Submitted by Mike Warkentin,
BPBA Volunteer and Dark Sky Chair
Bayside Astronomy begins another summer on the July long weekend in 2025. Starting on Friday June 27th and on Saturday June 28th just after sunset, we will be back at the Lion’s Head Marina. As most folks know, this is a FREE program offered to the public, that shows you what is in the night sky through our volunteer’s telescopes. This summer, thanks to gracious funding from the municipality, the local Lions and Rotary clubs, and EcoCanada, we are able to hire 3 summer college students to run our programs. Grace Jaklitcsh will be back with her knowledge of Greek Mythology. Joining her will be Patrick Hamani, an astrophysics major from McMaster and Francesca Borromeo, a biology major from the University of Ottawa. Grace, Patrick and Francesca will be running the programs on Sunday at Singing Sands Park, Monday at Miller’s Family Camp, and Wednesday at Summer House Park, and will also join us at Lion’s Head.
What will also likely be joining us wherever we are, is artificial light at night or ALAN. So new in 2025, Bayside Astronomy, Parks Canada and the Bruce Peninsula Biosphere Association (BPBA) are sponsoring a free Astrophotography Exhibit “Lost in Light” at the Parks Canada Visitor Centre in Tobermory.
“Lost In Light” showcases some stunning images by local photographers like Esme Batten, Stuart Heggie, Scott Johnstone and Arni Stinnissen. See the Milky Way, comets, aurora, galaxies and nebulae. These are some of the same objects you will see at Bayside, but in glorious colour! These objects and many other sights are being hidden by ALAN and need your help to protect them.
ALAN has become a constant visitor to the Saugeen/Bruce, with the increasing appearance of electronic message centres or EMCs, those neon scrolling message signs that appear outside of businesses and are illuminated all night. Combined with the sky glow from new colder LED streetlights that scatter light into the night sky, and the light trespass from unshielded garage and house lights that are also left on all night, the environmental impacts are getting worse. Insects are dying while swirling around those unshielded lights, bird migrations are interrupted, soy bean crops next to streetlights suffer reduced yields, sleep is interrupted by too much blue light at night from electronic devices, and studies are showing increased risks of breast cancer with exposure to blue light at night.
You can help reduce ALAN by shielding your outdoor lights and either turning them off when not needed, or putting them on motion detection sensors for security purposes. Check your cottage or house to ensure all outdoor lights are pointing down to the ground instead of up into the night sky, and choose warm yellow lights instead of cold blue lights (300K or less).
So visit the AP Exhibit, and come out to Bayside Astronomy this summer to say hi to Grace, Patrick and Francesca and see these sights before they are lost!
