International Dark-Sky Association

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International Dark-Sky Association
(IDA)
founding 1988
founder David L. Crawford, Tim Hunter
Seat Tucson , Arizona
purpose Protection against light pollution
Managing directors Bob Parks
Members 11,000; 18 national sections (2013)
Website www.darksky.org

International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) is an international organization dedicated to the “fight” against light pollution .

International Dark-Sky Association

The International Dark-Sky Association was founded in the USA in 1988 as an association of astronomers whose aim is to reduce light pollution by using lighting with less radiation towards the sky - and thus darker skies. The IDA has partner organizations in numerous other countries with which it maintains close connections. The IDA conducts research and campaigns in the field of light pollution and its effects, including the National Dark-Sky Week .

It is the umbrella organization for national sections in 18 states (2013, including China , Israel and Argentina ) and for sections in most states of the USA and has partner organizations for associations with the same or similar goals.

National sections

IDA Austria

The Austria section is supervised at the Kuffner observatory , Vienna-Ottakring.

Dark-Sky Switzerland

Dark-Sky Switzerland (DSS) has existed since 1996 and has over four hundred members (since 2010). At the beginning of DSS was a subject of the Swiss Astronomical Society (SAG), an independent association which is Dark Sky Switzerland in 2002 a national section of the IDA and was until 2017 a member of the Swiss Light Company SLG , since 2018 when naturschutz.ch . In 2019, the Federal Council granted the association the right to lodge a complaint in the environmental sector. As the first star park in Switzerland, the Gantrisch Nature Park is to be officially certified as a "Dark Sky Park" at the end of August 2019.

partner

Dark-Sky Germany

The Dark Sky specialist group was formed from the association of Sternfreunde in Germany. It is a partner organization of IDA.

activities

The organization is involved in all aspects of research as well as the right to light protection and in communicating the value of nighttime darkness itself, both as a necessity for astronomical research and for ecological reasons and as a general cultural asset.

As early as 2001, Flagstaff was designated as the first light protection community, the city had taken extensive protective measures to protect the local large telescope. In April 2007, the IDA named the Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah in the USA the first international light protection area to honor the park on the one hand for its sky - one of the blackest and purest in the whole of the USA - and for its commitment to the preservation of natural darkness reward in this park. In the meantime five protection area classes have been developed and over 100 areas have been awarded prizes by the IDA. This award must be validated annually.

Overview: List of IDA International Dark Sky Places

In addition, the IDA awards various other activities relating to light protection with prizes or prizes.

The IDA shares the concerns of the protected areas and measures both with the observatory operators worldwide and with the Dark Skies Advisory Group  (DASG) of the World Conservation Union  (IUCN).

In 2020, Niue was the first to declare an entire state to be a dark sky area.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b About IDA: History ( Memento from April 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b c About IDA: IDA Chapter Directory ( Memento of April 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Dark-Sky Switzerland , darksky.ch
  4. ↑ Daniel Theis: To protect the darkness - fighters against light pollution have the right to lodge a complaint. In: srf.ch . April 26, 2019, accessed May 3, 2019 .
  5. ^ First Swiss Dark Sky Park - "From an environmental point of view, it makes sense to create dark zones". In: srf.ch . August 12, 2019. Retrieved August 19, 2019 .
  6. ^ Norman Zellmer: Germany's first starlight park. In: n-tv.de , November 11, 2011.
  7. ↑ Utah's Natural Bridges National Monument Becomes First International Dark Sky Park ( Memento from August 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ The first country in the world is "Dark Sky Nation". In: Travelbook , March 10, 2020.