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Join us in celebrating World Starlight Night 2024
April 20 marks the XVII Anniversary of the Starlight Declaration in Defense of the Night Sky
On April 20, the World Night in Defense of Starlight, also known as Starlight World Night, will be celebrated as the Foundation promotes this initiative as part of our cultural, scientific and environmental heritage.
The World Starlight Night coincides with the signing in 2007, during the First International Starlight Conference, of the "Declaration of La Palma in Defense of the Night Sky and the Right to Observe the Stars", whose purpose is to consider the sky as a universal heritage to be valued as a cultural, scientific and landscape resource, and to establish the criteria for this.
Since then, the Starlight Foundation has worked and continues to work hard to expand the values set forth in the La Palma Declaration. Its main objectives are the protection of the night sky, the cultural dissemination of astronomy and the local sustainable economic development through astro-tourism. To achieve these goals, the international Starlight Certification system was created to promote a different way of caring for and defending the sky worldwide, valuing it as a necessary resource for life and as an intangible heritage of humanity, ensuring the ability to enjoy starlight and the development of activities based on this resource. Starlight Certification brings together science and tourism for the first time and is supported by the UNWTO and the IAU.
The total area of certified territories (DTS and RS) currently exceeds 100,000 km2 in several countries. This figure refers only to the areas accredited for the quality of their skies.
To give you an idea, this area is larger than Hungary (93,030 km2) or the United Arab Emirates (83,600 km2) or almost a fifth of the surface of Spain.
We already have almost 1000 supporters of the Declaration of La Palma.
XVII Anniversary of the Starlight DeclarationOn April 20, 2024, after seventeen years of helping to preserve one of our most necessary cultural heritages, the celebration of the Starlight World Night is more necessary than ever. That's why the Starlight Foundation invites everyone to join in the celebration with the now famous "Starlight Blackout".
All types of organizations can join the initiative and become actively involved in many aspects:
- Organize events and ceremonies to adopt the Declaration.
- Suggest places to visit for stargazing, parks and destinations under the stars.
- Encourage the implementation of legislation that limits light pollution and promotes energy conservation.
- Turn off unnecessary lights at night to restore the view of the stars while saving energy and slowing climate change.
- Organize artistic events and competitions on stargazing topics.
- Offer observations of the sky through telescopes.
- Provide media and public talks by scientists, experts, and advocates on the need for quality skies.
- Encourage local identification of dark areas in need of protection.
- Organize events for students and the general public.
STARLIGHT WORLD NIGHT 2024 AGENDA** Here you will find the main activities organized in the AGENDA OF THE STARLIGHT WORLD NIGHT 2024.
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