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National dark sky poll reveals: There’s no place like our ‘galactic’ home, if only we could all see it

Media contacts: Shelley Thomas, shelley@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0416 377 444; or Tanya Ha, tanya@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0404 083 863.

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Amazing [adjective]; causing great surprise or wonder; astonishing
– Oxford English Dictionary

For anyone who has gazed up and felt transfixed by its cosmic beauty, the Milky Way is truly ‘amazing’, as reflected in ABC’s National Science Week poll, revealed today.

Our ‘home galaxy’ scooped top spot, attracting 22.9% of votes in response to the question ‘What’s the most amazing thing you’ve seen in the night sky?’. But did you pick it, and can you see it from your own backyard?

While we live inside the Milky Way, packed with more than 100 billion stars, an astonishing third of humanity can’t see it due to light pollution.

“For as long as I can remember Australia has been called the ‘Lucky Country’… and we’ve only just started to realise that we have the best gateway to the Milky Way,” says Marnie Ogg, who founded the Australasian Dark Sky Alliance to conserve our night sky and combat light pollution.

In cause for double celebration, she says public recognition of the importance of ‘Stargazing in a dark sky location’ – coming close second in the national poll, with 19.9% of the votes – sends a clear message to communities and policy makers: “Turn off the lights!”

Light pollution occurs when ‘sky glow’ from artificial lighting is so powerful that it out-glows the stars, with negative knock-ons to our health and the survival of creatures and culture.

“Knowing Dark Sky Places are important to so many people makes me more determined to preserve and expand these precious environments,” Marnie says, adding that Australia currently has six internationally designated Dark Sky Places, with dozens more in the pipeline.

“Why can’t we become a Dark Sky Nation? I’d like to see all National Parks around the country immediately sign up to become Dark Sky Places, and I’ve also got this secret plan to sign up all the big outback stations across Australia.”

Check out full results of the ABC poll which started on 5 August with a focus on 22 ‘amazing things’, condensed to Top 10 contenders in the final round. Spoiler alert: Aurora came third; followed by Saturn’s rings; The Moon; Comet; Moonbow; Meteor shower; Meteor; and Lunar eclipse.

For Australian National University astrophysicist and cosmologist, Dr Brad Tucker, picking favourites is tricky: “I do love Saturn’s rings, but it’s great to see the Milky Way and stargazing in Dark Sky Places rank so highly because it shows Australians feel a connection to the night sky as our window to the Universe and, for First Nations peoples, to Sky Country and stories written in the stars.”

Growing up in California, Brad didn’t know it was even possible to look up and see the Milky Way. In the US and Europe, 99 per cent of people miss the experience of a dark night sky, with an estimated 80 per cent of the world’s population living under sky glow.

“We may not think what we do at home matters, but it does,” he says. “If everyone in Sydney turned off one 10W LED bulb at night, we’d save over 10 Megawatts of energy every hour.”

ABC’s dark sky project is the online initiative for National Science Week 2024, undertaken by ABC Science with funding through the Australian Government’s Inspiring Australia strategy.

In addition to the national poll, the ABC and ANU joined forces to launch a separate online survey of the Milky Way’s visibility. This survey is ongoing. It invites all Australians to become real-life guardians of the Galaxy, by looking up and using an interactive visual guide to determine how much of the Milky Way is currently blocked by light pollution across metro, regional, rural, coastal and remote locations.

“We will use that data to look at what people value in the night sky, how they value the view of darkness, and how we can push initiatives for better lighting, which will reduce light pollution, light the ground better, and save money,” Brad says.

[Read more…] about The Milky Way is Australia’s #1 ‘most amazing thing’ to see in the night sky

Sunday 18 August

Highlights from the final day of National Science Week

Researchers, experts, and other interesting people available for interview around the country.

VIC: Art meets science in a high-tech exhibition inspired by science fiction

NSW: Meet ‘Ginger’ the life-sized Australovenator dinosaur at Science in the Swamp – Centennial Park, Sydney

VIC: Breakfast in a petri dish: inside the lab of ‘The Man Who Invented Vegemite’ – Beaufort

SA: How to grow a Martian garden – Roseworthy

NT: 9-metre whale puppet tells ‘The Whale’s Tale’ – Darwin

QLD: Are robots rolling onto farms? – Royal Queensland Show, Brisbane

WA: Dark matter on the on the move – Broome

Read on for more on these, including direct event contact details.

[Read more…] about Plants in space; FarmBots; a Poo Palace; saving turtles with a smartphone; and swamp life with ‘Ginger’ the dinosaur

Saturday 17 August

Highlights from day 8 of National Science Week

Researchers, experts, and other interesting people available for interview around the country.

NSW: Dr Karl and a T.rex autopsy at Sydney Science Trail

NSW: The Indigenous night sky, bush food, and technology – Redfern

QLD: ‘We’re All Aliens, Baby’: science songs and astrophysicists at a live Planetarium concert – Brisbane

WA: Unbreakable bones, black holes, Shark Bay, and fantastic rays and where to find them – Crawley

SA: Treewilding: our relationship with forests – Tusmore

ACT: Shop with reptiles and robots – shopping centres around Canberra

TAS: Tracking cats, robot cars, drones, fossils, and more at Festival of Bright Ideas – Hobart

NT: Volunteer beach-side bird-spotters wanted! – Brinkin

NSW: Step inside the Poo Palace – Newcastle

VIC: Raising rarity: saving Victoria’s most threatened plants – Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne

WA: Unbreakable bones, black holes, Shark Bay, and fantastic rays and where to find them

QLD: Play with rocket scientists –Toowoomba

NSW: Your brain on AI at the Opera House – Sydney

Read on for more on these, including direct event contact details.

[Read more…] about The Poo Palace; fun with rocket scientists; your brain on AI; sharks in Dubbo; and bird-spotters wanted

Thursday 15 August

Highlights from day 6 of National Science Week

Researchers, experts, and other interesting people available for interview around the country.

VIC: Canine happiness 101: if dogs could talk, you might be shocked – Melbourne

NSW: Creative genius: discover your ‘visual brain’ – Sydney

ACT: Want to work as a scientist in government? – Canberra

VIC: How to grow a Martian garden – Wodonga

QLD: What the froth? Science in the brewery – Gladstone

SA: Meet the scientists who speak for the trees – Adelaide

NSW: Sleeping with cancer – Westmead

WA: The science of beer – Joondalup

WA: 140,000 years in 30 minutes at Scitech Planetarium – Perth

ACT: Fang-tastic. For the love of bats, vampires and pop-culture flick, Blade – Canberra

NT: Be a Top End biosecurity expert for the day – Katherine

National: Your smartphone pics could help scientists keep an eye on water – online

Read on for more on these, including direct event contact details.

[Read more…] about Canine happiness 101; vampire movie science; galactic green-thumbs; your ‘visual brain’; and speaking for trees