• Dark Sky and Dark Sky tourism certification schemes

    As you conclude this module, we invite you to explore a curated selection of organisations, tools, and guides that support the development of dark sky tourism. These resources offer practical insights, certification pathways, and lighting strategies to help you protect and promote the night sky in your own region or facility.

    Initiatives and programmes for Dark Sky preservation:

    • International Dark Sky Places Program: a conservation-based programme by Dark Sky International, rooted in grassroots advocacy to protect dark skies and the nocturnal environment. The program is structured around a rigorous set of guidelines to ensure that each certified place participates in actions and stewardship that improve the quality of the nightscape environment.

    • Starlight Foundation: a conservation programme whose main goals are the protection of the night sky, the cultural diffusion of the astronomy and the local sustainable economic development through astrotourism. To achieve these objectives, the international Starlight Certification system is created, aimed at promoting, worldwide, a different way of caring for and defending the sky, valuing it as a necessary resource for life and as an intangible heritage of humanity, guaranteeing the ability to enjoy the light of the stars and the development of activities based on this resource. Starlight Certification brings science and tourism together for the first time and is supported by the UNWTO and IAU.

    Practical tools you might find helpful:

    • Bortle scale is the first step and most simple way of estimating extent of light pollution in your area. You just need to take the graphic outside, place against your sky in a clear night and estimate where you fall across the scale. You might also find The interpretation of the Bortle scale helpful.

    • Light pollution map can be zoomed and used for understanding the state and combined scale of light pollution in own region, country, globally.

    • Sky quality meter (SQM) is a handheld device that can be used to measure night sky brightness in magnitudes per square arcsecond and quantifying data. This is useful tool also for those interested in gathering more specific data on the state of light pollution. It is also useful for those who feel they might be situated in a dark sky area (based on the Bortle scale/ light pollution map), and are thereby interested in applying for a dark sky certification for own facility, community, etc
    • All-sky cameras (ASC) that are specifically designed for imaging the night sky capturing phenomenon and monitoring observations such as starry nights, meteors, aurora borealis over longer periods of time (link). Live cameras can for example be useful for SME/ visitors estimating peak times the phenomenon take place. 


    For lighting guidance, explore:


    GLOW2.0 guides on Dark Sky Tourism:

    • GLOW2.0 guidebook (2023) on recommendations and strategy actions for strengthening and elevating Dark Sky Tourism in own facility or region.


◄Case examples of responsible lighting