Dark Sky Project

It has been busy in the Dark Sky world over the past few weeks.

We celebrated Wales Dark Sky week, with a week full of events to raise awareness of light pollution and the importance of dark skies. Dark Sky week ran from the 9 - 18 February and the AONB had 7 events organised throughout the week.

These events included two nights of stargazing while paddle boarding with SUP Lass Paddle Adventures, both sessions were sold out with over 30 people attending.

Two planetarium days were held, one at Chirk and the other at the Cathedral in St Asaph, all the sessions were full and over 120 people experienced the planetarium over the two days.

We had a stargazing walk at Penycloddiau with Dani Robertson the Dark Sky officer for project NOS and a Night of storytelling with Fiona Collins at Ty Mawr Country Park.

     

As well as dark sky week, Dark Skies project staff have been working on a lot of retrofitting projects across the AONB to reduce light pollution and increase awareness of the importance of dark skies. The project has been working closely with Llanfwrog Community Association to replace floodlights on the tennis courts and the lights on the golf driving range.

     

Through funding from the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Landscapes, Sustainable Places (SLSP) fund, the AONB engaged environmental lighting designers Dark Source to outline a new lighting plan to conquer the effects of light pollution. With this plan the Club successfully attracted funding from the Clocaenog Forest Wind Farm Fund to retrofit the courts.

Llanfwrog Community association have done everything they can to reduce light pollution at the centre and have mitigated as much as possible whilst also creating a safe environment for using the tennis courts and the golf driving range.

Figures have shown by replacing the old 2KW floodlight with the new 800W dark light sport floodlights, when all six courts are switched on they are saving 31.2KW/h which is a saving of 61.9 percent in electricity and carbon emissions which is very positive for the environment and the cost of running the centre.