About

The Maine Starlight Festival is “a statewide celebration to promote the protection and enjoyment of Maine’s night sky as a valuable natural resource through education, science, and the arts.” It is open to all organizations that support the statewide expansion of the Acadia Night Sky Festival (ANSF) founded by the Island Astronomy Institute in 2009 as a collaborative community presentation.

THE FOUNDING OF THE ACADIA NIGHT SKY FESTIVAL

Start-up funding for the inaugural ANSF was provided by the Maine Department of Tourism to enable planning and development of an annual celebration that would grow to include all of Downeast and Acadia Region Chambers of Commerce (DART). The DART seed grant was matched by charitable contributions donated to the Island Astronomy Institute for our project by over 50 founding contributors. An advisory planning committee chaired by the IAI included the Bar Harbor, Mount Desert, and Southwest Harbor/Tremont Chambers of Commerce as well as Acadia National Park and Friends of Acadia and many other community organizations from the four towns on Mount Desert Island.

The highlight of the Acadia Night Sky Festivals has been the telescope viewings on Cadillac Mountain’s summit, in Acadia National Park. Initially the event drew 500 people in 2009 and continued to grow to 1,000 people in 2010. For 2011, the tradition continues as two of the Maine Starlight Festival’s founding Event Partners are planning to provide telescope support for this year’s public viewing on Cadillac.

MAINE STARLIGHT FESTIVAL

EVENT AND COMMUNITY PARTNERS

BECOMING ONE IS SIMPLE AND FREE

Participation in the Maine Starlight Festival is free and open to any organization that supports the nonprofit educational mission of the Island Astronomy Institute (IAI) and its presentation of the Maine Starlight Festival (MSF) as a charitable event. (1)

Each partner provides a designated point of contact and a logo for suitable for posting on this website by sending them to info@islandastro.org

The partners have permission to use the festival's copyrighted promotional materials, including photograph and poster graphics, to promote the MSF.

EVENT PARTNERS

Our Event Partners “own” their events .

They must be an established organization with legal control of a venue in the State of Maine that agrees to host at least one Scheduled Event during the Festival.

Scheduled Events must occur on or between September 23, and October 2, 2011 and may be charged for, but must be open to the public without discrimination.

An Event Partner may raise funds for their own events, and may purchase posters from the Island Astronomy Institute to sell to raise funds for their events.

The seven astronomy clubs and their affiliated planetariums that made the statewide expansion of the Acadia Night Sky Festival into the Maine Starlight Festival a reality, are the Founding Event Partners and will be given recognition as such.

COMMUNITY PARTNERS

Community (promotional) Partners support the festival by promoting the festival and its events through their websites and community publicity.

EVENT SPONSORS

Event Sponsors provide the financial support needed for the IAI to present the special events of the festival. They will receive recognition as the sponsor of each specific event (or events) they make possible.

FESTIVAL SPONSORS

Festival Sponsors financially support the Mission of the IAI and its presentation of the Maine Starlight Festival.

_____________________

Partners and sponsors may not directly solicit funds for the Maine Starlight Festival which is an Island Astronomy Institute activity, registered with the State of Maine and service marked.

Dedicated to” “Educating Maine’s Starlit Communities, Since 2004.”

The Island Astronomy Institute is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization incorporated in and licensed by the State of Maine as a public charity “to provide facilities, resources, and programs to individual schools and the public that promote astronomy as a stimulating educational and cultural activity for people of all ages.”

Note (1) *** The Island Astronomy Institute (IAI) is presenting the Maine Starlight Festival (MSF) in furtherance of its 501(c)3 nonprofit mission. In ALL matters relating to the presentation of the Maine Starlight Festival by the IAI, the Board of Directors of the IAI will have final determination in assuring that applicable State and Federal Regulations are adhered to. ***

Revised April 28, 2011

About

The Acadia Night Sky Festival is now the Maine Starlight Festival

BERNARD, ME (Dec. 20, 2010) --- The Island Astronomy Institute is pleased to announce the inaugural Maine Starlight Festival to be held over 9 days in September of 2011. “We've reached out to the astronomy community across the state to invite them to participate by providing their own events to this major expansion of our Starlit Communities Project” stated Peter W. Lord, the Institute’s executive director. “The response we received was 100% positive, and we have secured preliminary agreements to coordinate a nine-day event from September 23 to October 2, 2011.”

To develop the Maine Starlight Festival, IAI board member and designated Club Liaison, Dwight Lanpher traveled to meet with the:

Astronomical Society of Northern New England

Kennebunk

Greater Portland Astronomical Society

Portland

Southern Maine Astronomers

Portland

Central Maine Astronomical Society

Camden

Island Astronomy Institute's - Island Astronomers

Mount Desert Island

Penobscot Valley Star Gazers

Bangor

Downeast Amateur Astronomers

Pembroke

as well as contacting the state's planetariums to discuss the coming programs.

The festival will feature lectures, movies, solar viewings, star parties, and artistic works capturing the inspiration of Maine’s night skies. A key objective of the festival is to inform communities across the state regarding the recent advances in effective management of visible sky glow/light pollution. Maine has more high quality star filled skies than any state east of the Mississippi. "Our goal is to provide the best possible information to communities so that they can make informed decisions about the future quality of Maine’s beautiful night skies" stated Mr. Lord.

In 2009 the Island Astronomy Institute acquired a state of the art night sky quality measurement system with major support from the Quimby Family Foundation. Last year, the IAI became one of the only organizations in the nation providing professional light pollution measurement & consulting services, according to Mr. Lord, who is a former aerospace engineer and a member of the Illuminating Engineering Society.

Dec. 31, 2010 marks the successful conclusion of the funded tasks of IAI’s 5 year cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Interior, National Park Service through Acadia National Park, to “Measure, Promote and Protect the quality of the night sky”. Friends of Acadia was instrumental in the support and implementation of the agreement's work. Central to the objectives of the agreement was the transfer of National Park Service pioneered technology, to the Island Astronomy Institute for its Starlit Communities Program.

Founded in 2004, the Island Astronomy Institute is a non-profit 501c 3 with a mission “to provide programs, facilities, and resources to schools, teachers and the public, that promote astronomy as a stimulating educational and cultural activity for people of all ages”.

For more information, please contact:

Peter W. Lord, Executive Director

Island Astronomy Institute

P.O. Box 240

Bernard, ME 04612

(207)244-9477

email: info@islandastro.org

Maine Starlight Festival

Press Announcement

Island Astronomy Institute P.O. Box 249 Bernard, ME 04612

info@islandastro.org