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BAA members may be interested to learn that there’s an EU legislation initiative on space activities and a survey is being conducted of interested parties. This is in preparation for an “EU Space Law”. The CfDS would like to submit a response, but time is relatively short. We (CfDS) very much welcome BAA member’s views. See https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/EUSLsurvey .
Dark Skies and Satellites are being thought about in Brussels, see this item from Parliament Magazine https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article/good-heavens .The launch of the first satellites planned as part of the Kuiper swarm has happened. It was accompanied with this “everything you need to know” publication. https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/innovation-at-amazon/what-is-amazon-project-kuiper
What I’d like to know more about is the environmental impact and effects on amateur astronomers. This recent article from New Scientist gives some startling predictions – https://www.newscientist.com/article/2394949-starlink-carbon-footprint-up-to-30-times-size-of-land-based-internet/ (Sorry, New Scientist is behind a paywall). Apparently, the carbon footprint could be between 31 and 91 times greater per internet subscriber than conventional landline based systems, according to research conducted at George Mason University, Virginia. But this could change depending upon take up of the service and use of more suitable launchers.
We must hope that the methods being tested to mitigate nuisance to astronomers prove successful.Another of the recent groups on the UK anti-light pollution scene is DarkSky UK. This group is the U.K. chapter of Dark Skies International (DSI), which is the new name of the International Dark Sky Association (IDA). It is always difficult to rebrand an organisation and I suspect that we will continue to refer to it as the IDA for a long while.
Three or four CfDS committee members are also in DSI, including myself. CfDS and DSI/ IDA have a long history of collaboration and friendship going back decades. There are several advantages to this international network for furthering dark skies campaigns such as size, resources, experience and membership structure. Their Slack forums, training sessions and on-line meetings are a great way of engaging with and inspiring supporters. One downside is that it costs a fixed donation to be a member. But that is more or less inevitable in an effective campaigning charity with paid staff and fixed organisational costs. The U.K. branch of DSI can be found at https://darksky.uk .
The parent international organisation can be found at https://darksky.org .BAA members may be interested in the work of the U.K. Dark Sky Partnership (UKDSP). This is an informal organisation at the moment and has been going for about two years. Bob Mizon was an early supporter and enthusiastic about its potential for a united approach to working with parliament. The CfDS believes this organisation is currently the best opportunity to achieving better planning and other legislation aimed at reducing light pollution. It represents many people in professional, voluntary and local communities, so is not quite as easy to ignore as a group of amateur astronomers. BAA CfDS has contributed to funding and organisation, including the participation of the UKDSP in the Local Government Association exhibition event in July.
Please have a look at its website https://ukdarkskies.org.ukA sudden death with no succession plans is highly disruptive to any organisation. The CfDS has a particular problem in that we’ve yet to identify many of Bob Mizon’s dark skies related contacts, including those who were local representatives/ officers and those who received the newsletter that Bob produced. So the CfDS committee would very much like to hear from BAA members who have previously helped or currently have in interest in the Dark Sky campaign. Please would you email baacfds@outlook.com and tell us what your involvement is, was or would like to be?
Hello Denis and thanks for your welcome. Picking up the pieces following Bob’s sudden death has been difficult and one problem is that the time I’ve available is much less than Bob devoted. So tasks like going through his computer files, finding contacts and boxes of archives has had to wait its turn. I do not have direct access to his emails though I can request his widow, Pam, to have a look. Another problem we have is that the contacts message system currently in use is very hit and miss. I’ve looked back at them and cannot spot any message from you. Could you please forward any correspondence on this to baacfds@outlook.com ? This is the email address we are now trying to use for all official CfDS matters since (in theory) other committee members can access it if I am incapacitated.
I have little experience of the CfDS awards system (though I co-presented once). If Bob couldn’t present the award in person he had an extensive network of contacts throughout the UK to ask to present the award locally. I shall have to find some blank “good lighting awards” or the file to print. Is there a particular time / opportunity to present the award that you are aiming for? As to who should sign them, that is another question. Since my title is acting I feel that awards signatures should come with more prestige. I will ask David Arditti if he is prepared to take over this responsibility.Robert Edward (Bob) Mizon MBE FRAS, 1946 – 2023
It is with heavy hearts that the committee of the BAA Commission for Dark Skies (CfDS) report the very sad news that Bob Mizon, whom many will know from his outstanding efforts to protect the night from the scourge of light pollution, died suddenly at home on 19th April.
For the last few decades, Bob has been the National Co-ordinator of CfDS, which he helped to establish, but his astronomical interests ranged far wider than light pollution, as the many astronomical societies to whom he has given talks will attest.
Bob was born in Dagenham in London and was educated at East Ham Grammar School (London) and Adams Grammar School (Newport, Shropshire). He became passionate about education and, after graduating from King’s College, London, where he read French and German, he had a 26-year career as a French teacher. He satisfied his love of astronomy by running the school’s astronomy club, translating astronomy books from French, and becoming an active member of the Wessex Astronomical Society. A major change came when, in 1996, he bought a mobile planetarium, which he named the Mizar Travelling Planetarium (Bob loved puns!), with which he took the wonders of dark night skies to nearly 150,000 children and adults all over Britain.
The International Dark-Sky Association awarded Bob its prestigious Galileo Award in 2006 and the David L. Crawford Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. His work was formally recognised in the UK when he was awarded an MBE with the citation “For voluntary services to Astronomy and the Environment” in the 2010 Birthday Honours.
More recently, Bob was one of the instigators of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Dark Skies, and was one of the people behind the establishment of the UK Dark Skies Partnership. He was instrumental in helping Cranborne Chase AONB achieve its status as an International Dark Sky Reserve.
Early in 2023, ill health had caused Bob to cease his planetarium shows, but he continued to advocate for responsible outdoor lighting and represented the CfDS at the BAA’s “Winchester Weekend” only the weekend before his death.
His friends knew Bob as a kind, gentle man, who was dedicated to his family. Decades before the term “rewilding” entered common parlance, Bob had applied it to his garden, where he would enjoy the birds and insects that took advantage of this sanctuary that he had allowed to remain for them.
He leaves his wife, Pam, their three children, and a granddaughter … and the many of us who were privileged to have had our lives touched by his. The stars have lost one of their greatest friends on planet Earth.Attachments:
