Be part of a chain of events traveling around the world in 30 nights...
THIRTY NIGHTS OF STARPEACE is a global project inspired by the idea of sharing the starry-night experience among neighboring astronomy groups across national borders, one segment of the globe at a time, on successive nights during the month of April. It's a way of bringing to focus a spirit of fellowship, communication, and a love for the high and open sky within a specific part of the world every single night.
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Here's how 30 Nights of StarPeace works...
Using geographical longitude as a reference, we've divided the earth into ten equal segments, each one spanning 36 degrees of longitude. Countries located in each of these 10 segments will have a period of three days to participate in the 30 Nights of StarPeace project. (Countries that find it impossible to stage an event in their time zone will be permitted to use another suitable time zone, to achieve the StarPeace core goal).
We will start at 180 degrees longitude (the International Dateline), and proceed westward in 3-day increments. Thus, countries located between 180 and 144 degrees east longitude will pick a night from April 1-3 for their public night of observation. Countries located between 144 and 108 degrees east will have the April 4-6 time-slot, and so forth. In this way, through the month, the starry-night experience will progress around the globe eastward in ten stages.
Following are the dates assigned for each country, moving westward from 180 degrees, the International Dateline:
|
Zones and Dates of April |
Countries |
|
Zone 1: Day 1,2,3 - Sunday to Tuesday |
East Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Pacific Islands, Russia (East) , Aleutian Islands, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Fiji, Solomon Islands. |
|
Zone 2: Day 4,5,6 - Wednesday to Friday |
Russia, East Mongolia, Vietnam, Brunei, Indonesia, Philippines, East China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, West Australia, Borneo, Taiwan. |
|
Zone 3. Day 7,8,9 - Saturday to Monday |
Russia (Central), East Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, East Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, West China, West Mongolia, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Laos, Sumatra, Maldives, Sri Lanka. |
|
Zone 4: Day 10,11,12 – Tuesday to Thursday |
Russia (West), East Ukraine, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, West Kazakhstan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Oman, Emirates, West Pakistan, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Madagascar, Cyprus, Yemen. |
|
Zone 5: Day 13,14,15 - Friday to Sunday |
Svalbard, Norway, Sweden, Finland, France, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxemburg, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Bosnia- Herzegovina, Slovak Rep., Czech Rep., Albania, Macedonia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, RUS., Belarus, West Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Greece, West Turkey, East Algeria, Niger, Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Egypt, Sudan, Gabon, Congo, African Rep., Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Sicily, Malta, Poland, Rwanda, Lesotho, Swaziland, Libya, Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, De Rep of Congo, Sao Tomes, Principe, Tunisia, Serbia. |
|
Zone 6: Day 16,17,18 - Monday to Wednesday |
East Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, West Algeria, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Mali, Senegal, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Cote D'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Togo, St. Helena, Canary Islands. |
|
Zone 7: Day 19,20,21 - Thursday to Saturday |
East Canada, West Greenland, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, Brazil, East Colombia, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Trinidad/Tobago, Grenada, Haiti/Dominican Republic, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Turks, Falkland Islands, East Canada; New Foundland, Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island. |
|
Zone 8: Day 22,23,24 - Sunday to Tuesday |
Central and East Canada, Central and East US, East Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Cuba, Chile, Colombia (west), Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Bahamas, Central and East Canada; Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nunavut Territory. |
|
Zone 9: Day 25,26,27 - Monday to Wednesday |
West US, West Mexico, Baja, West Canada; Alberta, British Columbia, Northwest Territory, Yukon Territory. |
|
Zone 10: Day 28,29,30 - Thursday to Saturday |
Alaska (US), Hawaii, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, Tahiti. |
The essential element to achieving the StarPeace goals is for your club to team up for a simultaneous activity with a group in another country within your longitudinal segment (see below under "How to find groups..."), arranging live communication between the two groups.
Guidelines for your observing nights:
- You'll need to arrange for a few binoculars and telescopes to be available for the local people for that night.
- It is better if you choose a dark spot for your observation.
- Subjects like the moon, the planets and brighter objects are good choices for observation.
- Make sure a brief description of the subject of observation is available and make an emphasis on the nature of that subject, its size, and its distance from the earth.
- A phone connection or a live internet connection and exchanging messages, between the two groups on the two sides of the border which are simultaneously observing, is the most beautiful part of this project an experience we want repeated during GAM all over the world. (See the reports from previous StarPeace events on the StarPeace web site).
- Try to organize local events in conjunction with your star party, such as: public seminars on attractive objects in the night sky with emphasis on the borderless nature of the sky.
How to begin:
Register your group at the GAM2012 website. Important: when registering, make sure to choose the "30 Nights of StarPeace" in the "Categories".
How to find groups of colleagues in a neighboring country:
Go to GAM2012 Events search webpage and select "30 Nights of StarPeace" in the "Select Category" to see all the registered 30NSP events. Look for an event from a neighboring country in your zone and contact them. If you can’t find a group to connect with, you can contact 30NSP team at [email protected]
Share your experience:
Share your event images with us during your zone period via GAM2012 Facebook or Flickr group or Tweet using #StarPeace hashtag. And follow @gam_awb @starpeace to keep updated on events around the world.
Toward a peaceful planet in a very large Universe
StarPeace, which began in 2009 as a part of the International Year of Astronomy, revolves around the idea of exploring the immensity of the universe as a reminder to how small Planet Earth is. This idea relates astronomy to peace and makes political borders and wars seem outmoded. Our goal for April 2012 is to send out the call for peace and a song of love for the boundless and borderless sky from some corner of the world each and every evening.
