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Get involved with our partner DarkSky! Visit darkskytexas.org website to let the DarkSky Texas Team know you are ready to help in your community.

Texas Night Sky Festival® Association hosted a special Zoom program on The Impact of Artificial Light on Life with our guest speaker Dr Travis Longcore.

What: Intermittent and perpetual illumination from humans is unprecedented in the history of Earth. The pervasiveness of this phenomenon and its exponential growth has contributed measurable and significant consequences for living organisms. Dr Longcore addressed what is taking place and what we can learn from recent research. In addition, he addressed issues surrounding our selection of area and street lighting.

Watch the recorded program by click here. 

Meet Dr Travis Longcore:

Travis Longcore is an Associate Adjunct Professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, Science Director of The Urban Wildlands Group, a Los Angeles-based conservation nonprofit, and an independent ecological design and environmental policy consultant. 

Watch the program and learn how to kick start your advocacy work by spreading the word in your community about keeping our night skies dark.

IDA Texas North Texas Regional Manager Art Schneider and Central Texas Regional Manager Amy Jackson will guide everyone through the ins and outs of giving public presentations.  They will go over how to prepare a presentation for your local clubs such as rotary clubs, astronomy clubs, lions clubs, and many more.  You’ll learn how to create connections with your local school districts and teachers. They will review our amazing DarkSky Texas resources, videos, power points and go over hands-on activities and demonstration ideas such as making a presentation using a color grating, mapping the night for spectrum and creative ways to demonstrate proper light shielding. 

Art and Amy

Click here to view the recording of this meeting. 

Ashley Wilson, IDA’s Director of Conservation, explains the International Dark Sky Places program and discusses where it’s headed in the future. 

There are two sessions. We’re offering you links to both since different questions where asked by the audience in each one. 

Session one link.

Session two link.

Caleb Crow, presented “Dark Sky (unofficial) Policy in Higher Ed.”  Caleb is the Energy Conservation Manager of the Austin Community College District.

Learn about the “Fight for the Stars: Be a Knight for the Night” program for elementary and middle schoolers, created by Emma Schmidt, that you can take to young people in your area. Select “Online Learning” at the top of this webpage to explore this exciting educational program. 

Click here to listen to Emma explain the program in a Facebook live session. 

Humans have come to depend on artificial light for night-time activities. Do we understand how artificial light at night affects plants, animals, and even our own health? Watch Cindy Luongo Cassidy give us a peek into our natural world after dark and the effect that artificial light has on it. Her talk starts about 7 minutes into the video. Downloads: Five Lighting Principles and Better Lights for Better Nights Graphic

Watch Bill Wren of McDonald Observatory talk about the Greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve.