I am currently writing an application to have our region near Queenstown, New Zealand, recognised as an International Dark Sky Park by Dark Sky International.  The support of the AB community had rekindled my passion for astronomy which , in turn, has led to this Dark Sky application.  So this post is my way of saying "thank you" to the community.  

The application is quite far advanced, with overwhelming support from the community within the 400 square kilometre Park region [around 150 people, all living in the central 20sq km].   

The centre of the Park area is home to one of the world's premier wine growing regions [Gibbston Pinot Noir], and increasingly popular ebike destination and the original [public] bungy jumping site at the historic bridge over the Kawarau.  Consequently, the opportunity to leverage this tourism into public engagement with the importance of dark skies and appreciation of astronomy is very significant.   I don't know for sure, but I suspect that - if the application is successful - this might be one of the closest Dark Sky Places in the world to an international airport. ZQN is only 20km distant from my observatory site [right in the centre of Park] as the flights approach.

Anyone who has flown into or out of Queenstown will know just how spectacular this flight is. Indeed this is a big part of the reason why the sky is so dark so close to a major centre.  Fortunately, the Park is ringed by 1600m-2000m high mountains [the Remarkables range to the south and the Pisa range to the North - also including the the Park region] bisected by the Kawarau river gorge through the centre.   [The Kawarau is also the Maori name for the Remarkables mountains].  These landforms provide shielding from urban population, but more crucially, make development towards and into the Park impossible.  

As part of the Park activities I have been engaged in a lot of borderline crazy nighttime activities.  This include the occasional perilous sky brightness measurement in some of the wilder areas of the Park region by e-bike. Hooning down a water eroded dirt road at night on an ebike by head torch is not the sort of thing any self-respecting 63-year old should be doing.

One of the more sedate activities is taking image horizon shots from by observatory to monitor light domes.and local light pollution.  This post is one of those shots, and illustrates well the characteristics of the region.  The image is simply a jpeg at it came out the camera.  [I was actually shooting a timelapse at the time and had switched off RAW].   

The setting Milky Way Core is lit by [from left to right], the Aurora Australis, the zodiacal light and the Queenstown light dome.  It is encouraging to note that the latter is the weakest of all three.  
My two observatory buildings are in the foreground, but rather hard to see in this image.  [Of course, I am also guilty of light polluting activity myself and I really must remember to draw my blinds in my house at night.].   But not having neighbours close by does lead to some indulgent activity.  

Every night, I consider how lucky I am to live under such a dark sky where the bulge of the Milky Way passes close to overhead and the aurora is frequently detectable [even if just on camera].  There aren't many places in the world like this.  

CS and thanks again AB

Brian