Meet the Dark Skies Expert - Kevin Manning

At CPRE Hampshire we have a number of volunteers who are experts in their field. Kevin Manning joined CPRE Hampshire as a member in 2018 and is now our Dark Skies Adviser. 

“I was born and brought up in the countryside so always had an appreciation of it. When I semi-retired from a career as a chartered physicist I had a bit more time on my hands and it was a natural step to join a countryside charity. I realised my scientific background and interests in astronomy could be useful to the CPRE Dark Night Skies campaign.

My role as a volunteer at CPRE Hampshire involves reviewing external lighting proposals for planning applications to ensure they are not contributing to light pollution, particularly in sensitive areas.

There are a few basic principles to installing responsible outdoor lighting and most people, when they understand its’ effects, are more than happy to put in lighting that works better for the environment around them. Just by informing and educating people about lighting we could reduce light pollution by significant amounts. Put very simply:

CPRE has some excellent guides and resources and we are keen to spread the word to make sure the Dark Night Skies of Hampshire are there for people and wildlife to enjoy.”

Towards a Dark Sky Standard is a lighting guide, published by the UK Dark Skies Partnership, to protect night skies with advice regarding domestic and non-domestic lighting.

Take a look at our own CPRE Hampshire Dark Skies pages for all the latest news and updates.

More about Kevin

Kevin has over forty years experience of optical system design and analysis. This involves designing and making telescopes, camera lens, viewers for allowing prison guards to see through 18 inch walls, a sniper detection system, many lenses for special reasons and, for example, precision systems for measurement of optical telescopes. Analysis involves finding out how the optical systems work and how well the optics will perform in use. For example, how well a telescope will see an object.

Kevin’s interest in astronomy was first piqued in the mid 1960’s. His parents owned a bungalow in Birdham, West Sussex, where the nights were dark and clear. The Milky-way galaxy could be easily seen and would cast a faint shadow. Kevin explains:

“I liked the calm and beauty that I saw and I had an “Observers Guide to Astronomy” book given to me, which I still have although it is very worn from use. A few years, later Patrick Moore moved to Selsey, which is not far from Birdham, and I was further encouraged by Patrick to observe the Moon and to join the British Astronomical Association (BAA).

By this time, I had joined a new Astronomy Society in Chichester called “South Downs Astronomical Society” (SDAS) and I became the Chichester High School’s representative for the holder of the keys for the SDAS Observatory on The Trundle, which is a high hill north of Chichester. I later became a committee member and Chairman for the SDAS, the Lunar observers specialist, an astro-photographer with real film specialist, and telescope designer, building my own reflecting ’scope.

I have kept my interest in astronomy to this day and I now use digital cameras, several types of telescope and precision tracking mounts for long exposures, greater than one minute. All the space missions have kept my interest as well.

I became interested in Light Pollution from the early 1980’s as astronomers were seeing the increase in light stopping them from viewing the stellar objects as they once saw them. Recently, I have researched light pollution into other areas such as the ecology of the New Forest and other scientific areas.”