STELLA CAELUM – A celebration of our Northern Periphery and Arctic heritage

Night Sky heritage – A look from Space and the North

The STELLA CAELUM event took place in Utsjoki during the second week of October, attracting participants from northernmost Lapland, Northern Norway and other European regions to listen and discuss about values and benefits from darkness for science, health and tourism. The event turned the map upside down offering participants a different look at the world from space and from the North. Stella is derived from Latin word meaning “star”. Caelum, also a Latin word, means “sky” or “heaven”, hence Stella Caelum “Starry Sky” or “Stellar heaven”. 

The Mayor of Utsjoki Päivi Kontio opened the event with a welcome speech, followed by a dive into the wonders of the northern skies, with talks covering topics on the future possibilities of embracing the uniqueness of the dark season and nighttime. Speakers included Finnish professional astronomer and writer – professor emeritus Esko Valtaoja, PhD Esa Turunen of Arctic Academy, PhD Jyrki Manninen of Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory, PhD and entrepreneur Olli Reijonen of Syrjävaara Goodnight Oy, research coordinator Emma Bruus at Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory, director of economic development at Utsjoki Municipality Tanja Lepistö, and researcher Marius Wang from The Arctic University of Norway. 

These experts and professionals in the fields of astronomy, space science, Northern Lights tourism, regional and economic development offered exceptional insights about ways we could utilise and experience the uniqueness of dark time as both a reliable partner to businesses (economic development), and a restorative resource for people (night sky heritage conservation).  The participants also got the chance to test GLOW2.0 Virtual Planetarium developed by the project and engage in a panel discussion with tourism enterprises from Norway – Bjørnfjell Mountain Lodge, and Finnish Lapland region Kakslauttanen and Visit Inari. The event was hosted by science journalist Jari Mäkinen.The event and themes also attracted wide media coverage, some of which you can access together with the event insights from here: Link to Article and materials.