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Report from the Dark Sky Office (1Mar93) (from KPNO, NOAO Newsletter No. 33, 1 March 1993) An update on the recent activities of the Dark Sky Office follows. 1. There is a revised Outdoor Lighting Code now up for consideration by the Tucson City Council and the Pima County Board of Supervisors. The existing codes have been reviewed in detail by the joint Outdoor Lighting Code Committee, and revisions to take into account changing technology and to improve the clarity and completeness of the codes have been made. We expect no difficulty in passage. 2. New and improved low pressure sodium fixtures have been put into use on city streets, and they will be extensively used for most future street lighting in the city. 3. There has been considerable media coverage of light pollution over the last six months, with articles appearing in many newspapers and magazines, including many of general or environmental interest. An Associated Press release ran in many national and international newspapers. All this publicity for the cause is a real plus. 4. The tax-exempt, non-profit organization active in these issues, the International Dark-Sky Association, continues to grow in size and impact. It now has members from 49 states and 48 other countries, with about 1100 individual members and 120 organizational members. Quite a few of the members are amateur astronomers and those interested in the nighttime environment, but many are lighting engineers and companies. In fact, there are more lighting engineers as members than there are professional astronomers. There have been 59 information sheets produced, and members receive a regular newsletter. 5. Both IDA and NOAO (Dave Crawford) field many, many requests for information. If you have questions or material to provide, please contact me at: dcrawford@noao.edu or 602-325-9346. Dave Crawford
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