Macarthur Astronmical Society

[ZigFire]

Hi Everyone,

This is the society I am a member of, a very friendly group of around 80 members.
Established for over 10 years now we have monthly meetings at the University of Western Sydney with quite a few very good guest speakers from various fields talking all things astronomy.

Here's the web address if you want to check it out.
www.macastro.org.au

There is also a recent link placed on the home page to "SOLIS" (Sydney Outdoor Lighting Improvement Society) that you may find interesting.
Light pollution is becoming a real hobby horse of mine at the moment with quite a few letters being written to council, town and state planning on this serious issue. Our darkish skies are slowly disappearing due to urban sprawl. It would be interesting to know of other organisations around the world trying to deal with this issue.

ps Vinnie I'm not sure where to post the above topic so I included it here. Perhaps a forum for "General Discussion"?

Cheers
Michael

[Vinnie]

Hi Michael,

Hmm I see your point. Light Pollution is something that we didn't consider as a potential subject when we set this board up.

How about for now you start a Light Pollution thread in the "Off Topic" and I will stick it at the top of that forum? If it looks like being a potentially popular issue then we could easily create a new forum on this board specifically for it. Its something that I will definitely bring up for discussion between myself and Mike, Tex and Trev (our other admin and our two mods)

Just gotta be careful that it doesn't end in a political bun fight.

FWIW I know a couple of guys who have had some limited success with anti-light pollution campaigns in Europe and the USA, but the accepted approach seems to be to put astronomy into the background. i.e. "Too many wasteful inefficient or unnecessary lights burn up too much precious fossil fuel, create too many unwanted emissions, and there's even the benefit that reducing such lighting is a big help to Astronomers" or at least you get the drift

[ZigFire]

Hi Vinnie,

No probs, I'll start an off topic thread as you suggest, and you are right, a political bun fight we do want to avoid, but a very important subject that requires addressing none the less.

cheers
Michael