ANSA NEWS!
Arkansas Natural Sky Association
ANSA is a membership-based 501(c)3 non-profit & the Arkansas chapter of DarkSky International.
🌠 Mark your calendars! One of the best skywatching events of the summer is almost here.
On the night of July 29–30, two meteor showers—the Southern Delta Aquariids and the Alpha Capricornids—will peak at the same time, giving stargazers the chance to see dozens of shooting stars in a single night.
✨ No telescope required.
🌌 Find a dark spot away from city lights.
🪑 Bring a chair or blanket and give your eyes about 20–30 minutes to adjust to the darkness.
It could be one of the most beautiful nights of the year to look up.
Have you ever seen a meteor streak across the sky? Tell us where you'll be watching from! 🌠
#MeteorShower #Stargazing #NightSky #Astronomy #SouthernDeltaAquariids #AlphaCapricornids #FarmersAlmanac #LookUp
Happy 250th Independence Day, America! 🇺🇸
Hubble's birthday gift to the nation is this new image of NGC 6426, a glittering star cluster that looks like a sparkler waving on a dark night.
It's classified as a globular cluster – a roughly spherical gathering of stars held together by their mutual gravitational attraction.
Located in the outer halo of our Milky Way Galaxy, NGC 6426 is approximately 13 billion years old, making it almost as old as the universe itself.
Learn more about this Fourth of July view, released to celebrate as NASA and Hubble carry forward America’s legacy of exploration: go.nasa.gov/4p0aRdj
Image credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Dotter (Dartmouth College); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
💸 "Scientists have long warned that rising levels of artificial light (increasingly amplified by satellite mega-constellations orbiting our planet) are steadily eroding these nightscapes, disrupting ecosystems, affecting human health and dimming views of stars and distant celestial objects. Darkness itself carries no price tag, however, meaning its loss has largely been absent from the economic calculations that guide development and outdoor lighting decisions. Now, new research attempts to translate that loss visible in monetary terms.
A study combining satellite data with on-the-ground surveys of visitors at several "gold-tier" dark-sky sites found that people were less likely to choose parks with greater artificial skyglow or poorer night-sky conditions, and showed a clear willingness to pay more for darker skies."
Read the full article from Space.com below.
Light pollution may be erasing millions of dollars in value at US dark-sky parks
www.space.com
What is a star-filled sky worth? A new study puts a price on darkness