GLOBE at Night 2010 ~ Help Shed Light on Light Pollution

March 6 at Kenton County's Lincoln Ridge Park in Independence

Join Kenton County Parks & Recreation and other interested parties to learn how to help with this engaging star count program called GLOBE at Night 2010. The idea is for our program to be a ´training' so that you will be able to participate in the star count during the week of the actual event, March 10-16. And, by offering a little public training, we will get a wider distribution of observations when you can do this from your homes.

We will meet at the Kenton County Public Works Administration building in Lincoln Ridge Park, beginning at 7:00 pm. Amateur Astronomer Tom East will lead the indoors training, which will take only 30 to 45 minutes. Then, depending on the weather, we'll head outside for an hour or so of night sky viewing and put our training to the test!

Two out of every three people in the United States cannot see the Milky Way galaxy arch across a pristinely dark night sky. Light pollution is obscuring people's long-standing natural heritage to view stars. GLOBE at Night is an international citizen-science campaign to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution by encouraging everyone to measure local levels of night sky brightness and contribute observations online to a world map. All it takes is a few minutes to participate between 7:00 and 10:00 pm, March 3-16. Your measurements will make a world of difference. A record number of over 15,000 measurements were received in the 2009 campaign! Even if you cannot be a part of the training on March 6, you can be a part of this campaign, using the GLOBE website at http://www.globeatnight.org/ and then following Five Easy Star-Hunting Steps:

1) Find your latitude and longitude at http://www.globeatnight.org/observe_latlong.html.

2) Find Orion at http://www.globeatnight.org/observe_finder.html by going outside an hour after sunset.

3) Match your nighttime sky to one of the magnitude charts at http://www.globeatnight.org/observe_magnitude.html.

4) Report your observation at http://www.globeatnight.org/report.html.

5) Compare your observation to thousands around the world at http://www.globeatnight.org/analyze.html.

If you plan to attend, please download, print out, and bring the Family Activity Packet located here:

          http://www.globeatnight.org/fsl/pdf/GaN/GaNActivityPacket_Family_2010_final_print.pdf

We will have some extra copies available but you'll help us out if you can bring your own. Also, bring along a pencil, binoculars, and a small red-light flashlight if you have them ~ no regular white-light flashlights please, since they interfere with night vision. You can make a red-light flashlight by covering the lens end of a regular white-light flashlight with red cellophane or a red balloon stretched over the lens end.

Here's a link to several other ´Dark Skies Awareness' programs: http://astronomy2009.us/darkskies/.

Directions: Lincoln Ridge Park is easy to find! The address is 420 Independence Station Rd., Independence. From I-75, take the Florence/Union exit. Go east to the 2nd stop light at Industrial Road. Turn right and go to 1303/Turkeyfoot Road. Turn right and go one-half mile to Independence Station Road (just past the Food Mart). Turn left and go two miles to the park. The park will be on your left. Turn left as you enter the park and go to the first building. Or, from I-275, take the Turkeyfoot Road exit and go south about six miles to Independence Station Road. Turn left and go two miles to the park. Turn left as you enter the park and go to the first building.

For news of upcoming programs, activities, and events to be held in Kenton County's parks, call the Parks & Recreation office at (859) 525-PLAY (7529). Ask about signing up for a once-a-week e-mail update of What's Happening in Kenton County's parks.