New campaign April 2010 Coinciding with the Global Astronomy Month (GAM) proposal of the Dark Skies International Week (from April 4th to 8th, 2010), we've planned a new IACO campaign to collaborate with the international proposal of performing activities related to the Dark Skies' preservation. We're kindly inviting you to participate by performing a star counting at the constellations of Ursa Major (UMa, The Plow, the Big Dipper), and Gemini (Gem, The Twins) during the days from April 6th to April 15th, from 21:30 - 23:00 hours (Spain's official time ). If in the last campaign you were unable to collaborate due to bad weather, now you'll have a brand new chance!. If you made it already, then you can help the campaign by taking new determinations from different places to complete the Spain Dark Skies' Pollution Map. Thank you!!
What is the IACO Project IACO? It is an research + action project about dark skies, which consist of performing measures by just counting the number of stars in a constallation.
Who are the organizers?

{{smalogos.png|http://www.astromalaga.es}}

The organizers are the Sociedad Malagueña de Astronomía (Malaga’s Astronomy Society) in collaboration with other entities and astronomical associations.

Which are their primary goals? - To bring back to consciousness to the population of the importance that has to preserve the nocturnal dark skies from our earth. - To show the negative consequences that imply the incorrect lighting systems of our streets (Example: To pay more tax money as a result of the inadequate use of power resources). - To obtain a map of Spain in which we can find the best places to observe the nocturnal skies free of light pollution, and at the same time to focus on those places where the light contamination is greater.
How can we participate? We propose you to participate in campaigns of star counting in constellations during concrete dates in 2009. By all means, the participation is totally gratuitous and free. The process is very easy and in this page we explain the steps for you to follow. We’ll provide you with the needed charts and registry parts for the observations, and also with the dates in which we are going to realise the measures.

{{files.png|}}

[[http://www.astromalaga.es/iaco/en/doku.php?id=instruciones:inicio|INSTRUCTIONS]]

In this project the voluntary and massive participation is very important; the more data we contribute with, the better and more precise will be the Spain’s Darks Skies Chart coming out from our observations.

{{star.png|}}

[[http://www.astromalaga.es/iaco/en/doku.php?id=preinscripcion:inicio|¡Register now!]] **Now you can inscribe yourself! **