Friday, April 22 – International Dark Sky Week is April 22nd through the 30th. It’s a good time to look at the sky with the naked eye, or to use a telescope! Reserve the library’s telescope here. Dark Sky week is scheduled when the moon isn’t out at night, because a bright moon brightens the sky, washing out fainter stars (especially in the area of the sky closer to the moon).
Waylander Tim Largy writes:
Growing up, I spent many hours at the eyepiece of a telescope–not nearly as nice as the library’s–in the yard at my family’s house on Moore Road, and in the “corn field” down the street (now part of the Sedge Meadow conservation area). The night sky in Wayland was much darker in the 1980s, but it was still light polluted due to bright lights in commercial districts miles away. The sky is much brighter now, particularly because of LED lighting all over the place, but it’s *still* a darker sky than in many other places nearby.
If you don’t have a telescope, try participating in “Globe at Night,” a citizen science activity which encourages folks to look for the faintest stars they can see in a specific constellation, and then report that back to Globe at Night. No astronomy training necessary! Citizen contributions help Globe at Night build a database of night sky visibility, and estimate light pollution levels.