First and foremost, congratulations to the Brunei Government, especially the Brunei Climate Change Secretariat (BCCS) for issuing the Brunei Darussalam National Climate Change Policy (BNCCP) recently. We look forward to the Policy as an opportunity to explore further tactics to recover our natural surroundings.

Currently, Comet NEOWISE has generated a lot of public interest, as it is the brightest comet since 1997.

However, watching this supposedly “bright” comet – or stargazing in general – is a real challenge in the country.

Since mid-July, we have been trying to gaze the once-in-a-lifetime comet from various locations. We know exactly where to look for the photogenic comet in the evening sky, but we’ve had trouble locating it with our naked eyes due to light pollution.

According to the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) 2019’s country radiance statistics for land and terrestrial waters by Jurij Stare, Brunei Darussalam ranked 40 out of 250 countries in the highest mean radiance or the amount of light projected from cities into rural areas. This excessive glow over cities and towns is wasteful light energy coming from artificial sources emitted towards the sky.

A dark sky is becoming a shortage; we are losing access to it because of the increasing number of lighting. It is not impossible to imagine the next generations growing up without the possibility of ever seeing the Milky Way.

Globally, starry sky is a vanishing treasure; light pollution is washing away our view of the cosmos due to the rise of industrialisation and human population.

According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), light pollution is the improper use of artificial outdoor lighting, which can cause adverse effects on the environment.

Based on multiple studies by the International Dark Sky Association (IDA), light pollution not only threatens astronomy but also disrupts the ecosystem and affects human health.

Scientific evidence suggests that light pollution at night is harmful to a vast number of flora and fauna. For example, artificial lights radically alter the habits of nocturnal animals by turning night into day.

Taking steps to reduce light pollution does not equate living in the dark; rather, it is about the efficient use of light. There are effective lighting regulations around the world to draw from, and among them are the adoption of a lighting law and an awareness of the need to reduce light usage. Switching out LED light bulbs for yellow lighting also makes a tremendous different, so is the planting of more trees to reduce secondary reflections.

Around the world, there are an increasing number of dark sky parks and reserves to promote astronomy-based tourism. These parks are often located in rural areas, away from city lights, to protect locales with excellent night-time visages for future generations. They are also designed to preserve wilderness and to offer visitors a stellar celestial nightscape.

It would be good to see the government taking steps to turn some of our existing parks into dark sky reserves, especially in the Temburong District. The impacts would surely be immense. After all, being able to look at the night sky, the stars, planets and the Milky Way in their full magnificence is worth the sacrifice of not illuminating the world when the sun goes down.

By Dark Sky Rangers

A planisphere is a simple hand-held device which shows a map of which stars are visible in the night sky at any particular time. By rotating a wheel, it shows how stars move across the sky through the night, and how different constellations are visible at different times of year. On this web page, a kit which you can download and print to make your own planisphere (for Brunei Darussalam) out of paper or cardboard.

Download your planisphere

The design of a planisphere depends on the geographic location where it is to be used, since different stars are visible from different places. Download the kit for Brunei Darussalam (or any places from 0 to 10 degrees N) below:

Build your planisphere

Step 1 – Download a planisphere kit using the form above. You can either download the individual components separately, or as a single PDF file. In order to fit together, the pieces must be printed at the same scale, which is easiest achieved with the single PDF file.

Step 2– Print the star wheel and the body of the planisphere onto two separate sheets of paper, or more preferably onto thin card. If you have any transparent plastic to hand, e.g. acetate sheets for use on overhead projectors, you should print the altitude/azimuth grid onto a sheet of plastic. If you do not have any acetate to hand, don’t worry – your planisphere will work fine without it!

Step 3 – Carefully cut out the star wheel and the body of the planisphere. Also cut out the shaded grey area of the planisphere’s body, and if you have it, the grid of lines which you have printed onto transparent plastic. If you are using cardboard, you may wish to carefully score the body of the planisphere along the dotted line to make it easier to fold it along this line later.

Step 4 – The star wheel has a small circle at its center, and the planisphere’s body has a matching small circle at the bottom. Make a small hole (about 2mm across) in each. If you have a paper drill to hand, these are ideal, but otherwise you can use a compass point and enlarge the hole until it is around 2mm across by turning the point in a circular motion.

Step 5 – Slot a split-pin fastener through the middle of the star wheel, with the head of the fastener against the printed side of the star wheel. Then slot the body of the planisphere onto the same fastener, with the printed side facing the back of the fastener. Fold the fastener down to secure the two sheets of cardboard together.

Step 6 (Optional) – If you printed the altitude/azimuth grid onto a sheet of plastic, you should now stick this grid of lines over the viewing window which you cut out from the body of the planisphere.

Step 7 – Fold the body of the planisphere along the dotted line, so that the front of the star wheel shows through the window which you cut in the body.

Congratulations, your planisphere is now ready for use!

How to use your planisphere

Turn the star wheel until you find the point around its edge where today’s date is marked, and line this point up with the current time. The viewing window now shows all of the constellations that are visible in the sky.
Go outside and face north. Holding the planisphere up to the sky, the stars marked at the bottom of the viewing window should match up with those that you see in the sky in front of you.

Turn to face east or west, and rotate the planisphere so that the word “East” or “West” is at the bottom of the window. Once again, the stars at the bottom of the viewing window should match up with those that you see in the sky in front of you.
If you printed the grid of altitude and azimuth lines onto transparent plastic, these lines let you work out how high objects will appear in the sky, and in which direction. The circles are drawn at altitudes of 10, 20, 30, …, 80 degrees above the horizon. For reference, a distance of ten degrees roughly equates to a hand-span at arm’s length. The curved lines are vertical lines connecting points on the horizon up to the point immediately above your head. They are drawn in the cardinal directions S, SSE, SE, ESE, E, etc.

License/Credit
Like everything else on this website, these planisphere kits are © Dominic Ford (https://in-the-sky.org/planisphere/index.php). However, they are provided for the benefit of amateur astronomers worldwide, and you are welcome to modify and/or redistribute any of the material on this website, under the following conditions: (1) Any item that has an associated copyright text must include that unmodified text in your redistributed version, (2) You must credit me, Dominic Ford, as the original author and copyright holder, (3) You may not derive any profit from your reproduction of material on this website, unless you are a registered charity whose express aim is the advancement of astronomical science, or you have the written permission of the author.