2022 January FDSC Meeting — “The Flagstaff Solution”
This recording of the January, 2022 membership meeting includes a presentation by FDSC Director Drew Carhart on the nature of “The Flagstaff Solution”; the practices which have made Flagstaff a world leader in the effective, practical control of light pollution.

2022 February FDSC Meeting — “Bringing Flagstaff to Fairbanks”
This recording of the February, 2022 membership meeting includes a presentation by FDSC Director Drew Carhart on the trip he had just completed to Fairbanks, Alaska, having been invited there by several civic groups interested in learning about how to get light pollution under control to save their dark skies.

2022 March FDSC Meeting — “A Jaunt through Arabian Skies”
This recording of the March, 2022 membership meeting includes a presentation by FDSC Director and Lowell Observatory Chief Marketing and Revenue Officer Dr. Danielle Adams on the constellation stories of classical Arabian culture.

 

In the very recent past, humans have started losing their awareness of the wonders of the night sky. Before the current, short era of nights flooded with man-made light, filled with entertainment screens and other distractions, there’s no doubt that our ancestors spent long hours gazing upward at the stars. In this presentation, author and lecturer William Seven explores the deep origins of humanity’s strong spiritual and cultural ties to the universe which our predecessors could readily contemplate on any clear night.

In this presentation, FDSC member Klaus Brasch shares some highlights from his avocational career as an amateur astronomer. As a teen in the 1950s, his eyes were drawn skyward by the Sputnik satellites, and he remains an inveterate stargazer to this day. Over the decades between, he has witnessed astonishing advances in the technology available to amateur astronomers, and he describes how they have changed the face of the hobby.

 

In many locations, combating light pollution has been tackled with a bottom-up, local approach, where citizens and organizations have pushed for local change and regulation. In this presentation, speaker John Barentine of Dark Sky Consulting, LLC presents arguments for why controlling light pollution and saving dark skies may end up needing top-down regulation, where larger scale cooperatives or even whole states or regions adopt some notable controls over outdoor lighting.

 

Many amateur astronomers (and some professionals, too) enjoy sharing views of the heavens with the public. The FDSC promotes this in a major way by presenting the annual Flagstaff Star Party. In this presentation, accomplished amateur Barry Malpas unveils a guide which he is writing that lays out a large amount of useful information for people who volunteer at events like the Flagstaff Star Party. In the soon-to-be-published booklet, Barry shares scores of tested, practical techniques for conducting stargazing outreach, as well as a host of interesting facts to present to engage the public.

 

2022 August FDSC meeting – – “A History of the NPS Night Skies Team”
The U.S. National Park Service has a robust program to make the public aware of the beauty and wonder of a dark night sky, and to preserve and protect that natural resource over its protected lands and beyond. In this presentation, Chad Moore shares some of the history of the development of that program, from its beginnings when it involved little more than himself.