Astronomer’s Gathering In Germany’s First Dark Sky Reserve Westhavelland, August 29-30

When was the last time you saw the Milky Way? Do you remember? Probably a lot of people on this planet never have seen the milky way in the night sky in their whole life, since our nights aren’t any longer dark but getting brighter and brighter by too many lights. Particularly people living inside the big cities might have seen a lot of astronomical objects only in pictures as from the Hubble Space Telescope or taken from astronauts. But you don’t need to apply to NASA if you want to know how the universe really looks like.

Approximately 70 kilometres west of Berlin lies one of Germany’s darkest regions, the “Westhavelland”. Thinly populated and with no air pollution from any industries, the region has become especially popular for professional and amateur astronomers. The Westhavelland near the river Havel and not far from the Elbe is a unique landscape. Beautiful, quiet villages like Gülpe are far away from the next motorway or famous tourist sites. Artists discovered the rural region after Germany’s reunification, and bird watchers come regularly to observe migration birds in spring and autumn.

Since a couple of years a new kind of visitors come every year for one of the biggest meetings of astronomers in Germany because this is the place where you can see the milky way. In the newly developed “Dark Sky Reserve” authorities, communities, individuals and a new found association (Sternenpark Westhavelland e.V.) work together to further improve the strong standards of a certified Dark Sky Reserve and to develop an appropriate infrastructure. It’s a place where you can enjoy the universe since special street lamps are in use and the night is again what it should be – dark.

On August 29 professional and amateur astronomers arrived for the forth time in Gülpe and made up their camp on a large sport field. They brought impressing hardware like huge telescopes, which makes you wonder how these could have ever been transported in normal cars.

This year however there was one factor involved which can’t be controlled by any nature or dark sky reserve manager – you can switch off the lights but weather cannot be controlled: After a mostly cloudy day rain arrived in the evening of August 30 from the west. Those who had been there on August 29 had been more lucky since it was one of the few better days in August this year.

Nevertheless alone the exhibition of telescopes was very impressive, and the late summer air created a magic atmosphere. Maybe it’s the combination of a natural landscape, which isn’t much different like hundreds of years ago and the big sky which makes that place so extraordinary, not to forget the excellent hospitality of the inhabitants of Gülpe and the Westhavelland region. Furthermore the gathering was extremely informative and a good occasion not only to learn about the Dark Sky Initiative but also to make new contacts.

The idea of this annual gathering isn’t about only bringing astronomers together but to introduce a larger public to astronomy. Many participants came from planetariums or public observatories.

This is the type of telescope used for watching deep sky objects like nebula.

During the day there was also plenty of time for the exchange of experiences and to study many different types of telescopes – instruments becoming more and more sophisticated.

Hopes were restored for some moments when the sun broke through the clouds but not for very long.

As in filmmaking and photography astronomy means to have a lot of patience, waiting for skies to clear up…

.. or to have fun in the meantime with some sort of special “astronomer’s sport”.

The Westhavelland became an official Dark Sky Reserve in 2014, after its discovery through experienced researcher, director of Osnabrück Planetarium and member of the German Astronomical Association (Vereinigung der Sternfreunde) Dr. Andreas Hänel in 2009 who coincidentally came through the region and was surprised when he took measurements.

During this year’s event Dr. Hänel took the audience to a fascinating journey to the Dark Sky Parks in the US during his evening presentation.

If you want to know more about the Dark Sky Initiative please look up IDA. It’s worth to mention that the idea of Dark Sky Parks and Dark Sky Reserves is not only for the benefit of researchers, astronomers and photographers but an issue for the public – light pollution not only affects animal life but has serious effects on human health.

August 16-18: More Dramatic Skies

Is this the end of summer? After Ex-hurricane Bertha ended the hot temperatures in Germany and left tourists at the Northern Sea Beaches somewhat frustrated there are reports from Germany that migration birds already packing their suitcases for their journey to the South. Another storm arrived at the shores and weather in the Berlin region is also getting colder and there are still many showers. It’s indeed a bit unusual for August to have that kind of typical autumn weather in the middle of the month. However there were more interesting clouds in the sky on Saturday and after a cold front passed over Berlin on Monday a shower cloud was illuminated in golden colors in the evening.

August 11-13, 2014: Endless Series Of Thunderstorms In Sylt And Along Danish Border After Ex-Hurricane Bertha Hit.

Strange cloud patterns in the sky heralded the arrival of “Bertha” on Saturday, August 10, in the afternoon:

Ex-hurricane Bertha, a huge low pressure system, which did severe damage in the UK and Ireland, led also to extreme weather patterns in some areas in the Northern Sea region. There were already strong showers on Saturday. On Monday, August 11, strong winds hit the coastline. Huge waves could be seen in Westerland, the main city of the island of Sylt. The red flag was up, warning tourists to not go swimming in the rough Northern Sea. An older tourist spoke to me when I visited the island on Thursday, August 12, that he had seen never before anything like this in the summer during his 13 stays on the island.

In the border region between Germany and Denmark there were further unexpected and unusual phenomena: around 9.00pm was sheet lightning to be seen from Flensburg on the Eastern side. The sheet lightning lasted very long before the storm approached the Baltic-Sea side of Schleswsig-Holstein in the night.

Through the night there was thunderstorm after thunderstorm. And that weather did not stop the following day. Like on a chain a series of thunderstorms passed over Northern Schleswig Holstein from the west to the east and appeared more like one big cluster.

On the island of Sylt August 12 was a really strange day. I arrived shortly after midday and walked to the shoreline to shoot some pictures of this extraordinary weather.

The sky looked like as being in the middle of a tropical storm. On the land side there was a closed sheet of clouds and it was dark and it rained. On the island however blue sky could be seen between towering shower and thunderstorm clouds over the sea when looking westwards. Shower after shower came down, and thunder was rumbling all the time. It felt like being in a thunderstorm which never stops. It calmed a bit down in the late afternoon but in the evening of August 12 there were still showers and thunderstorms. This weather was similar like the tropical weeks in Berlin and Eastern Germany the weeks before.

Scientists say that these weather patterns in the summer are indeed far from normal, and that extreme weather becoming more common. The Guardian reported that scientists in Potsdam published a new study like their colleagues in the UK during England’s wettest winter in 250 years. The new study says, “that since 2000, there have been an exceptional number of summer weather extremes, causing massive damage to society”. There are still no perfect explanations but the scientists observe more and more so-called “blocking patterns” with hot or wet weather zones remaining stuck over regions for weeks, the Guardian writes. Jet streams are behaving differently as before. The blocking patterns occur when meanders of the high-level jet stream slow down and this happens more frequently.
It’s too early to make predictions about the future and there might be still a factor involved that increased interest in weather phenomena lead also to more observations of extreme patterns but scientists agree that there are more extremes.
This observation is backed up insurances, police and fire brigades. Brandenburg fire brigades around Berlin had much more work over the last weeks due to an increased number of torrential rain, severe thunderstorms and storms. Insurances estimate cost of damage including autumn/winter storms over 260 Mio Euros. Recently, there is a huge and cost intensive damage in forests where lot of trees were felt by storms Landslides are also an increasing risk. A few days ago a landslide stopped traffic for hours on the A9 motorway between Berlin and Leipzig, which is very unusual in the mostly flat area. The recent scientific studies therefore explain what was speculation and sometimes more a feeling than a precise observation: For more than a decade now our weather is significantly different as in the past, unusual phenomena are more often and patterns are becoming more extreme.

Thunder Clouds In The Evening Sky – Berlin, August 2, 2014

Early August and Berlin still feels like some equatorial town in the South-American rainforest. Humidity was still high on the weekend, August 2-3 and temperatures were rising over 30 Celsius. In the evening of August 2 a thunderstorm crossed the South-West of Berlin. It didn’t do any damage but the thunderclouds were a beautiful sight.

The clouds were coming from the east and the sun was still shining in the west, which led to very interesting details and colours. The thunderstorm lasted not very long and later in the west there was some sheet-lightning.

Even the typical pine trees of the North-East regain doesn’t look very much like a rain forest the giant clouds in the evening sky might help to understand the “tropical feelings” Berliner’s are getting these days during an extraordinary hot summer.