Izera Dark Sky Park

The Izera Dark Sky Park was declared on 4 November 2009, at the initiative of the University of Wroclaw's astronomical institute, over some 75 square kilometres of the high peat meadows of the Jizera mountains straddling the Polish-Czech border, and it was the first such park anywhere to be created jointly by two countries - a sensible arrangement, since light does not stop at a frontier and protecting a dark sky on one side only achieves half of it. The site is a broad upland basin at around 850 metres, treeless in places because of peat bog and because the forests here were killed on a large scale in the 1980s by sulphur pollution from power stations in the surrounding region, an episode remembered as the Black Triangle - which is a grim reason for the openness that now makes the observing good. Replanting has been under way for decades. There is no observatory building on the Polish side; observing is from the meadows, reached from Jakuszyce, which is also a major cross-country skiing centre.

Highlights

• A cross-border park - the first in the world declared jointly by two countries, in 2009.
• Open peat meadows - treeless upland at around 850 metres, good for horizon-to-horizon sky.
• The Black Triangle legacy - forests killed by 1980s pollution, now being replanted.
• Jakuszyce - the access point, and a major cross-country skiing centre in winter.

When to go

September to April on moonless nights. A night, allowing for cloud.

Good to know

Cloud in the Jizera mountains is frequent - allow more than one night. There is no observatory or facility on the Polish side; you observe from the open. It is very cold at this altitude at night. A car is needed and roads can be snowbound.

Nearby

Szklarska Poreba is south-east; the Karkonosze ridge is beyond it.

Key facts