We invite you to participate in the hybrid (in-person and online) conference on “Dark and Quiet Skies for Science and Society”, organized by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), the International Astronomical Union (IAU), and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), at the request of COPUOS. It will be held between 8:00 to 16:00 UTC on October 3-7, 2021. Most of the conference will also be recorded for later viewing and commenting by people outside the time zones. The hybrid conference will present findings from three Working Groups of the Scientific Organizing Committee (SOC), for discussion. Within the first few hours during each conference day, presentations will first be made by one of the Working Groups and open discussion and contributed papers will follow. Based on feedback received from the conference, the report will be reviewed and finalized after the conference and presented at the COPUOS Scientific and Technical Sub-Committee (COPUOS STSC) meeting in February 2022.

The online workshop in 2020 was a huge success, with more than 950 registered participants who actively contributed to reviewing a comprehensive report, prepared in draft form by 85 international experts and distributed in advance to all participants. The Report addresses 5 topics: dark sky oases, optical astronomy, impact of artificial light on the bio-environment, satellite constellations, and radio astronomy. For each topic, a number of recommendations have been proposed aimed at mitigating the impact of the various causes of interference.

Starting from the thorough analysis of the report, the current conference will now focus on the implementation of its recommendations, in particular identifying both the technical and political actions needed for their effective realization, as well as which stakeholders and partners would need to collaborate to implement a satisfactory solution for the preservation of dark and quiet skies. The program of the conference includes invited talks as well as contributed papers selected through a call for abstracts. Following the very positive experience of the online workshop, three Working Groups on the main sources of interference (Artificial Light At Night, Satellite Constellations, and Radio Interference) will prepare critical analyses of the various implementation processes that will be presented at the conference. We hope you will join us and enter into the discussions that will figure into the report. Registration for the conference (no fee) is available here.