Declaring Biševo a dark sky park and popularizing science, especially astrophysics, are the main goals of the student project "Under the Stars", taking place at the University of Split.

- Following our initiative, the island of Biševo officially entered the evaluation process to be declared a dark sky park, carried out by International Dark-Sky Association - IDA. This classification is significant in that it protects the area from light pollution, runs astronomical observations and astrophysical measurements there, making it attractive for astrophotographers as well - said Vita Tičinović, project leader and 3rd-year undergraduate student of Physics at PMF Split. Along with her, seven more students participate in the project: Antea Rokov, Vana Pezelj, Petra Bilela, Dora Jurić, Josip Žunić, Maria Marić and Marko Korda.

In addition to the scientific-research aspect, involving various measurements of dark sky’s quality, later data processing and publication of results, students also worked a lot on the aspect of popularizing science.

- We organized numerous lectures, workshops, astronomical observations of the sky, and even a pub quiz in the coffee bar "Tinel" and a visual design workshop. All activities were well attended, for example, in September of 2022, there were people of all ages at the solar eclipse viewing at PMF, and we are happy that there were many fellow students - Vita Tičinović said.

The project was financed from student registration fees in the academic year 2021/2022, and PMF students want to proceed with the project and will apply for the next call.

Photo: "Under the Stars" project and Croatian Astronomical Association