Minutes – October 22, 2020
Attending:
Daniel Anderson, Stephen Bannister, John Barentine, Sophie Bellina, Kelly Bricker, Robin Carbaugh, Aaron Dekeyzer, Lauren Flom, Bettymaya Foott, Sophie Frankenberg, Stephen Goldsmith, Steve Hart, Jessica Heim, Julia Kamenetzky, Aubrey Larsen, Gabriel Lozada, Travis Longcore, Daniel Mendoza, Richard Menzies, Brian Moench, Janet Muir, Jonathan Pugmire, Thomas Quayle, Bryony Richards, Paul Ricketts, Anil Seth, Levi Simons, Larry Smith, Randy Stanley
Project to update and replace light fixtures on University of Utah medical campus:
Waited to 1605 MDT to begin so that others could join
DM: Quick question before beginning, did everyone get two emails from me the other
day? (yes) We’re moving to MailChimp exclusively for communications, so I wanted to
be sure people are seeing that.
DM: We have two great, motivated interns to work on CDSS and JDSS. Moving
websites over to SquareSpace.
DM: Okay, let’s move right along to Daniel’s presentation on lighting retrofits.
DA: I did a project about replacing lighting infrastructure on campus with
another student, Kari Stoddard.
DA: We received a $20K grant from SCIF to replace some lighting near Sage
Point Dorms. There is nearby wildlife, and existing lighting was shining into
students’ dorm rooms. Conditions before the retrofit:
DA: Replaced lamps were closest to the buildings, identified on the map below.
Before/after images: now fully shielded, warm-color white LED, replacing ‘historic’ acorns
DA: Prof Nate Bricker was a huge influence on the project and “it would not have happened without him”
DA: Our roles in the project as students:
DA: I was the “client” for the project. The facilities engineers were responsible for doing the installation.
DA: Here’s what’s next:
DA: Now is a good time to replace lights on campus on a large scale. There is incentive to make UUtah dark-sky friendly given the pending Olympics bid. DA: Further discussion ongoing for ~$500K for ~100 lights. SCIF grants need to lead toward larger-scale changes.
DA: Yellow dots are existing; blue have been replaced already.
DM: Share the slide set with us and add your contact info to the last one? (Introductions)
Sophie Frankenburg on her role with the CDSS and Dark Skies Minor:
DM: Next, Sophie F. will tell us about her role with CDSS and the dark-sky studies minor.
SF: I’m a grad student in Planning at the U, and I’m the TA for the dark-sky studies minor. My role has a lot to do with promoting the minor on and off campus.
SF: Off-campus promotion is mainly connecting students to dark-sky organizations, showing them that this is an evolving field and an important one, including opportunities after graduation.
SF: On-campus, I’m helping students understand what the minor is, showing how interdisciplinary this work is. Two of our students will represent the U to the new Western Night Skies Council. I’ve also been working with CPDSC and IDA.
SF: We are looking at adding a new course to the minor perhaps by next summer. And I’m compiling a list-serve for all the students in the minor, faculty, partner orgs. Push out interesting facts, opportunities for students, and any news relating to dark-sky studies. I’ll put my email in the chat (Sophie.frankenburg@utah.edu); let me know if you have anything interesting to share.
SF: Lastly, we would really like to talk to Daniel Anderson and promote your work. And Kelly Bricker mentioned the ‘day hikes and dark skies’ course; would love to talk to you about that.
DA: My email is dan.janderson99@gmail.com.
DM: Lauren has helped a lot as well getting the mailing list for CDSS set up. Also, if you all want to be listed on the website, please send me a photo and a short bio.
DM: Updates from Justina:
National 4-H has picked up a 6-week dark-sky module.
East Canyon State Park became an IDA International Dark Sky Park in August. Five more Utah state parks have submitted IDSP nominations.
JM: Two just submitted are Wasatch and Jordanelle.
Utah State Parks update:
DM: Next up, Jessica.
JH: I recently finished my master’s project looking at the Central Idaho International Dark Sky Reserve creation, specifically about how things went in Stanley, ID, with their lighting retrofit and community outreach. I wanted to look at the technical aspects, in particular. I did a lot of interviews with folks there.
JH: Stanley is small but they have a lot of summer tourism.
JH: Goals of my research:
JH: Earlier retrofits were up to 4000K, but most recent lights that went in were 2200K.
JH: Asked questions about street lights and perceptions of dark skies.
JH: Anecdotally, tourism seems to have increased locally due to dark-sky advocacy.
JH: Locals are more motivated by voluntary efforts than mandatory policies.
LS: Does a town that small get funds from their county or … ?
JH: Street lighting was funded by the electric utility in the past, but the
city didn’t realize energy/cost savings. Now the lights are owned by City
of Stanley.
RC: Can you define cultural astronomy?
JH: Intersection of humans and the sky. What people have thought about
it, including science but beyond: religion, agriculture, etc.
SF: What made you choose Stanley, Idaho?
JH: I was involved in ‘pre-research’ in the year or two before and was
going to do a comparative study, but it became too big quite quickly. I
originally intended to study Jasper, Alberta, but there were a lot of
problems there. Stanley emerged at the last minute.
DM: You said that anecdotally tourism increased. Is there some kind of easy way
of getting at quantitative information? You might change the mind of the person
who was critical of the whole thing.
JH: The question is how to isolate just the dark-skies element from other
kinds of tourism. People may come for other outdoor activities and take in
dark skies almost incidentally. A bit outside the scope of my work.
JH: Also wanted to let everyone know about the upcoming virtual event at the
Bell Museum in Minneapolis (mid-November) Here is the link about the Bell
Museum’s Statewide Star Party https://www.bellmuseum.umn.edu/statewidestarparty/ The event is free, but registration is required.
JH: So excited that Annette Lee will be presenting at IDA’s online conference
next month – I highly recommend everyone attend to her talk – she will be talking
about Native American perspectives in relation to dark skies. (She’s a physics
professor at the University in my town & I’ve been involved with her Native
Skywatchers initiatives for quite a few years now.) She combines science,
culture, and art in her educational outreach.
Western Night Skies Council:
DM: Aubrey, up next, about the Western Night Skies Council.
AL: Just wanted to update everyone on progress. The website is up, currently
hosted on the CPSDC site. We partnered with the GNAR initiative at the U to
help expand the audience reach. ~25 people representing organizations and
places throughout the western states.
AL: Excited to get this going soon. We surveyed participants on their priorities
and interests in the Council, and made a word cloud from the results. We also
asked them where their favorite place to see the night sky is (map, below).
AL: Contact information: https://cpdarkskies.org/the-western-night-skies council/ aubreychristensen@utah.gov
Minor in Dark Sky Studies Capstone Scholars:
DM: Update on the minor. We have the capstone class now which is being taught now; Sophie F. is one of the students. It touches on four aspects/projects. The class is divided into two groups; each does all four projects.
One project is about drone measurements of light at night. Drones are built by Mechanical Engineering. We have a paper out already, led by the engineering team. We can survey particular areas, like around the UNHM and an industrial
area on the west side of SLC. We’re going through the data right now. Another element is creative expression around this. We’re pairing up with local mural artists, who are volunteering their time to help us design and install a some murals. The will depict both what we have learned as well as the data we have collected. Each group has its own ideas; the collaboration will be in melding these ideas together.
Third part is working with the next generation of students. One group is working with the UNHM; other working with high school students. Condensing what they’re learning in dark-sky studies and passing that on.
Fourth part is about public policy. City ordinances, HOA covenants. Some places have specific mandates about certain lighting applications. The task is to propose hypothetical amendments to local policies given what they are learning about outdoor lighting.
LS: UCLA has a department that fosters collaboration between arts and science. Does UU have something like that?
DM: We applied for an internal grant here that would bring together Utah Presents, which brings in artists performers who do community outreach while here. We partnered with All My Relations (AMR); NY-based cooperative. They’re a Native American group that is presenting about dark skies in NA culture. We would like to establish something like this a little more formally along the lines of the minor.
AS: The minor lives within a single department, but it was conceived of as interdisciplinary. People from about 10 departments have been involved.
DM: We really wanted to focus on bringing together multiple disciplines. One of the faculty is the Utah poet laureate. The intent is to broaden the scope of the minor. Right now we have three classes specific to the minor within City & Metropolitan Planning. An additional 9 hours of credit toward the minor are available on a list from about 20 different departments.
DM: To make the minor more accessible, we want to provide smaller, 1-2 credit classes like nature walks and weekend camping events. That will open it up to a much wider segment of the student population. We also want to include distance learning eventually, and perhaps certificates that are short of the baccalaureate minor. And as Sophie mentioned, we want to get a summer class going.
RC: Can you expand on your question, Levi?
LS: Not sure what would need to happen at an institutional level. UCLA has had something like this going for years. I’ve worked with them for a few years. Art based on communicating ideas of light and noise pollution. Concepts in materials science and nano science. Collaborations on developing installations to both communicate science concepts using art, and using tech to develop new forms of communicating art. Augmented reality and projection mapping to immerse people in AR spaces relating to the built environment. If people are interested in connecting with that department, let me know. () But in terms of what it took to get that going in academia, I’m not sure what was all involved over the past nearly 15 years.
LS: In general, too, think of hacker spaces. People come to manufacture novel things. 3-D printers, laser cutters, that sort of thing. But it brings together people in arts and tech. Examples of outgrowth from that were a monitoring system after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, and quickly manufacturing PPE when COVID hit. There may well be something like this already in SLC.
Miscellaneous:
DM: Anything else?
AS: The IDA annual conference is coming up in
November. https://www.darksky.org/about/2020-global-conference
JB: We’re splitting the conference virtually across three different global regions, and hope everyone will be able to attend.
RC: John, I attended part of the the United Nations “Dark and Quiet Skies” workshop two weeks ago and noticed that you were involved. Can you brief on that?
JB: Sure. The workshop was put on by the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs for the purpose of collecting policy recommendations around three themes (light pollution, radio interference and satellite ‘megaconstellations’) for consideration by the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. If COPUOS endorses the recommendations, they will likely go before the General Assembly in 2021 for formal approval. They are not binding policies along the lines of something like a treaty, but rather guidance for UN member states that want to implement policies in their own jurisdictions. We had a lot of good public feedback during and after the workshop presentations and are now finalizing our report.
DM: If you would like to present at the next meeting, please let me know. Next meeting is tentatively Thursday, January 21 at 4pm MST. I’ll send out a reminder.