Applying for Dark-Sky Park status

[admin]

The SQM has been used extensively for gathering data to help apply for Dark-Sky Park Status with the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA).

Many people have applied to the IDA for a Dark-Sky park status including Georgia MacMillan of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology of Ireland. Her extensive research and work on this topic can be found in these two documents which may be helpful to others pursuing the same goal:

• Dissertation PDF: Preserving our Night-time Skies, An exploratory study on the impact of light pollution and the potential for a new dark-sky site in County Mayo, Ireland. by Georgia MacMillan.
• Application PDF: An Application to the International Dark-Sky Association for Ballycroy National Park and Wild Nephin that are included in the application for Mayo Dark Sky Park status.

[kyba]

If you're going to use the SQM to document your dark sky Park or Reserve, please please PLEASE report your observations to Globe at Night, or else submit your observations using the Loss of the Night app.

Globe at Night: https://www.globeatnight.org/webapp/
Loss of the Night app: http://lossofthenight.blogspot.de/2015/01/brief-introduction-to-loss-of-night-app.html

That automatically archives the data for your park, it makes it accessible for scientists (like me), and your data will be visible to everyone at www.myskyatnight.com

It is very valuable for helping to track how the night sky is changing, and guarantees that your data will never be lost. If you have data from previous years that you would like to share with Globe at Night, you can contact them by email, and if your data is in an excel sheet or csv file, they will be able to add it to the international database.