About

Astronomical Association Ursa was founded in 1921 to enlighten the finnish people on the findings of astronomy, help them to understand the universe and observe the wonders of the starry sky. Continuing with this task we nowadays have 18 000 members, we give lectures and courses, organize campaigns and events, publish books, help the news media, publish our own magazine and several webpages, hold planetarium shows and provide other services and equipment to promote the beauty of our celestial environment. During the last two years we’ve had special campaigns - ”Find the Milky Way” and ”Places of Thousand Stars” - to raise the awarness on Dark Skies and better lightning solucions.

Past Activities

In last two years Ursa has
- organized two national public campaigns to raise awareness on dark skies and bad lightning
- participated in the planning of Helsinki city’s lighting with city officials in different occasions
- given a statement on light pollution to the Transport and Communications Committee of the Parliament of Finland
- held aproximately 30 dark sky excursions
- given 10 presentations on the the topic
- advertized the Globe at Night -campaign
- monitored the night sky throuhgout the year via our own public celestial phenomenon observation database called Taivaanvahti
- created websites for finding the best dark sky places and to share information on the nocturnal phenomena and awareness on light pollution
- written 50 articles
- produced 10 videos for social media concerning the topic
- promoted the dark skies ideology to and with nature and lightning organizations such as The Finnish Association for Nature Concervation and Illuminating Engineering Society.