--- Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com> wrote: <snip> If so, one would think that this would
make a goodrallying point for local light-pollution reduction efforts in Moab (and lots of other rural areas).
In general, Smokey (the National Park Service) and astronomy clubs are going to be natural allies in the future. Except for premire parks like Zions, camping in national parks dropped precipatiously by 30% over the last couple of years. One of the fastest growing areas of national park attendence is the gen public going night sky watching. One of the informal NPS initiatives to bring attendance back up is trying to preserve night skies in national parks from encroaching light pollution. - Kurt Off-topic P.S. - The NPS guy in an article in the Tribune on this a few weeks ago, did not attribute the decline in park attendance primarily to high gas prices - although the price of gas is a factor. Rather, it is an age related trend from the "stranger danger" generation entering adulthood. Out of fear of child abduction, parents kept an entire generation of kids either indoors or shuttling between supervised activities. The kids never learned how to camp or hang out outdoors. So, they don't go to the national parks. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com