGregry]

George Galloway? Might work, and he'll do anything for a bit of airtime.

He can come along too. http://www.forestry.gov.uk/darkskygalloway

 

[Glow worm]

Agree that much of the English sky is swamped by the light from towns and cities, however it's still possible to see fantastic views of the sky in Scotland away from Central Belt and probably also large parts of Wales. Maybe there is a need for 'sky' tourism?

France has taken a sort of lead this year :

New York Times:
France Will Dim Its Lights to Conserve Energy
or Daily Mail:
Bankrupt Frogs France set to save £600m - by turning off the lights

Parts of France do seem to protect the night sky much better than we do here. I remember the first glow worm colony I ever saw was in a village in SW France near Orthez. The nearest streetlight was about 5 miles away and the colony was thriving. Cross into Belguim though and its a totally different story.

As for tourism - we are beginning to see the potential here. I've been loosely involved through work with the creation of Dark Sky Discovery sites - the idea being you can at least see something even in towns. More here:

http://www.darkskydiscovery.org.uk/

Also, on a positive note, Exmoor has become the first 'Dark Sky Reserve', and its happening in Scotland too, so there is hope!

http://www.exmoor-nationalpark.gov.uk/about-us/news/news-2011/international-dark-sky-reserve

 

[ohnovino]

Would they really axe a very cheap little programme that fills a bit of dead airtime? Smells to me like a viral marketing campaign to get a bit of publicity for Sky At Night.