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Atlas of Worldwide Light Pollution
mgarraha writes: "Researchers at the University of Padua and NOAA have analyzed DMSP data to produce a new atlas
of night sky brightness due to artificial lighting. Previous maps only showed the distribution of light sources. Their
paper
will appear in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Here is an AP article."
I couldn't agree with you more. When I was a young teen, I lived in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Because I had such and interest in astronomy, they allowed me purchase my first telescope, a 4 1/4 inch reflector from Edmund Scientific. I could go out into my back yard on almost any given night and have a clear sky (weather permitting, of course) and see most of the stellar sights. It was amazing and awe inspiring. We'd go to farmlands of Lancaster and it was just like you could fall off the Earth.
Today, I live even further in the "country" and can see almost nothing. Yes, there are a few nights when I can see the stars, those are the nights of power failures. It's very sad. As real-estate developers continue to build larger, more luxurious homes with overzealous lighting in already heavily populated areas or buy out the precious open space, the situation just keeps getting worse.
In the 60's and 70's, the sky was still pretty amazing. No wonder we wanted to go into space. Now, we look up and it's not quite so awe inspiring...sorta like a polluted beach or something. "Who wants to go there???" we ask.
People wonder what the big fuss is all about. But, as the previous poster stated, it truly is a humbling experience to look up and see the heavens as our forefathers did hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago.
In some respects, the Californian's are lucky. With the rolling blackouts, maybe they'll get a glimpse to see what we are all missing.
I went sailing round Britain a couple of years ago, even a few miles off shore (about 10), was just amazing.
Here in the UK there is almost nowhere devoid of light (desert light), as you are never really more then 20 miles from a town. Most of the land (especially here in the north west) is disgustingly light, you're lucky to see venus and mars, let alone anthing bigger. I go to Exeter Uni and I was amazed the first night i was there walking back from the pub - even a mile out of town, on a large campus, you could see so much more then near Manchester.
But nothing will beat the boat.
Regarding the map - what is the lights in the North Sea? Oil Rigs?
Ya, it kind of annoyed me that the northern areas of canada were cut off. They just barely got edmonton on there. It would have been neat to see some of the northern towns in the yukon and the territories (and for you americans, Alaska). There is one "earth at night" image that a different poster (jmorzins) linked to, Here, that shows all the way up to the north pole. It is interesting since every little town and research site up there seems to have at least one light turned on.
According to this article, an SUV owner spends an extra $100-$250 per month compared to a regular car in just operating costs on top of the extra cost of the vehicle. It would be better to put this in a retirement fund. Considering that 85% of these vehicles are never used for the conditions they are designed for, that really is a waste. All for ego.
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
The maps's a bit wierd. What's all that down near the Falkland islands? It's almost all sea down there?
;)
Also, look near south west Kashmir, it reckons the area is as light as much of Europe.
Nigeria looks pretty light near the coast too - spending all that oil money eh?
It's interesting to pick out places - Cairo and the Nile valley in Egypt. Around Bangkok and further south to Kuala Lump and Singapore. Also the sultan in Brunei is leaving his lights on a bit too much
Tibet must be the darkest place on earth I reckon. Then again, maybe Somalia.
Jamie
See also the sea of Japan. The Chernobyl area in Russia also seems pretty bright. Hmmmm.
I think an atlas of the worldwide pollution would be much more interesting. Especially in a time when the Kyoto Treaty is dangling. Pretor
Friend of mine worked for a summer camp that took troubled inner city kids. One of them was having a rough night so they went out to just sit on the end of the dock in the middle of the night. He could hear the kid was quietly crying, so after a bit he said "hey man, what are you thinking?" "I never knew there were so many stars.."
> another liberal myth
Well, I'm not a liberal (as my views -- not expressed here in detail -- on gun control and other issues would attest. But there's a bit off the human condition, the romance of the skies, that is destroyed by light polution. A story from my childhood:
I grew up on a farm in an area that, on the current referenced map, is light green. In the 1950's the area, like so many others, would have been black (had the technology for such an image existed).
It was corn harvest time in the midwest, a cold November night. I, a boy of about eight years, was holding the flashlight to help my father back up a wagon-load of corn to the elevator (to the urban dwellers, the term 'elevator' also refers to a sort of conveyor belt thing that lifts the grain to the top of the storage bin).
But boys will be boys (or, children, as it were -- no need to discriminate here), and the onyx sky overhead, embedded with diamonds, beckoned.
I knew at the time that the stars were far away, far farther that I could, at that time or any time within my reach, hope to travel. But I knew I could go there in spirit. And I knew a way...
I raised the flashlight and aimed it at a promising star; I then moved the beam outward in a spiral path to cover as much of the cosmos as possible. This gesture, I knew, would not redound to me in any way during this life.
But I knew then, and still know, that this beam -- four decades now on its illimitable tour -- still travels as _my_ message to other worlds.
And this, apart from astronomical considerations, is the magic that light polution destroys.
Yes. My experience:
I grew up on a farm in an area that, on the current referenced map, is light green. In the 1950's the area, like so many others, would have been black (had the technology for such an image existed).
It was corn harvest time in the midwest, a cold November night. I, a boy of about eight years, was holding the flashlight to help my father back up a wagon-load of corn to the elevator (to the urban dwellers, the term 'elevator' also refers to a sort of conveyor belt thing that lifts the grain to the top of the storage bin).
But boys will be boys (or, children, as it were -- no need to discriminate here), and the onyx sky overhead, embedded with diamonds, beckoned.
I knew at the time that the stars were far away, far farther that I could, at that time or any time within my reach, hope to travel. But I knew I could go there in spirit. And I knew a way...
I raised the flashlight and aimed it at a promising star; I then moved the beam outward in a spiral path to cover as much of the cosmos as possible. This gesture, I knew, would not redound to me in any way during this life.
But I knew then, and still know, that this beam -- four decades now on its illimitable tour -- still travels as _my_ message to other worlds.
And this, apart from astronomical considerations, is the magic that light polution destroys.