Southwest Kerry to receive rare ‘dark sky reserve’ status

Stargate

Dark Skies Kerry .

Designation by International Dark-Sky Association may lead to astro-tourism boom for region as an exceptional location for star gazing

A 700sq km area in southwest Kerry is expected to be named an international “dark sky reserve”, securing the highest designation for the exceptional quality of its night sky.

It will be the first region in Ireland to receive such an award and – if it achieves “gold-tier” reserve status – the first region in the northern hemisphere to get this designation, spawning hopes for an astro-tourism spin-off.




Full story
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/southwest-kerry-to-receive-rare-dark-sky-reserve-status-1.1668895


Edit: 1

Morning Ireland radio interview

http://www.rte.ie/news/player/2014/0127/20513302-south-west-kerry-to-be-awarded-for-dark-skies/

Edit : 2

Rte 9 o'clock news Goto 21:30

http://www.rte.ie/player/ie/show/10246917/

Sligo Quay

I read about this today, but am I missing something, you can have zero light pollution, but its still useless for observing the night sky if you have a cloudy sky.
Ireland with the nature of its climate is prone to cloudy skies and rain, a few years ago I hired a car in Tenerife and drove up to the base of Mount Teide which is above the clouds and zero light pollution, the night sky was totally awsome with the Milky Way and planets clearly visable, its also in the Northern Hemisphere, I was in Flagstaff Arizona and that was even better, surely the Skelligs in Kerry can't beat these places, maybe I'm missing something.

roadsmart

Best night stars I have ever seen were in Kerry, kenmare mostly but Valencia was stunning too.

Sligo Quay

roadsmart wrote: »

Best night stars I have ever seen were in Kerry, kenmare mostly but Valencia was stunning too.

I'm sure it is, rural Sligo is the same, I'm not disputing that, but an Internalional Dark-Sky Gold Tier Reserve, the only place in the Northern Hemisphere, let be honest, is way over the top, I hope if any astronomy tourists arrive, that they pack their rain coats and brollies along with their telescopes, I'm not raining on anybody's parade, the weather will take care of that.

bogman

Great news

http://darksky.org/assets/Night_Sky_Conservation/Reserves/Kerry/Kerry_IDSR_PR.pdf

Outkast_IRE

Honestly great area along with west cork for the night sky.

One January about 8 years ago I went camping with two friends beyond Schull in west cork.

They were frosty nights but clear skies and I have honestly never seen such beautiful clear sky before or since.

I am no astronomer but I vividly remember lying back and just staring at the sky for ages in amazement of the clarity, seeing more than I could ever see elsewhere in my travels.

roadsmart

Sligo Quay wrote: »

I'm sure it is, rural Sligo is the same, I'm not disputing that, but an Internalional Dark-Sky Gold Tier Reserve, the only place in the Northern Hemisphere, let be honest, is way over the top, I hope if any astronomy tourists arrive, that they pack their rain coats and brollies along with their telescopes, I'm not raining on anybody's parade, the weather will take care of that.

Well thankfully no one else seems to agree with you.
@bogman, nice one Charles, now you'll see the sheep more clearly.

Stargate

roadsmart wrote: »

Well thankfully no one else seems to agree with you.
@bogman, nice one Charles, now you'll see the sheep more clearly.

LoL @roadsmart Baaaaaaaaaaaaah

Sligo Quay

roadsmart wrote: »

Well thankfully no one else seems to agree with you.
@bog.

I don't care if anybody agrees or disagrees, I'm just stating the facts, you obviously have never traveled, but my main point was ''Internalional Dark-Sky Gold Tier Reserve'' the only place in the Northern Hemisphere is way over the top, it's misleading any astronomy tourist, the days of cloudy skies in Ireland far out way clear skies, now if you can't see that, then I don't know which planet your living on, excuse the pun.

It is a little crazy that it might possibly be the only location in the northern hemisphere. I'd imagine there are vast swathes of land with superior skies in, say, Canada and the US, Russia, Mongolia, Uzbekistan ... the list goes on and on. You just have to look at the population densities of states such as Wyoming or areas such as the Steppes of central Asia to see how free from modernity some of these places are and, consequently, how free from light pollution their skies might be.

Edit: or ... is the award dependent on accessibility? In that case I can see how West Kerry might be a more feasible destination for tourism than the Steppes of Mongolia!

roadsmart

Sligo Quay wrote: »

I don't care if anybody agrees or disagrees, I'm just stating the facts, you obviously have never traveled, but my main point was ''Internalional Dark-Sky Gold Tier Reserve'' the only place in the Northern Hemisphere is way over the top, it's misleading any astronomy tourist, the days of cloudy skies in Ireland far out way clear skies, now if you can't see that, then I don't know which planet your living on, excuse the pun.

Lol. I'd love to know what you based that conclusion on.

I notice you're one of those people who commonly express their own opinion as "fact". No point in interacting with your kind. Enjoy your night views, wherever they may be.

Rhys Essien

The potential is there.

Amazing pic here of the Milky Way taken from East Cork

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnfinn/9683431646/

Stargate

Rhys Essien wrote: »

The potential is there.

Amazing pic here of the Milky Way taken from East Cork

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnfinn/9683431646/

Really Beautiful shot ! Hard to believe its Ballycotton .

Cork boy 55

Data for cloud cover please?

MeteoritesEire

I'd imagine western Donegal is on a par--was out last night marvelling at it

Mickeroo

Hah, where are the local councillors going to promise to put street lights in the rural areas now come election time? :P

Nerro

gvn wrote: »

It is a little crazy that it might possibly be the only location in the northern hemisphere. I'd imagine there are vast swathes of land with superior skies in, say, Canada and the US, Russia, Mongolia, Uzbekistan ... the list goes on and on. You just have to look at the population densities of states such as Wyoming or areas such as the Steppes of central Asia to see how free from modernity some of these places are and, consequently, how free from light pollution their skies might be.

Edit: or ... is the award dependent on accessibility? In that case I can see how West Kerry might be a more feasible destination for tourism than the Steppes of Mongolia!

I believe award dependant on many factors but accessibility would be one of the major factors. As I don't see someone up for expedition just to see the night sky somewhere in Mongolia There used to be a nice location in roundwood until someone decided to put up street lights in the middle of no where for no apearant benefits...
For someone complaining that its pointless to give such an award because of an unpredictable weather I recon you missing the point of the whole thing.fair enough we are not getting much good weather but when we will its a great place to go as I understand the council will have to have second thoughts regarding lite pollution to preserve the site.

Kersh

+1

It can only be a good thing.

I believe award dependant on many factors but accessibility would be one of the major factors. As I don't see someone up for expedition just to see the night sky somewhere in Mongolia There used to be a nice location in roundwood until someone decided to put up street lights in the middle of no where for no apearant benefits...
For someone complaining that its pointless to give such an award because of an unpredictable weather I recon you missing the point of the whole thing.fair enough we are not getting much good weather but when we will its a great place to go as I understand the council will have to have second thoughts regarding lite pollution to preserve the site.

2 stroke

The extremities along the west coast often get different weather than the rest of the country, so just because the most of the country is covered perpetually with cloud, doesn't mean that the moon doesn't shine through in places. I have fond memories of brilliant night skies in kerry before kerry county council started discouraging visitors with campervans.

Stargate

Nerro wrote: »

I believe award dependant on many factors but accessibility would be one of the major factors. As I don't see someone up for expedition just to see the night sky somewhere in Mongolia There used to be a nice location in roundwood until someone decided to put up street lights in the middle of no where for no apearant benefits...
For someone complaining that its pointless to give such an award because of an unpredictable weather I recon you missing the point of the whole thing.fair enough we are not getting much good weather but when we will its a great place to go as I understand the council will have to have second thoughts regarding lite pollution to preserve the site.

Exactly Nerro !

Stargate

2 stroke wrote: »

The extremities along the west coast often get different weather than the rest of the country, so just because the most of the country is covered perpetually with cloud, doesn't mean that the moon doesn't shine through in places. I have fond memories of brilliant night skies in kerry before kerry county council started discouraging visitors with campervans.

LoL I had an image in my head after i read that

Isn't that what the region is hoping to get ?

Just saying

ps200306

I would say there are two factors that will determine if someone will actually plan a trip to a dark sky reserve. One, as mentioned is, accessibility. The other is predictability. The new dark sky reserve in Kerry is on the Iveragh peninsula. It contains Ireland's tallest mountains, and wettest region. The most consistent dark skies (although "consistency" isn't a term you could sensibly use for any of it) are on the coastal strip west of the mountains. That's a hundred mile round trip to the remotest part of the Ring of Kerry after you get to Killarney. And you do have to go to the remotest part -- the strip opposite Valentia Island -- since mountains rise straight out of the sea on both the southern and northern edges of the peninsula. So it doesn't even score well for accessibility.

As for predictability ... let's just say there's a reason why Europeans actually rent houses in dark sky areas of Arizona, and that we'll never see any serious astronomy rentals in Kerry. The good parts of the Iveragh Peninsula get three times the annual rainfall of Dublin (which is not exactly renowned for it's clear skies either). The bad parts get six times Dublin's rainfall. It is cloudy up to seven eighths of the time in winter. The sun sets after 10pm in midsummer, and astronomical twilight never ends for 90 days in most of Ireland in summer, rendering it mostly useless for astronomy at that time of year. Just by the by, the stories are famous about the filming of "Ryan's Daughter" next door on the Dingle peninsula ... "Killary was built from scratch at the tip of a peninsula in southwest Ireland, where the weather proved to be ferocious. Rain sometimes halted the production for weeks – during one ten-day period only a minute of film was shot – and location work dragged on for ten months, with little for people to do but get bored, exasperated, and in some cases drunk... At one point, weather over the ocean was so severe that Lean took his crew to South Africa to shoot part of the tempest scene".

Basically, this is a classic Irish endeavour, concocted by a small overenthusiastic group, encouraged by business interests. The concept is completely nuts. There are much more suitable places (to the extent that there are any suitable places in Ireland) on the south east coastal fringe that get a multiple of the number of hours of clear skies of Iveragh (though that's not saying much). They're more accessible too. Sorry to rain on anyone's parade. The idea of a gloriously dark sky on Ireland's remote western coast is romantic ... but in reality nobody's going to lug themselves and their equipment to darkest Kerry to watch wave after wave of super-tropical depressions sweep in off the Atlantic.

FFVII

Where in sligo is good? I thought sligo applied but i don't see it.

coylemj

Basically, this is a classic Irish endeavour, concocted by a small overenthusiastic group, encouraged by business interests. The concept is completely nuts. There are much more suitable places (to the extent that there are any suitable places in Ireland) on the south east coastal fringe that get a multiple of the number of hours of clear skies of Iveragh (though that's not saying much). They're more accessible too. Sorry to rain on anyone's parade. The idea of a gloriously dark sky on Ireland's remote western coast is romantic ... but in reality nobody's going to lug themselves and their equipment to darkest Kerry to watch wave after wave of super-tropical depressions sweep in off the Atlantic.

Agree 100%. I've holidayed in Ballinskelligs for a week in late July/early August for most of the past 20 years before Covid and the number of days with clear skies even in the middle of summer is about one or two a week. I scratched my head in puzzlement most times I passed the old Garda station and saw the sign about the dark skies.

A few of us went to the beach on the day of Katie Taylor's Olympic final in 2012 and we stayed on the beach rather than go up to the hotel to watch her win the gold medal on TV. Why? Because it was a Thursday and the sun was shining for the first time since we arrived the previous Saturday. In a subsequent year, a brother of mine joined us for the week with a very fancy telescope, one that took the guts of an hour to setup and calibrate. We only got one clear night in the week.