by yaska77
Short of avoiding TV, radio, newspapers and magazines you can’t have failed to notice the success of the recent TV run of Stargazing LIVE. The explosion of interest it caused saw UK telescope sales jump up over 500% in the week the three shows aired, and with organised Stargazing events all around the country astronomy became truly accessible to all with an interest.
New stargazing fans saw the bright planet Venus beneath the crescent Moon on 26th January 2012 (complete with "Earthshine" in our image above) - click to enlarge - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn
And what an interest there is! People turned out in their thousands all over the UK, going to gatherings of astronomical societies and enthusiastic amateurs who shared their time (and their telescopes!) with everyone who wanted a look.
Social media also played a bigger role than ever too. The Twitter hashtag #bbcstargazing was a flurry of activity, trending as the second most mentioned term worldwide for a time, with people actually working on the show often responding to comments.
Stargazing LIVE encouraged members of the public to help analyse scientific data - Credit: Planethunters.org
And as if all this success wasn’t enough, BBC viewers helped identify a brand new planet with “citizen scientists” flocking to the Planethunters website, working through data to spot anomalies. Anyone can sign up and spend as little or as much time as they want helping sift through the info they have, so why not help science!
Another movement now gaining pace after Stargazing LIVE is that of the call to reduce light pollution in UK skies. For a time (as organised by Stargazing LIVE) the Somerset town of Dulverton turned off all its lights to demonstrate the effects of light pollution.
This recent image taken from the ISS demonstrates perfectly the scale of the light pollution from the UK and Western Europe (click to enlarge) - Credit: NASA
A petition has been created on the HM Government website for all who would like to see light pollution reduced. If it can reach 100,000 signatures it will prompt a debate in the House of Commons, and we might be able to affect change to reclaim our night skies.
Please take a few minutes to sign the petition if you agree, your participation can make a difference!
Astronomy is fascinating and this has proved it can be more accessible than you think (there are events ongoing), so perhaps if we all get involved we can reclaim the night sky for all.
Easy links:
Planethunters.org
Nationwide Stargazing Events
HM Government Stargazing e-petition
Filed under: Astronomy, Exoplanet, Moon, Night sky, Stars, Venus, yaska77 Tagged: amateur, Astronomy, BBC, BBC2, Brian Cox, Dara O'Briain, e-petition, light pollution, photo, photography, planethunters, postaweek2011, postaweek2012, Stargazing LIVE, telescope, TV show
