Sir – I would be very grateful if your readers could spend five minutes participating in an inspiring cosmic survey.
Bill Bryson, my predecessor as President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), once said, “Glance at the night sky and what you see is history, and lots of it. Our faithful companion the North Star appears not as it is now, but as it was when its light left it sometime during the early 14th century.”
If watching the stars is the closest we can get to time travel, then a campaign to raise our sights to what is above us and to combat the light pollution that increasingly robs us of our celestial views (and spoils the environment below) is all the more vital. Your readers can really help this campaign by counting the number of stars visible with the naked eye in the constellation of Orion, and then posting the results on the CPRE website (where they also have the chance to win a wonderful telescope).
We will plot the data on a map and use the results to campaign for better and more cost- effective lighting that will allow all of us to enjoy the night sky, one of our greatest natural wonders. Star Count 2013 is February 8-16 and more detail is at www.cpre.org.uk Thank you.
Sir Andrew Motion, President, Campaign to Protect Rural England
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