Tourists flock to witness the unobstructed night sky from Mexico’s Joya-La Barreta park

As night fell, a frog noise filled the air in this park on the outskirts of the city of Querétaro, in central Mexico. In the sky, small stars appeared one by one, lining up into constellations.

Juan Carlos Hernández used his weight to adjust a large telescope. “Aim for me, Rich!” he yelled at his friend. Ricardo Soriano focused a green laser on a small area of ​​clouds, pointing toward where comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas will soon be visible.

Hernández and other amateur astronomers worked to certify the Joya-La Barreta Ecological Park last year as the first urban night sky space in Latin America by DarkSky International, an organization that works to educate the public about the harm of indiscriminate lighting. .

The park located about 2,600 meters (8,520 feet) above sea level on the outskirts of Querétaro provides unobstructed access to the night sky. While there are more than 200 dark sky sites around the world, Joya-La Barreta Park is only one of 11 in areas that are considered urban. However, its dark sky status is constantly threatened by increasing light pollution and urbanization.

Faded stars

Hernandez, who just turned 40, has tirelessly advocated for the night sky for more than 20 years.

President of the Astronomical Society of Querétaro and one of the founders of the astronomical tourism agency Astronite, the aerospace engineer by day has been pursuing dark areas to observe the stars for as long as he can remember.

“In 2014 you could see Omega (Centauri) in the sky, just above the city,” he said of a constellation more than 17,000 light years away. “Today it is unimaginable.”

A 2023 study that analyzed data from more than 50,000 amateur stargazers found that artificial lighting is making the night sky around the world about 10 percent brighter each year. In 2016, more than 80 percent of the world’s population lived under light-polluted skies.

Studies in Mexico show that increased urbanization and the need for city lighting in relation to safety issues have led to increased light pollution.

Fernando Ávila Castro, from the Astronomy Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said that a good analogy to explain light pollution is noise pollution.

“We constantly hear the noise of traffic on the street, but from a certain level that intensity becomes annoying, it doesn’t let you rest,” he said. “The same thing happens with light. Especially because all living beings have this internal clock, the circadian rhythm, which depends on the external values ​​of light.”

“When we go to sleep, we forget that an entire world remains active,” Castro said.

under the spotlight

The moon and stars are the source of light that guides the nocturnal activity of plants and animals and determine when animals emerge from their hiding places to find food, when plants reproduce, and when certain animal species migrate. Artificial light has boomed since the industrial revolution of the 19th century, with efficient and affordable LEDs being the latest type in widespread use.

“There’s also this whole part about biodiversity,” said Analette Casazza, president of another Querétaro astronomy association, while under the stars Saturday night. “We can hear the song of all the animals that live here (in Joya-La Barreta). Many of these pollinating animals carry out their activity at night.”

The Joya-La Barreta park is home to 123 species of vertebrates. “The real challenge we have is to involve citizens,” said María Guadalupe Espinosa de los Reyes Ayala, Secretary of the Environment of Querétaro. “When people come to a place like this and realize how much it has to offer, they see the need to protect and conserve it.”

Source link