{"id":675766,"date":"2026-05-17T01:05:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T01:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/675766\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T01:05:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T01:05:18","slug":"tasmanian-town-of-ross-working-to-be-accredited-by-dark-sky-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/675766\/","title":{"rendered":"Tasmanian town of Ross working to be accredited by Dark Sky International"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marcus Rodrigues’s fascination with the night sky started when he was just a teenager.<\/p>\n

“It was 1973 and Comet Kohoutek passed over Sydney,” Mr Rodrigues said.<\/p>\n

“I got my dad to buy me a little telescope \u2014 it was just a toy \u2014 but it got me hooked.”\"A<\/p>\n

Marcus Rodrigues has been fascinated with space since he was a teenager. (ABC News: Morgan Timms)<\/p>\n

After spending his working life in Sydney \u2014 where the city’s glow and smog blows out the night sky \u2014 Mr Rodrigues was desperate to retire somewhere he could photograph the night sky in its full spectacle.<\/p>\n

He landed on Ross, in Tasmania’s midlands, a 400-person town known for the clarity of its night sky.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been lucky enough to go around Australia over the decades with my portable telescope, and the skies down here are by far the best in Australia that I’ve come across,” Mr Rodrigues said.<\/p>\n

“Especially the midlands and Ross \u2014 we’re far enough away from Launceston and Hobart to not get city lights.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Marcus Rodrigues moved from Sydney to Ross to pursue his dream of building a backyard observatory. (ABC News: Morgan Timms)<\/p>\n

Ross residents are working to preserve the darkness of the town’s night sky by getting it ‘dark sky accredited’ with Dark Sky International.<\/p>\n

The accreditation would make Ross the first place in Tasmania and just the third in Australia to have the darkness of its night sky formally accredited.<\/p>\n

Project driven by volunteers<\/p>\n

Ross resident and Local District Committee chair Nigel Davies is driving the project \u2014 he said getting the accreditation was no easy feat and was largely driven by volunteers like himself.<\/p>\n

“First of all, we have to show that the area is truly dark,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Absolute black registers a score of 22. Ross scores 21 on this metre, so almost total darkness.”\"A<\/p>\n

Nigel Davies uses a sky quality meter to measure the darkness level of Ross’ night sky. (ABC News: Morgan Timms)<\/p>\n

Mr Davies said the group also needed to demonstrate wide-reaching support for the project.<\/p>\n

“We have 99 per cent support from the local community [and] all the businesses have signed letters of support,” he said.<\/p>\n

Australia’s first ‘dark-sky’ lodging<\/a><\/p>\n

A lodging in New South Wales has become the first to be internationally recognised as “dark-sky” accommodation, where visitors can take in the wonders of a clear night sky with little light pollution.<\/p>\n

With the community on board, Mr Davies said the next, and maybe most significant, hurdle was making the areas’ external lights compliant with Dark Sky International’s standards.<\/p>\n

“All the street lamps, and there are 54 in Ross, have to be shielded so that light is only emitted downwards and none is wasted upwards,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The colour temperature of the lights also has to be in the warmer yellow part of the spectrum, which is a softer light.”<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

In March, the Northern Midlands Council agreed to the accreditor’s conditions and legislated a lighting management plan.<\/p>\n

Mr Davies said while having the council on board was crucial, sourcing funding was a whole other challenge.<\/p>\n

“We need council and TasNetworks, who own the lights, to sign off on an agreement to replace all the non-compliant lights \u2026 within five years of Ross achieving accreditation,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s a substantial project that typically takes two to three years to achieve.”\"A<\/p>\n

Nigel Davies says the project has 99 per cent support from the local community. (Facebook: The Ross Astronomical Society)<\/p>\n

Win-win for local councils<\/p>\n

Mr Davies has proposed a pilot scheme between Tasmania’s energy distributor and his local council.<\/p>\n

“I put forward a proposal to TasNetworks to replace all the lights in Ross with the new smart lights that are dark sky friendly,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’ll be asking that the lights are dimmed from 10 o’clock at night to midnight and switched off from midnight to dawn.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ross may soon have dark-sky-friendly street lights. (ABC News: Morgan Timms)<\/p>\n

Ross would become the first town in Tasmania to have these types of lights.<\/p>\n

Mr Davies said not only would they make Ross comply with Dark Sky International’s lighting requirements, but they would also generate big savings in power and maintenance costs.<\/p>\n

Outback town looks to the night sky to broaden tourism appeal<\/a><\/p>\n

Would people travel to see the Milky Way like they do for the Great Barrier Reef? This tiny town thinks dark sky tourism is the next big thing.<\/p>\n

Mr Davies said it will also boost tourism.<\/p>\n

“It will put Ross more firmly on the map,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I think getting Ross accredited will only increase overnight visitation because people will want to stay and see the night sky.<\/p>\n

“People wish to reconnect with the wonder, the awe of being able to see the Milky Way and the night sky and Tasmania’s a really great fit for that.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Southern Cross and the Milky Way, as seen from Ross. (Supplied: Scott Bennett)<\/p>\n

Growing astronomical community<\/p>\n

For the last 11 years, Mr Rodrigues has had a telescope permanently set up in his backyard, which he uses to take super-detailed images of the night sky.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

“I look at new things \u2026 new supernovas … I’m forever on the hunt to discover something,” Mr Rodrigues said.<\/p>\n

“And this place is perfect for me, it’s quiet, has a lot of wind to blow away the dust and particles and a great view of the southern sky.”<\/p>\n

Mr Rodrigues said he didn’t know about the budding astronomical community when he moved more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n

“When I first came here, I thought I was the only one, that was prior to meeting Scott,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Scott Bennett and Marcus Rodrigues share a love of the night sky. (ABC News: Morgan Timms)<\/p>\n

Four years earlier, visual artist Scott Bennett relocated to Ross after becoming infatuated with the night sky.<\/p>\n

“I was asked to come as an artist and do an artist residency, live in a little cottage which I hadn’t seen, and all I had to do was paint a picture for them, but I never left,” Mr Bennett said.<\/p>\n

“I started trying to capture the Aurora.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Scott Bennett visited Ross for an artist residency and never left. (Supplied: Scott Bennett)<\/p>\n

For the past 15 years, Mr Bennett has been painting and photographing Ross’ night sky.<\/p>\n

Scott’s tips for photographing the night sky using your phoneProp your phone up or use a tripod to avoid unwanted movementSwitch phone’s camera to manual mode (an app may be required)Once in manual mode, turn off auto focusSet shutter speed to between 10\u201330 secondsSet the ISO to lowest possible settingUse your phone camera’s shutter delay timer<\/p>\n

He said views of the Southern Cross, two Pointer Stars, the Milky Way, and the Magellanic Clouds were near-perfect.<\/p>\n

“It’s just a magic part of the sky, which is very visible to us being so far south,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Bennett said the community of stargazers has only continued to grow since he moved, with a large number getting behind the dark sky accreditation.<\/p>\n

Ross could lead the way<\/p>\n

This is not the first time a group has tried to get a patch of Tasmanian sky accredited.<\/p>\n

Tasmania Dark Sky president Landon Bannister had been advocating for years to protect the dark skies of Tasmania’s south-west wilderness area.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

President of Dark Sky Tasmania Landon Bannister is fighting light pollution. (ABC News: Maren Preuss)<\/p>\n

Push to ease up on lights, to protect night skies<\/a><\/p>\n

After working as a lighting consultant for two decades, Landon Bannister\u00a0has become the president of an organisation fighting for the preservation of starry skies \u2014 and, somewhat ironically, arguing for cutting back on illumination.<\/p>\n

Mr Bannister said the area’s night sky easily meets the darkness requirements, but a lack of available funding has delayed the accreditation.<\/p>\n

He believes Tasmania has the potential to have countless dark sky-accredited communities, and Ross could lead the way.<\/p>\n

“It’s a huge thing because it just it will literally give us a road map of what can be done,” Mr Bannister said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marcus Rodrigues’s fascination with the night sky started when he was just a teenager. “It was 1973 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[123398,64,63,145012,35062,108556,128,285,1974,2801,325792,6771],"class_list":["post-675766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-accreditation","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dark-sky","tag-night","tag-ross","tag-science","tag-space","tag-stars","tag-tasmania","tag-tassie","tag-tourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675766","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=675766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}