Recent stories emerged about population decline in the Portland area. Although it wasn’t much of a decline, those leaving are some of the wealthiest and most connected individuals. This not only hurts the city economically,…
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Curious about which places in the US are already applying to become a dark sky site? Have an idea for a new dark sky site and unsure if there’s already an active application? Looking to…
Oregon Outback is an unofficial term generally used to reference the high desert Basin and Range country of the central southern portion of the state of Oregon and covers most of Lake County, Klamath County, Malheur County, and Harney County. Although there isn’t a specific…
Based on the Oregon Chapter of the IDA dark skies map, there are some interesting findings that can be made about Pacific Northwest. Let’s take a look at some of these findings and see what…
This is our third article of three on the topic of acquiring land for astronomical use. Today we will be discussing how the topics of light pollution and finances play into the considerations and prospects…
History The “International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) is a 501(c)(3) (tax ID #: 74-2493011) founded in 1988, and is dedicated to protecting the night skies for present and future generations.“[1] With a mission to “preserve and protect the…
The Bortle scale is a way of measuring the quality, otherwise known as brightness, of the night sky for a particular location. The scale is really helpful as it quantifies the astronomical observability of celestial…
In a previous article, we discussed light pollution legislation in regards to the US; however, this time we will deep dive into Light Pollution Legislation in the Pacific Northwest. Let’s take a look at Oregon,…
Although the topic of light pollution and legislation are not typically glamorous topics, nor are they fun topics to discuss, light pollution legislation might be a way to reduce light pollution in a long term…
In this article, we will be discussing what one needs to know to start being able to confidently talk about light pollution. The World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness found that, “80 percent of…