›Dark Skies Tourism on the Isle of Man by Howard Parkin

The Lecture: Recently dark sky initiatives have been set up throughout the world. This lecture is based on the Howards involvement in setting up 26 Isle of Man Dark skies Discovery sites, and looks at the way that such areas have made astronomical awareness into a tourism niche and thus helped to provide valuable income to a local community.

The Speaker: Inspired by the space race in the 1960’s, Howard has been an enthusiastic astronomer since a child, and has become an accomplished and entertaining speaker on the subject throughout the world. Howard is a holder of a Teachers Certificate, an Open University BSc in astronomy and Earth sciences and the Executive Certificate of Management.

Howard has been teaching Astronomy to adult education classes since 1985. He is a founder member, former Chairman (from 2004 to 2014) and is currently the Vice Chairman and Press Officer of the IOM Astronomical Society. He is a member of the British Astronomical Association, the Society for Popular astronomy and the Society of Satellite Professionals International and the Astro Space Stamp Society. In July 2013, in recognition of his work in education and outreach, Howard was elected as a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and in 2019 was awarded an honorary BEd degree by Chester University.