NOVAC Meeting 062023
Channel: Northern Virginia Astronomy Club
Date: 16/06/2023

Tom’s presentation will be a report to the amateur astronomy community on the current status of IDA and the fight against growing light pollution, focusing on increasing awareness of light pollution, changes in the organization now known as DarkSky International, and how amateur astronomers can make a difference in reducing light pollution in the years ahead. 

Tom Reinert is a retired Washington, D.C. lawyer who spent most of his career representing airlines and railroads in labor and employment matters, including extensive experience translating scientific experts for lay decision-makers. He has assisted the International Dark-Sky Association on policy and legal issues for almost a decade, inspired by seeing the Andromeda Galaxy with his naked eyes from atop Kitt Peak. His prior environmental activism includes a decade fighting water pollution with a local riverkeeper organization, the South River Federation, on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Currently residing in the City of Fairfax, Virginia, he is an active member of NOVAC. He and his wife Chris travel extensively in the Western United States seeking dark sky locations, and he is a member of the Tucson Astronomical Association. He is a graduate of Harvard College (where he never took an astronomy or physics course) and the Harvard Law School (where he never took an environmental law course).