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The council is yet to decide on a location for the planetarium and observatory. (Supplied: David Hartley)<\/p>\n
While plans are still in the early stages, initial designs showcase an underground structure built into the natural landscape in a way that is respectful of dark sky regulations.<\/p>\n
Reserve founder Chris Tugwell said he hoped the move would help harness the potential of the night sky and create more tourism and employment opportunities in the region.<\/p>\n
“The weather isn’t always reliable. We want people to experience the amazing night sky, especially if they’ve come a long way from [places like] China or Japan,” he said.<\/p>\n
“If it’s cloudy, we still want to give them that experience, so a planetarium can do that; they can still see an extraordinary site.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Chris Tugwell hopes a planetarium and observatory will bring new opportunities to the region. (ABC Riverland: Anita Ward)<\/p>\n
Tracking the stars<\/p>\n
As one of seven officially accredited dark sky places<\/a> in Australia, the River Murray site is the only dark sky reserve<\/a> in the country.<\/p>\n Spanning more than 3,200 square kilometres, its core site is centred around Swan Reach Conservation Park, which regularly records a Sky Quality Meter (SQM) reading of 21.9.<\/p>\n The River Murray International Dark Sky Reserve often records a sky quality meter reading of 21.9. (Supplied: David Hartley)<\/p>\n Readings of 21 or above are considered ideal for stargazing and seeing the Milky Way, while suburban areas with light pollution where the stars are difficult to see may have a rating of 16 or 17.<\/p>\n Mr Tugwell said an observatory and planetarium could provide new research and education opportunities for universities and space researchers, with most modern telescopes offering remote access.<\/p>\n “A telescope here can be operated by somebody in New York or Paris or anywhere, and people can do their own research,” he said.<\/p>\n “We want to create a building that’s inspiring as well, so people want to come to visit the building as much as they want to see the dark sky.”<\/p>\n The proposal comes at a time when private landholders are also building state-of-the-art observatories and telescopes within the reserve, enhancing space research opportunities.<\/p>\n The River Murray International Dark Sky Reserve is centred around the Swan Reach Conservation Park. (Supplied: David Hartley)<\/p>\n Sky is the limit<\/p>\n Mid Murray Council development and community services director Gary Mavrinac said the proposal was part of a wider astrotourism strategy and would require federal, state or private investment to proceed.<\/p>\n “Part of our strategy is also to hopefully set up an independent board that could potentially become the owner of such a facility,” he said.<\/p>\n “We still have to look at ways we can protect the reserve because, ultimately, any design that we come up with has to be light-friendly, but, equally, [the] location needs to provide access to services and infrastructure.”<\/p>\n Kelly Kuhn says winter is one of the best times to see the Milky Way. (Supplied: Kelly Kuhn)<\/p>\n Local tourism operator Kelly Kuhn runs dark sky tours in the region and has guided travellers from 18 different countries.<\/p>\n She said since the reserve’s accreditation in 2019, visitors often stayed more than one night in the region to experience a “proper night sky”.<\/p>\n Ms Kuhn said a planetarium and observatory would be a big win for the Mid Murray region and state overall, as the reserve was one of the closest dark sky places to a capital city, only 90 minutes from Adelaide.<\/p>\n “A lot of people have never seen stars in their life because of light pollution and one third of the world’s population living in cities,” she said.<\/p>\n “When we witness this amazement from people and the emotion they experience and the meaningfulness of it, it’s so worthy to continue and grow.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The River Murray International Dark Sky Reserve is home to about 2,500 people and billions of captivating stars.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,145015,145012,145014,18625,145016,79163,145013,145011,128,285,1974,15759],"class_list":["post-243308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-stargazing-tours","tag-dark-sky","tag-dark-sky-tours","tag-light-pollution","tag-noctourism","tag-observatory","tag-planetarium","tag-river-murray-international-dark-sky-reserve","tag-science","tag-space","tag-stars","tag-telescope"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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