The purpose and scope of the Workshop are to propose to COPUOS STSC a set of recommendations to protect the science of astronomy. If adopted by the UN, these recommendations will be acted upon either by local governments or agreed to at the international level. In preparing the online workshop “Dark and Quiet Skies for Science and Society”, the SOC and Working Groups considered sources of interference that can affect or endanger the visibility of the pristine night sky in all wavelength regimes, and the report identifies measures that will avoid or mitigate negative impacts. Care is being taken to propose recommendations that are both technically and economically feasible and do not affect the main purpose of the potential source of interference, e.g., safety-driven urban illumination, space-based network connectivity, and the like.
The online workshop will take place on Zoom from 15:00 UTC to 17:00 UTC (=17:00 to 19:00 Central European Summer Time) on 5-9 October, 2020. It will be recorded for later viewing. The workshop will present initial findings from 5 working groups of the Scientific Organising Committee (SOC), for discussion. Within the two-hour period, presentations will first be made by one of the Working Groups and open discussion will follow. Each day of the workshop focuses on a different topic
The Workshop on “Dark and Quiet Skies for Science and Society” is organised by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) with support from NSF’s NOIRLab.