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2024 Bonus: Holiday Potluck. Light Pollution News.
Host:
Kerem Asfuroglu
Kerem Asfuroglu is the founder of Dark Source, an award-winning lighting design studio driven by environmental values based in the UK & Ireland. Following his graduation from Wismar University – Architectural Lighting Design MA in 2010, Kerem has worked in the lighting industry for almost a decade before setting up Dark Source in 2019. He has been awarded with the title of Dark Sky Defender by the IDA for advocating the importance of darkness through design. Some of his environmental lighting projects include the Plas Y Brenin Outdoor Centre, Presteigne Dark Sky Masterplan, Newport Dark Sky Masterplan, Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Clwydian Range & Dee Valley and Dark Sky Planning Guidelines for Cumbria.
Yana Yakushina
Yana Yakushina is a lawyer, researcher, and dark sky protection educator. Yakushina is actively involved in initiatives related to light pollution mitigation and space law. Yakushina has successfully participated in international legal research projects, collaborating with organizations such as the EU Commission, Dark-Sky International, and the International Astronomical Union, among others.
Currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Ghent (Belgium) as part of the Horizon EU project – PLAN-B, Yakushina is shaping the legal framework for recognizing light pollution as a critical environmental concern. Yakushina also serves as one of the scientific coordinators of the project with the main task of strengthening efforts to establish a robust legal framework for addressing the negative effects of Artificial Light at Night (ALAN) on the environment and biodiversity.
On the space law front, Yakushina serves as the Deputy Executive Director at the Space Court Foundation Inc. Additionally, in 2023, Yakushina became a co-founder of the Belgian dark sky protection organization – Living Night.
Matthias Schmitt
The night sky program manager for the National Park Service at Cedar Breaks National Monument. Schmitt has been passionately involved in astronomy outreach and public events in astronomy, STEM, and space sciences for over ten years. An avid eclipse chaser, Schmitt has traveled to Australia, Antarctica, Oregon, Argentina, Oman, and other locations to observe total and annular eclipses. Previously, Schmitt was the Executive Producer of the CGI-animated STEM television show Space Racers. Schmitt holds a Master of Science in Astronomy from Swinburne University’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing. He is a member of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), the American Astronomical Society (AAS), the St. George Astronomy Group, and the Amateur Astronomer Association of New York.
John Barentine
John Barentine is an astronomer, historian, author, science communicator, and dark-sky consultant. He earned a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Texas and is a member of the American Astronomical Society, the International Astronomical Union, and the Royal Astronomical Society. His interests include history, politics, and law.
Frank Turina
Frank Turina, is an astrophotographer, night sky advocate, and environmental educator with more than 15 years of working with the United States National Park Service Night Skies Program. You can learn more about his examinations of the ecological and cultural effects of light pollution from his website, at the Night Sky Resource Center.
Ken Walczak
Senior Manager of the Far Horizons program at the Adler Planetarium, Co-Author of numerous papers on design and use of innovating instrumentation for light pollution research, and co-lead in the successful designation of the world’s largest Urban Night Sky Place, the Palos Preserves. Walczak is also a board member with Dark Sky International.
Michael Rymer
Michael Rymer was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, where he seldom saw the night sky in its natural state. Later in his life, though, he came to discover a love for astronomy and astrophotography, searching for dark skies and how he could help protect them.
Michael enjoys hiking in the mountains and deserts of the Western U.S., and he loves to spend time with his camera and telescopes taking pictures of the beauty of the cosmos. He is the Vice President of the Texas Astronomical Society of Dallas and has been a member of the club since 2020. He joined the DarkSky Advocates Network in 2021 and has continued to learn how he can talk with others about the dangers of light pollution to us and our world.
Michael has a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma and an M.S. in Recreation and Tourism Management from the University of Northern Alabama.
Betty Buckley
Emmy, Peabody, and Gracie award-winning producer and writer Elizabeth (Betty) Buckley is a native Texan with over 25 years of experience in film, television, new media, and animation.
The Stars at Night is her first documentary feature as a writer and director.
Her experience ranges from indie and doc feature films to scripted TV/Streaming series and blue chip TV. Specials for broadcasters including HBO, History, National Geographic, Curiosity Stream, and PBS. She has BFA in Broadcast-Film Arts from SMU and is a professor in the film department at Texas State University.
She has produced/line produced ten independent feature films and her work in scripted broadcast television has been seen in over 30 countries, with production experience that
has taken her from Hawaii to the Costa del Sol in Spain.
She and her family live in the Texas Hill Country where they also run a Tiny House business dutifully guarded by their Great Pyrenees.
Diane Turnshek
Diane Turnshek is a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. She has been on the board of directors for both the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and Parsec, Pittsburgh’s premier science fiction organization. She is published in Analog Magazine of Science Fiction and Fact and edited Parsec’s Triangulation anthology multiple times.
Article List:
- The Rise of Astro-Tourism: Chasing Dark Skies in the Age of Light Pollution, Real Journey Travel and Tours.
- Stratford sphere venue plans officially withdrawn by US firm, Jess Warren & PA Media, BBC.
- Space trash is falling from the sky. And that’s not the worst of it., Editorial Board, Washington Post.
- ‘It’s very significant’: Moab earns Dark Sky Community designation, Jonathon Sharp, ABC4.
- Excessive light pollution may increase risk of Alzheimer’s, especially in younger people, Frontiers.
- Why flying insects gather at artificial light, Nature Communications.
- United Nations agrees to address impact of satellite constellations on astronomy, ESO.
- Petition to protect the darkness of night skies, New Zealand Parliament.
- Brighter nights and darker days predict higher mortality risk: A prospective analysis of personal light exposure in >88,000 individuals, PNAS.
