Dee Sandin
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 Dark Sky Week In Harmony, Florida In my neck of the woods, we will be attending Earth Hour in Harmony, Florida. It’s such a blast! With millions turning their lights off in Osceola county at 8:00 p.m., in Harmony, folks are encouraged to attend a community movie or candlelit dinner at Greensides’ restaurant. Earth Hour also kicks off National Dark Sky Week, from March 29 to April 4, which ends the day before the 5th Annual Dark Sky Festival at Harmony begins. That festival on Saturday, April 5th, we close off the annual Dark Sky Week Festival with events such as viewing the night skies through several telescopes while enjoying music and food, specialty booths, meeting astronomers and scientists, or playing in the Cosmic Kids Zone. The festivities kick off at 7 pm by the Silver Clouds Community Orchestra and then we get a real treat - a concert by RARE EARTH (“Get Ready”, “I Just Want To Celebrate”) performing a special concert as part of the celebration. Dancing in the street! I can’t wait!  NOTE: The festival site has wrong info about the start of National Dark Sky Week.
NOTE: Harmony's Town Square is listed Class 4 on the Bortle Scale of Light Pollution.
Our Astronomy Day event was promoted as the Dark Sky Festival at Harmony. What was unconventional about this event, as an event intended to introduce the public to astronomy and related issues, was that it was billed as much as a community picnic as it was a more serious science fair. We believe that giving a festive theme to the event created a broader appeal to people and so exposed more people to astronomy than a focused star party or science center might. Plus the Festival's theme was not just the astronomy values of the night, but the value of keeping dark skies to protect wildlife activities along with the simple aesthetic values that being outside at night can bring. Any expansion of the dark sky theme was seen as an opportunity to broaden participation, as long as it didn't detract from the central educational purpose of the event.
(blogs.orlandosentinel)References: darkskyfestival, blogs.orlandosentinel Comment: on Earth Hour 2008 |
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