Yesterday saw the start of the Conference on Dark and Quiet Skies for Science and Society) organized by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) with the support of NOIRLab (The National Laboratory for Research in Optical and Infrared Astronomy of the National Science Foundation (NSF). As had been announced a few months ago, after last year’s Workshop, the aim of this new meeting is to focus on putting into practice the recommendations made in the exhaustive report which resulted

After a week of intense work, with the participation of almost a thousand researchers from all over the world, the online workshop “Dark and quiet skies for science and society” has finished. For five days work has proceded on the preparation of a document which can offer governments, city councils, and companies the legal and technical basis for avoiding the possible negative impact of the newest technology on the observation of the night sky, and on biodiversity.

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), and the International Astronomical Union (IAU) will be organizing, in La Palma, the meeting “Dark and quiet skies for science and society” between the 3rd and 7th of October 2021. This meeting is the continuation of the online workshop with the same name, which brought together, a year ago, about a thousand researchers from throughout the world to campaign for the natural darkness of the night sky. The congress “Dark and Quiet Skies for Science and Society” is backed by UNOOSA, the

After a panel discussion about technical aspects featuring some of the participants in the conference, the author from La Palma Elsa López read out (between two musical performances) the resolutions adopted at this conference held to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Starlight Declaration of La Palma (see RESOLUTIONS below).

Astrónomos de todas las disciplinas debatirán sobre los efectos del magnetismo en el Universo, desde los planetas hasta las estrellas y las galaxias

During the past week over a hundred specialists from all over the world have been meeting in La Laguna to discuss the study, in different areas of astrophysics, of the faintest and most diffuse objects in the sky. But no only professional astronomers have attended the meeting, organized by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The participation of amateur astronomers is of importance for improving our knowledge of these “ghostly” structures.