National dark sky poll reveals: There’s no place like our ‘galactic’ home, if only we could all see it
Embrace your dark side and vote in our national poll.
Media contacts: Shelley Thomas, shelley@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0416 377 444; or Tanya Ha, tanya@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0404 083 863.
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Amazing [adjective]; causing great surprise or wonder; astonishing - Oxford English Dictionary
For anyone who has gazed up and felt transfixed by its cosmic beauty, the Milky Way is truly ‘amazing’, as reflected in ABC’s National Science Week poll, revealed today.
Our ‘home galaxy’ scooped top spot, attracting 22.9% of votes in response to the question ‘What’s the most amazing thing you’ve seen in the night sky?’. But did you pick it, and can you see it from your own backyard?
While we live inside the Milky Way, packed with more than 100 billion stars, an astonishing third of humanity can’t see it due to light pollution.
“For as long as I can remember Australia has been called the ‘Lucky Country’… and we’ve only just started to realise that we have the best gateway to the Milky Way,” says Marnie Ogg, who founded the Australasian Dark Sky Alliance to conserve our night sky and combat light pollution.
In cause for double celebration, she says public recognition of the importance of ‘Stargazing in a dark sky location’ – coming close second in the national poll, with 19.9% of the votes – sends a clear message to communities and policy makers: “Turn off the lights!”
Light pollution occurs when ‘sky glow’ from artificial lighting is so powerful that it out-glows the stars, with negative knock-ons to our health and the survival of creatures and culture.
“Knowing Dark Sky Places are important to so many people makes me more determined to preserve and expand these precious environments,” Marnie says, adding that Australia currently has six internationally designated Dark Sky Places, with dozens more in the pipeline.
“Why can’t we become a Dark Sky Nation? I’d like to see all National Parks around the country immediately sign up to become Dark Sky Places, and I’ve also got this secret plan to sign up all the big outback stations across Australia.”
Check out full results of the ABC poll which started on 5 August with a focus on 22 ‘amazing things’, condensed to Top 10 contenders in the final round. Spoiler alert: Aurora came third; followed by Saturn’s rings; The Moon; Comet; Moonbow; Meteor shower; Meteor; and Lunar eclipse.
For Australian National University astrophysicist and cosmologist, Dr Brad Tucker, picking favourites is tricky: “I do love Saturn’s rings, but it’s great to see the Milky Way and stargazing in Dark Sky Places rank so highly because it shows Australians feel a connection to the night sky as our window to the Universe and, for First Nations peoples, to Sky Country and stories written in the stars.”
Growing up in California, Brad didn’t know it was even possible to look up and see the Milky Way. In the US and Europe, 99 per cent of people miss the experience of a dark night sky, with an estimated 80 per cent of the world’s population living under sky glow.
“We may not think what we do at home matters, but it does,” he says. “If everyone in Sydney turned off one 10W LED bulb at night, we’d save over 10 Megawatts of energy every hour.”
In addition to the national poll, the ABC and ANU joined forces to launch a separate online survey of the Milky Way's visibility. This survey is ongoing. It invites all Australians to become real-life guardians of the Galaxy, by looking up and using an interactive visual guide to determine how much of the Milky Way is currently blocked by light pollution across metro, regional, rural, coastal and remote locations.
“We will use that data to look at what people value in the night sky, how they value the view of darkness, and how we can push initiatives for better lighting, which will reduce light pollution, light the ground better, and save money,” Brad says.
Media contacts: Shelley Thomas, shelley@scienceinpublic.com.au / 0416 377 444 or Tanya Ha tanya@scienceinpublic.com.au / 0408 083 863
Available for interviews:
- Marnie Ogg, founder of the Australasian Dark Sky Alliance
- Fred Watson AM, Australia’s Astronomer at Large.
- Therésa Jones, evolutionary and behavioural ecologist, University of Melbourne
- Peter Swanton, Gamilaraay/Yuwaalaraay man and cultural astronomer at ANU
- Brad Tucker, astrophysicist and cosmologist at Mt Stromlo Observatory, ANU
- Sheryn Pitman, project lead, Australia’s first International Dark Sky Community, Carrickalinga (South Australia)
- Carol Redford (aka Galaxy Girl), founder and CEO of Astrotourism WA
- Kylie Andrews, ABC Science journalist and National Science Week project lead
- Jacinta Bowler, ABC Science journalist.
