The council wants the quality of the night sky in South Kerry to be measured.
Kerry County Council (KCC) has published a call for tenders for businesses that can carry out this work at the Kerry International Dark Sky Reserve.
The tender closing date is this Thursday, 28 May.
Kerry International Dark Sky Reserve is one of only three gold-standard reserves on the planet, alongside the Grand Canyon in the USA and desert plains in Africa.
A gold-standard dark sky reserve means that, on clear nights, the Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy, constellations, and many more astronomical features can be seen with the naked eye compared to other areas.
Kerry International Dark Sky Reserve is valuable to Kerry for both environmental protection and tourism.
The council is responsible for protecting it by monitoring light pollution and improving public access to information.
Therefore, Kerry County Council is seeking tenders to design, operate and maintain dark sky monitoring tools, including up to 25 sky quality meters, and to develop an online dashboard to collect, manage, and display the data.
The system will operate across the core and buffer zones of the Kerry International Dark Sky Reserve and other areas in the county
The system must run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and collect data on sky quality, weather and cloud cover, lunar phase, artificial light at night (ALAN), and light pollution mapping.
The dashboard will be publicly accessible, and include live and historical data and community data submission tools.
The initial contract term will be three years, with the option to extend by two further 12-month periods, subject to performance and budget availability.
The indicative budget for the contract is approximately €50,000.
