Local Focus: The Dark Sky Project of Maraekākaho

The Maraekākaho Dark Sky Project. Made with funding from NZ On Air.

From Graham Palmer's back garden he can see countless galaxies, while being serenaded by two frogs.

They're in the pond beside his observatory where he relishes the dark sky in Maraekākaho, enabling an excellent view of the stars.

And Palmer wants to keep it that way. So he is making a submission to Hastings District Council to keep Maraekākaho skies free of light pollution.

"The Maraekākaho Dark Sky Project came from finding this piece of land under a dark sky - a rural site," he said.

"The goal is not only for us to do astronomy, but also to help educate others about astronomy and raise awareness about the need to protect the night sky and the value of it."

He said light pollution affected wildlife, people's health through sleep disruption and was a waste of electricity.

Light pollution also denies urbanites one of life's oldest wonders.

"Just being able to step outside and see the night sky is a connection that a lot of people in the western world have lost.

"It really is a major part of our culture that the western world has lost."

Palmer says protecting our dark skies requires just a few simple design and equipment choices.

"What we want to do is essentially set up some protections so that styles of lighting that are used around the place - whether it's street lighting or outdoor lighting or industrial lighting or even just the styles of outdoor lighting that people are using around their houses - can be modified so they have minimal impact on the night sky.

"We are fortunate here - there is really only one property around that we can see lights from at night.

"But there is development going on around the area and we want to encourage the use of well-designed lighting to minimise the impact."

With so many benefits from protecting our dark skies, Palmer is confident his proposal will find support from Hastings District Council.

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