Starlight star bright

BY JEFF TOLLAN

 

AS THE sun begins to sink below the horizon, ending another day in the Mackenzie Basin, darkness creeps over the landscape.

Amidst the twilight, a velvet black begins to stain the sky, advancing towards the horizon as the dying sunlight finally slips behind the Southern Alps.

It is broken only by a piercing starlight the silken sky filled with countless vivid specks, like a colander held to the light.

It is a transfixing sight; one which many people in the world have lost.

But while urban sprawl and development have choked the night sky from view in some parts of the world, residents of Tekapo and its surrounding areas are fighting to keep their skies crystal clear.

With the backing of the region and the country, a group of three people are fighting to have the area's stunning night skies recognised and preserved.

The vision is to establish a World Heritage Starlight Reserve in the Lake Tekapo and Aoraki/Mt Cook area, home of the Mt John Observatory.

It would be the world's first such reserve and the drive to have it established coincides with the International Year of Astronomy this year.

Just this week, former MP Margaret Austin returned to New Zealand from Paris where she put New Zealand's case to have the area declared a reserve to a United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation conference.

A working party is now examining her proposal, and those of eight other countries also applying for starlight reserves.

She is one of the trio who have been working on the Tekapo bid. Professor John Hearnshaw, from the University of Canterbury, and local man Graeme Murray are her counterparts. They worked non-stop in readiness for the Paris conference and now have to prepare a preliminary report for the working group which is meeting next month.

Another report, a case study about the ins and outs of Tekapo and its astronomical background, also has to be prepared, to present to Unesco in a little more than a year's time.

Mrs Austin said more people will be needed to help from this point on.

"We've got to mobilise people now to help with the case study."

The interest the project has gained already has been phenomenal, she said. "I can't believe the degree of interest that there has been in the whole proposal. While I was in Paris I had contact with television, radio stations and endless numbers of reporters. It was astonishing."

For Mr Murray, a director of Earth and Sky which operates at the Mt John Observatory, the situation has been the same.

Even though the whole process is still being worked on, it has still attracted attention around the world, he added.

"We've even had CNN here for two days planning a documentary.

In the interim it's the waiting that is the hard part. But while Mrs Austin finds the length of time the whole process takes disappointing, she said it is understandable that Unesco was following its own process, dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's along the way.

A huge boost to the cause has been the Mackenzie District Council's motivation in protecting the sky above the observatory. Since 1981 the council has had strict lighting bylaws so Mt John's telescopes could look out into the galaxy.

All household lights must beam down, floodlights are a no-no and all outdoor lighting must be switched off between 11pm and sunrise.Sodium lights are also a bonus, and all street lights are designed to shine light down onto the street.

The other areas also applying for starlight reserves are mostly in isolated areas, away from residential areas. Tekapo's initiatives have certainly been a talking point, Mrs Austin said.

"One speaker said that if there was just one site in the world where people could see the stars they would not stop travelling to see them. Half the people of the world at present do not see the stars."

Mrs Austin said while she knew a lot of people came to the Mackenzie region, it was still a bit of a shock to learn that around 1.4 million tourists visited annually.

Tourism New Zealand reports that three-quarters of Japanese guests list star-gazing as the main reason they wanted to visit the country.

Destination Mt Cook Mackenzie general manager Philip Brownie said the starlight reserve will be another good tourist attraction for the region.

"It's going to be great [if the reserve is granted], but it's important to remember that there are other tourism operations and a starlight reserve will continue to add to those."

All up, he said, there are about 350 tourist-related businesses in the area.

Should the area end up being classified as a starlight reserve, it would bring in even more people, Mr Murray said.

One of Tekapo's best known night sky photographers, Fraser Gunn, wouldn't be surprised if it did.

He finds the Solar System, and Tekapo's view of it, fascinating and said it isn't until people get to the Mackenzie they realise just what can be seen.

He's thankful for the fact such an interest has been taken in protecting the night sky.

There's passion in his voice when he talks about his night-time ventures, walking from here to there to find the perfect shot.

There's a certain challenge to it, he said. It takes time, patience.

"Sixty per cent of the time the weather's nice to go out and get photos.

"I like a nice dark sky background and need it when there's next-to-no moon. It also needs to coincide with my days off," he said.

It makes for an extremely long day if you spend all night taking photos and then have to go to work, he said.

So, about two days a month, he gets his kit and begins taking photos from sunset to sunrise, with the occasional nap. In one night he can end up with anywhere from 500 to 1000 shots.

It's a captivating hobby and never boring, he said.

Mr Gunn has been in Tekapo for just on 10 years. Four years ago he began to get a taste for astrophotography a specialist area of photography where stars are tracked over the sky with a long exposure.

It allows the faintest stars in the sky to be seen and, because the camera is moving with them, there is no blurring. Tekapo's sky is perfect for it.

No-one knows that better than those who work at the iconic Mt John Observatory, easily seen from the township thanks to its recognisable white dome.

The observatory's resident superintendent, Alan Gilmore, said developers, residents and the council have all made a huge effort to ensure that the six telescopes on site get a crystal clear view of the heavens.

He said while the sky is already heavily protected from the regulations that have been put in place, a starlight reserve would, in a way, make an international feature of them.

The observatory, opened in 1965, is now operated as a field station of the University of Canterbury's Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Along with UC, New Zealand's Massey, Victoria and Auckland universities and Japan's Nagoya University all have a stake in the site, which is fast becoming known around the world.

- © Fairfax NZ News