International Dark-Sky Association

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) is a U.S.-based non-profit organization incorporated in 1988 by founding members including an astronomer, a medical doctor/amateur astronomer, and an engineer. The mission of IDA is To preserve and protect the nighttime environment and our heritage of dark skies through quality outdoor lighting. The principal approach is to raise awareness about the value of dark, star-filled skies and encourage their protection and restoration through education about the problems and solutions, including lighting practices that create less light pollution. In 2008 the organization had about 5,000 members in 70 countries.

Although the perceived problem of excessive lighting leading to a lowered limiting magnitude of observable stars has existed since the 1950s (and possibly earlier), IDA was the first organisation in the dark-sky movement, devoted to combating all forms of photopollution.

Among other concerns, IDA and related organisations are collating concerns regarding human public health as a result of documented effects on the night hours by light. The hypothesis is that human physiology requires more hours of dark than modern, western cultures now provide given the artificial light that this culture causes for its citizens through the lighting of streets and houses, resulting in elevated levels of cancer.

The International Dark-Sky Association is a member alliance organization of the Meade 4M Community who supports the IDA's initiatives of dark skies and dark sky friendly outdoor lighting.

To promote awareness about the issues, IDA has an International Dark-Sky Places program, to recognise locations showing "exceptional commitment to and success in implementing the ideals of dark sky preservation and restoration." In October 2001 IDA named Flagstaff, Arizona the first International Dark-Sky Community^[1]; in April 2007 Natural Bridges National Monument in remote southeast Utah, United States, was named the the first International Dark-Sky Park^[2]; in September the first International Dark-Sky Reserve was designated in the region surrounding the Parc Nationale du Mont Mégantic in Quebec, Canada.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Campaign for Dark Skies (CfDS)

[edit] External links

• IDA WWW site
• Lighting for the human circadian clock: recent research indicates that lighting has become a public health issue, Medical Hypotheses, Volume 63, Issue 4, 2004, Pages 588-596, Stephen M. Pauley. Abstract
• The IDA page on the Meade 4M Community website