Tag Archives: buiometria partecipativa

“No Borders” M’illumino di Meno, together with BuioMetria Partecipativa. Not just night sky quality monitoring.

Compositions
Bottling some Follonica air (link)

Following our Jan. 17 article presenting our track record on light and darkness engineering (link 1), and the Jan. 23 article proposing some activity hints (link 2, in Italian), here are some detailed instructions on how to participate to M’illumino di Meno (the Italian National Day of Energy Saving and Sustainable Lifestyles) together with us.

We did our homework by reviewing the list of ten actions proposed by the Caterpillar radio show crew (link). We then validated this with respect to the modus operandi we have been using for years as environmental engineers. The combination of these lists has led to four ideas which we encourage you to follow:

  • Register to M’illumino di Meno (https://www.rai.it/milluminodimeno/aderisci.html, you need to be 18+)
  • If you are participating from out of Italy: the name of the country has to be typed in English (and if you are not in a country using the Latin alphabet, the original name will automagically appear).
  • As action type indicate “altro” (else) from the drop-down list. In the description write whatever you plan to do, and add two hashtags. One for #buiometria and a second one corresponding to the activity you would like to engage in (listed below)
  • Please send a copy of the action proposal also to us (micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +393317539228).

From today until Feb. 16 we can “play”. If you reside in Tuscany (and especially between Grosseto and Pisa) we might actually be able to meet and elaborate further on these actions. In any case, we will provide a summary of our activities following Feb. 16. For more information: micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +393317539228

General rule

We will not make any videos related to these four activities. A video requires a lot more energy than a photo, and even more energy (in terms of preparation and post-production) if it has to be a cool video. So a photo might be more related to the spirit of M’illumino di Meno, rather than a 4K video. Please take pictures with the lowest possibile resolution for your device.

1. “Two birds with a stone” logistics (#bmp-tbws)

esempio di UVDS del 2017 (link)

This is an application in the energy saving context of the “extreme logistics” methods in use for years in the whereabouts of the pibinko.org network. Not recommended for IT specialists due to a potential side effect, reported below.

  1. If you have to move with your own means of transportation, find a place more or less half way, and stop in a publicly accessible space. This can be a cafe, a grocery shop, a library, etc.
  2. Take or give something following your inspiration, or establish a non-digital contact with somebody. Spend no more than 30 minutes in the process.
  3. Tell us (micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +393317539228) what happened

With this action, for any given amount of energy required for your trip, and at most an extra of 30 minutes of your time, you will have caught “two birds with a stone”. Sometimes interesting and productive things will happen if you stop where you considered rushing.

There is a sole counter-indication: if you apply this logic in a recursive manner, you will end up in a situation similar to the Zeno’s paradox, and Christopher Nolan might shoot a movie about you. E.g, between Milano and Bologna you will stop in Parma. Then, between Milano and Parma, in Casalpusterlengo. Then, between Milano and Casalpusterlengo, in Zorlesco, and so forth (but you will find more interesting situations!).

2. The metal “band” (#bmp-metal)

Renzo Metal, our mascot for this activity. Best friend forever with Mauro Tirannosauro and Jennifer the psychedelic reindeer.

This might sound like a noisy drift with our Jug Band Colline Metallifere, but it isn’t:

  • This is reserved for residents in urbanized places with less than 100.000 inhabitants.
  • Collect small pieces of metal from the street. Save them for later (the 500-gram yogurt cups are excellent micro-containers for your micro-metal waste). Operate safely.
  • Let us know what you have retrieved (micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +393317539228)

In this case, you are not necessarily saving energy, but you are not using a lot more either, while the world will be cleaner.

3. Non-online series (#bmp-nols)

In a dreary January afternoon, two cows were licking the road to nowhere…
  • Starting from Feb. 3 via our web site we will propose openings of stories. We might either re-use old articles (we have several thousands) or create new ones.
  • Instead of watching an online series (or, if you are from the old school, maybe watching basic TV shows), you can spend thirty minutes writing a longer story, starting from our opening. Please do this on a piece of paper, with a pen.
  • If you can write at least half a page, with readable handwriting, take a picture, or transcribe it, and send it to us. We can interact directly in Italian, English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish.
  • The following day we will re-publish your story on our site, and we will invite our audience to continue the story
  • All the stories will be credited to the respective authors – we reserve the right not to publish content which we do not consider acceptable for the pibinko.org network.

This way we are saving energy by spending less time in video streaming mode (the energy to send a photo or your text via mail o messaging is a lot less than the energy required to watch an online show).

4. Buiometria partecipativa “official” (#bmp-bmp)

  1. With the BuioMetria Partecipativa project we have four “sky quality meters”, allowing the measurement of night sky quality (hence, light pollution), plus a lux meter.
  2. Please review the basics of the BuioMetria Partecipativa project (if you fancy practicing some Italian see this news report: https://www.pibinko.org/tg2-costume-e-societa-2/. If not: https://www.pibinko.org/buiometria-partecipativa-2/.
  3. Starting from Feb. 2, through Feb. 17, these sensors will be available in some of our hubs in Southern Tuscany. One of them will be around Scansano, another one in the Metalliferous Hills. The other two might operate as “free riders”.
  4. If you are interested in taking some measurements, please check in at bmp@pibinko.org or +393317539228

All the measurements collected will be added to the BuioMetria Partecipativa database.

Thanks to your participation in BuioMetria Partecipativa you will be saving energy, first of all by not watching the next random episode of a random web series. During your night walk you will be able to think about what to write as a continuation of our story openings. While you go to collect your sky quality meter, you might stop in a mid-point, possibly collecting odd beer caps and other metal parts on the road. Last but not least, you will have an increased awareness on the use of artificial light and light pollution. So: the “full monty”!

Any other business (#bmp-aob)

With some folks in the network we have brainstormed about playing cards with no light, participatory “hypo-cryotherapy”, cats in the dark, and so forth. Since the “any other business” field can become very wide in our spaces, we will avoid a full listing. If you have other ideas that you would like to link to our proposal, please contact us (micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +393317539228) and we will assess them together.

Header image: a composition with parts of the M’illumino di Meno 2024 press kit with some of our logos and non-random shots from last Sunday.

BuioMetria Partecipativa will be in M’illumino di Meno 2024. Do you want to be with us?

Announcements

If you are in a hurry: if you want to collaborate with the BuioMetria Partecipativa (participatory night sky quality monitoring) for the next edition of M’illumino di Meno, please contact bmp@pibinko.org or +393317539228. We also have options for educational/professional training credits.

What is M’illumino di Meno?

The simplest thing is to quote the RAI (Italian public broadcasting company) website. RAI is the organizer of the event:

M’illumino di Meno is the Italian National Day of Energy Saving and Sustainable Lifestyles, which has been promoted by Rai Radio2 with its popular drive-time afternoon show Caterpillar since 2005. The first edition took place on February 16th 2005, when the Kyoto Protocol came into force. That’s when Caterpillar got the idea of asking Rai Radio2 listeners to turn off the lights as a statement of environmental concern: M’illumino di Meno* was born.
Year after year, M’illumino di Meno inspired Rai Radio2 listeners to take action to save the planet: practising circular economy, favoring clean mobility, switching to renewables, supporting reforestation…In 2022 it also became law: the Italian Parliament recognized February 16th as the National Day of Energy Saving and Sustainable Lifestyles.
M’illumino di Meno has now reached its 20th edition and you are all invited to join us on February 16th 2024!
Schools and universities, museums and theatres, companies, associations, public authorities: you may turn off the lights on your buildings, organize a meeting on sustainability, a recycling workshop or a tree-planting happening, hold an acoustic concert, a zero-impact show, a collective walk or bike ride to raise awareness about planet safeguarding…
Anyone, as a private person may cook an anti-waste receipt and have a candlelit dinner, walk or bike to work or to school, plant a tree in their garden… and always switch off their lights.

How does the pibinko.org Network relate to this?

A map of the BuioMetria partecipativa measurements collected by citizens since 2008

The pibinko.org network has a strong environmental engineering foundation. Its coordinator is an environmental engineer and a PhD with over 30 years of international experience. Two more environmental engineers have collaborated for years, and we interact daily with many people who have a sound perception of what energy waste is (farmers, sheperds, forestry engineers, etc.).

Since 2008, when we started the BuioMetria Partecipativa project as a citizen science initiative, we have been invited several times to give presentations at M’illumino di meno events: Rome (2011), Barberino Val d’Elsa (2012) and Monticiano (Siena) -Civitanova Marche (Macerata)-Montieri (Grosseto) (2017). In 2022 the Comune di Scansano (Grosseto) asked us to write an article about this (see link, in Italian).

Via Lattea dal Monte Labro (GR) – foto di Federico Giussani.

3) Since the BMP project based on public gatherings and hand-to-hand sensor exchange, with the various lockdowns our activities on this project had to be reduced, but were not stopped. Furthermore, even during the first lockdown, we continued to keep our participation engine alive by applying it to other fields (namely, the Participatory Lithology project).

4) Having read that this year one of the wishes of M’illumino di Meno is to trigger the networking of different subjects, and to extend the range of activities out of the Italian borders, we considered that we want to be part of the initative, accounting for our track record with the BMP project (and our non-BMP engagement activities):

4.1)  In 2010 we organized a photo contest (Between Dusk and Dawn) which had the participation of over 600 people from 52 countries (see article, in Italian). We still have the mailing list from this event (plus some other 10k direct contacts acquired in time).

Via Lattea vista dalla Rocca di Montemassi (GR) verso sud

4.2) From 2013 to 2016 we have been the Italian representatives in a European-funded project focused on the networking of research organizations on light pollution (with 42 institutions from 16 countries)

4.3) In 2018-2019, in collaboration with the National Research Council in Florence and the University of Pisa we organized an international symposium on the island of Capraia (Capraia Night Sky) and a one-day workshop in Florence for those who could not reach the island (including representatives of environmental agencies from five Italian regions) – see link1 e link2.

4.4) we have an extended network of stakeholders at the national level, including amateur astronomer associations, museums, libraries, parks, dog shelters, and other subjects we have collaborated with over the years. 

4.5) We have received international recognition for our engagement work and for the interdisciplinary approach we use, especially for our art & science stuff with the  Jug Band Colline Metallifere (“Dark Sky Defender” prize by the International Dark Sky Association – 2019 – see article) 

Lights from the San Galgano Abbey (Siena) – photo by Federico Giussani

4.6) With our Jug Band Colline Metallifere hat we have a song list dedicated to environmental issues (e.g. Fuffi the climate change expert cat, Shackleton on the so-called “ecobonus” grants in Italy, “Il Cielo è di tutti” speaking of the sky, etc). proprio per parlare del cielo ecc.) so we can add a real soundtrack to our activities.

4.7) Since May 2023 we proposed lots of activities and events, so we are now on a communication “wave” (and we have been for months planning international networking activities for 2024, in particular toward Austria in april, and with another mission north of the Alps in June) – see this link.

4.8) The headquarters of Buiometria Partecipativa are in Southern Tuscany. This is an area with a high night sky quality (as you may have seen from some of the shots above). But the main thing is that living here has helped us to develop a very educated feeling about the relationship between light and darkness.

Our call to action

Summing all of this up…as of today the link to propose initiatives for M’illumino di Meno is not yet active, but the managers of the initiative from RAI wrote yesterday that they would be glad of having BuioMetria Partecipativa in their “roster”. At this point, we are extending the invitation to you: if you would like to be part of our BuioMetria Partecipativa initiative on Feb. 16 for M’illumino di meno (and other activities which will follow going towards the warmer months) please contact bmp@pibinko.org or +393317539228.

Last but not least: if you are engineers, architects, environmental scientists or guides: there is the possibility of organizing your contribution to be qualified as educational/training credits. For more information, write to the same contact.

Closing track:

April 2020…Mauro Tirannosauro sings about his experiences with BuioMetria Partecipativa (see full article).

BuioMetria Partecipativa for the Arte Clima project at Sequerciani (Southern Tuscany), Oct. 23, 2022

Talks

On Oct. 23, 2022, the Sequerciani farmhouse in Southern Tuscany hosted the “Polyphonic Narratives” event to present the Arte Clima project. There were talks by Ruedi Gerber, Marianne Burki, Li Zhenhua, Bignia Wehrli, Catherine Leutenegger, Liao Wenfeng, Alexandre Joly, Sigfried Zilinski, Andrea Giacomelli, and Frank Hatch.

Below, a moment of the Buiometria Partecipativa activities: Mauro Tirannosauro (who proposed in the past his Seeing the Milky Way by Day single to promote BuioMetria Partecipativa and night sky quality) is here with Matteo Verniani with a lux meter in the lawns by the farmhouse, at the end of the participatory measurements.

For more information on Arte Clima: http://sequercianiarteclima.org/about/

For more information on BuioMetria Partecipativa: https://www.pibinko.org/buiometria-partecipativa-2/, or micalosapevo@pibinko.org.

BuioMetria Partecipativa published as a case study on Public Lab

In the media, International

Buiometria partecipativa (i.e. participatory night sky quality monitoring), which was started in 2008 as a citizen science project to raise awareness on light pollution, starting from the idea of two environmental engineers combined with the network of palla a 21 players as an initial base, and then grown over the years obtaining international recognition, has been recently re-published as a case study by Public Lab. This is an international association basesd in the USA with the mission of pursuing environmental justice through community science and open technology:

https://publiclab.org/notes/pibinko/04-25-2022/participatory-night-sky-quality-monitoring

To learn more about this (or to take part in our upcoming activities): micalosapevo@pibinko.org, or whatsapp +393317539228.

See also: http://www.pibinko.org/buiometria-partecipativa-2/

Monitoring Light Pollution with an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle: A Case Study Comparing RGB Images and Night Ground Brightness

Announcements

This is an article by our BuioMetria Partecipativa partner Luciano Massetti from the Institute of Bioeconomy at the National Research Council in Florence, which I am glad to share:

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/14/9/2052

For more information and booking: micalosapevo@pibinko.org or whatsapp +393317539228

Soundtrack: Il cielo è di tutti (the sky is everybody’s), Jug Band Colline Metallifere cover:

Drivers of artificial light at night variability in urban, rural and remote areas

Announcements

Luciano Massetti, from the Italian Research Council’s Institute of Bioeconomy in Florence, has published on the Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer and article analysing three years of data collected through the night sky quality meter network deployed since 2016 in Tuscany. The network currently has sensors in Sesto Fiorentino (right next to Florence), Leghorn, the San Rossore Park just West of Pisa, and on the Island of Montecristo. We are collaborating on these topics with Luciano since 2016 with our BuioMetria Partecipativa project.

Through September the full article may be downloaded from https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1bbea564SNVl5

An Italian interdisciplinary citizen observatory for the protection and promotion of night skies on year 12 of its evolution: challenges and opportunities from a Digital Earth perspective

Scientific Publications

The proceedings of the 11th Symposium of the International Society for Digital Earth, held in September 2019 in Florence, Italy, have been published. In the proceedings you also find an article about the presentation given by Andrea Giacomelli (co-authored by Elena Maggi and Luciano Massetti) on BuioMetria Partecipativa.

The article is available from this page (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/509/1/012018)

For more information on buiometria partecipativa, and services on light and darkness by pibinko.org:

Abstract

Citizen observatories are community-based systems that can complement official networks for environmental data collection. This study proposes the case of a Citizen Observatory on light pollution, developed in Tuscany since 2008. Starting from the collection of measurement by volunteers, the observatory is now composed by a heterogeneous array of subjects (two research institutions, two rural communities, a rock-blues band, and a professional photographer) operating from local to international level through its connection with the international scientific community. This collaboration produced several outcomes: light pollution monitoring campaigns, numerous outreach events for raising citizen awareness on light pollution and its consequences and for the promotion of dark sky areas, input to global level position papers and scientific publications, the organization of an international Symposium on promotion and protection of the night sky.

Mauro Tirannosauro represents the Rights of Nature at the EALAN Conference

Photos

Mauro Tirannosauro has been working since the Cretaceous on the issues of light (as in lightness) pollution and artificial light (as in lightness) at night issues.

With such a background, it was inevitable that after he joined the Participatory Lithology team in March, and found out that the same guys had been working on similar topics since 2008 with the twice-award-winning BuioMetria Partecipativa (participatory night sky quality monitoring) project, he would be sharing his insight and expertise on this matter.

Mauro T on the set of “Seeing the Milky Way by Day”

First of all, in April, Mauro gave a short talk at the University of Brescia, concerning the possibility of seeing the Milky Way by Day. This was in the context of a course on “Participatory Methods for the Design of Interdisciplinary Activities for the Protection and Promotion of the Night Sky”. In the following weeks Mauro has been reviewing extensively the work of various instutions across the globe, and verifying if/how/to what extent they related to his understanding of the story.

Yesterday Mauro managed to kick Andrea Giacomelli out of his seat attending the online edition of the 2020 Artificial Light at Night conference (see for example our report on the 2016 edition), one of the two reference international gatherings related to light (as in photons) pollution, the other being the LPTTM conference.

Following an interesting presentation by John Barentine on the possibility of applying to night skies the “Rights of Nature” paradigm, Mauro contributed to the proceedings suggesting that he, as the king of all dinosaurs, is “by nature” a representative of Nature, and will be glad to provide his services as a liaison between Nature, the Dark Sky community, light (as in lightness) designers, utility companies, electricity suppliers, etc.

Mauro T at work on the upcoming Light (as in lightness) pollution Directive.

Such statements do not come out of the blue [light]. In this respect, since the begging of the year Mauro T is also at work with a team of experts in order to draft a position paper for the Jurassic Commission, concerning the urge for a Directive on Light (as in lightness) pollution. Mauro will be glad to share this with anybody interested to contribute in the context of an inclusive and managed process (see also two of his beer-reviewed articles related to this activity: one and two).

Eventually Mauro T. also joined a couple of the breakout rooms. While Jack O’Malley presented Mauro’s activities since March (see partial photo blog in English and a more extensive version in Italian), Mauro went on the rampage, bringing a comet to the audience (as seen in the header image…photo credits Luciano Massetti), and singing along one of his favourite songs

Breakout Room Blues

Keep your eyes to the ground, and your hands up to the sky
Keep your eyes to the ground, and your hands up to the sky

We’re going down to EALAN, we’re gonna have a real good time

In the back of EALAN they’ve got a breakout room
In the back of EALAN they’ve got a breakout room

And that’s for the people who think that light is doom

What’s your role, baby role , What’s your role, baby role…what’s you’re rooooole…
all [astronomical] night long.

Starting from June 21 Mauro T. will be on a conce[r|p]t tour with the Jug Band Colline Metallifere, and surely light (as in lightness) will not miss from the show, mixed with light (as in photons) outreach and community engagement.

You can find the outline of his events on the JBCM Calendar. Due to COVID-19 mobility restrictions, the core of the tour will actually take place in one of Italy’s fairly dark (a lot of 21 mag/arcsec2) areas. This is in Southern Tuscany, where the JBCM team is based. But…here is some good news: if you just learned about Mauro T and are enticed by his proposal, there are still some slots which are flexible, and Mauro is not shy of travelling (with the Sonics in his mind). If you think Mauro Tirannosauro, and his backing band, can contribute to your work, for more information and booking: maurotrex@pibinko.org or whatsapp +393317539228.

The part of the EALAN 2020 program with the talk on Rights of Nature