The Arrival of Perseidasthe rain of more iconic stars of the summer. This year The bad news It has to do with light pollution, since the proximity of the last full moon (last 8) and the peak of The Perseids (Today, day 12), it will make it difficult to find these flashes in heaven.
Escape light. To avoid natural light pollution we will have to wait, but avoiding artificial pollution is also in our hand. Only we have to know how and, above all, where.
Orient in the field. But navigating such a broad territory can be complicated. According to data From the National Institute of Statistics of 2022, of the 8,131 municipalities in Spain, 4,986 have less than 1,000 inhabitants. In them there are about 3% of the population.
We have various resources at our disposal to choose the ideal place to see the Perseidas, one close to our city or that is close to our summer destination. We may have an already planned trip and want to make a brief getaway from a provincial capital to a town of clear skies and free of light pollution.
Maps At our disposal there are several tools that can help us guide us and look for destinations of clear skies. For example, The mapslike him developed a few years ago by the Complutense University of Madrid and the CBAS (International Research Center of Big Data For Sustainable Development Goals); or what puts at our disposal The application LIGHT POLLUTION MAP – Dark Sky.
There is another map that we should not forget: the time map. If we want to look for the best place to see the stars, fleet or not, we will need a clear sky. The forecasts From the State Meteorology Agency (Aemet) they can be of great help in this.
Astrotourism In a time when Astrotourism has become a new (and thriving) economic sector for the “emptied Spain”, we also have at our disposal the resources that this sector gives us to guide and choose our destination. Today we can resort to specialized tourist certificates in this subsector that unites interest in space with tourism, especially rural tourism.
One of the organizations dedicated to creating certificates of this type is the Starlight Foundation. This foundation has its origin in the I Starlight International Conference, a meeting promoted by the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC) dedicated to “study -from different perspectives -, the need to protect the night sky on our planet and find paths for its enjoyment for society”, Explain the Foundation itself.
The Starlight Foundation would emerge in 2009, two years later, with objectives such as protecting the night sky, making cultural dissemination of astronomy, promoting this form of tourism, and promoting intelligent lighting and energy saving, details the foundation itself.
Some examples. Through the website of the Foundation we can find numerous examples of environments with some of the certification modalities offered by this organization. An example of this type of certification is that of People or city citywith which they count Three populations in Spain: Hellín, Navarra; Fuente-Tójar, Córdoba and Navas del Marqués, in Ávila.
Another important certification is that of Starlight tourist destinations“Visitable places, which enjoy very good qualities for the contemplation of starry skies” and protected from light pollution. This certification has assigned to very diverse placeslike Chantadam Galicia; the Monteibérico Region-Almansa Corridor, Castilla-La Mancha; the Costa da Morte, Galicia; or the Serranía de Cuenca, in Castilla-La Mancha.
The list continues, but the modalities do not end there: the Foundation also has a list of “Starlight reserves“, Star Parks,”Starlight places”, Houses and rural hotels, Starlight pathsand even Starlignt camps.
A booming business. The appearance of this type of responds to The growing importance of a booming economic sector. This is the intersection between astronomy and tourism, Astrotourism, a business in vogue but not within the reach of all corners of Spain: the heavens free of light pollution are an essential quality.
Fortunately, that is something that is not missing, neither in peninsular Spain or in places like Canary Islands and Balearic Islands. The rural areas of the Plateau and the various Motañosa mountain ranges that run through the country offer a unique opportunity, for tourists and also for those who live in some of the most forgotten regions of the country.
In Xataka | We are accustomed to seeing the Perseids looking up. So they look from space, looking down
Image | Mr. Tickle / Ralan-Map EU, Alejandro Sánchez de Miguel
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