We are entering the time of year when dusk falls increasingly earlier and the full benefits of being an International Dark Sky Reserve become apparent. It is also a good time to see if your lights are Dark Sky Friendly. If you’d like to check them, simply follow our Home Lighting Assessment flowchart.
If you find they are not compatible with Dark Sky Reserve standards, we will gladly offer you good quality replacement light fittings that do meet Dark Sky Friendly criteria. These are free to anyone living in Cranborne Chase National Landscape who wishes to replace non-compliant lighting; your only commitment is to install them correctly and to send us ‘before and after’ photographs. We also offer free motion detectors if required.
We often find that floodlights are incorrectly mounted, and all that is necessary is to adjust their angle so that no light is emitted above or near the horizontal.
We get an increasing number of enquiries from people who want to visit especially because of our Dark Sky Reserve status; they invariably ask us for recommendations of places to stay or visit that are Dark Sky Friendly. For this reason, we offer a 3-tier accreditation to businesses and other organisations that have responsible lighting.
If you would like your business to be considered, either for light fittings or for accreditation, just get in touch with our Dark Sky Adviser, Steve Tonkin, at stevetonkin@cranbornechase.org.uk.