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The Illuminati Project Pushes For Dark Skies In 2009
An anonymous reader writes "2009 is the 400th anniversary of Galileo's observations of Venus, Saturn and Jupiter published in Sidereus Nuncius ('Starry Messenger'). To improve scientific literacy, the NOAO and NASA are promoting dark-sky initiatives in 2009 to draw attention to the problem of light pollution which obscures nearly all night sky colors and objects except for the moon and a few bright stars and planets. Project Illuminati is a Flickr project by James Cann to showcase the beauty of light pollution to raise awareness and educate fellow Earthmates to lower energy consumption and become more curious about our place in the universe."
getting out into the middle of nowhere makes. On a clear night out in Yellowstone, for example, there are so many stars in the sky it can be hard to find constellations you're used to seeing in the city. Really beautiful.
People need to get past the idea that you have to try to illuminate every shadow. All you're doing is ruining people's night vision, and thus making the remaining shadows "darker".
"99 dead duelists of Dios on the wall. 99 dead duelists of Dios! Take one's ring, pass it around..."
Tucson has been working on this for years to protect various local observatories. It's also the home to the international dark sky association: http://www.darksky.org/mc/page.do
They have a city ordinance making it illegal to have a light shining upwards - all lights (street lights, security lights, porch lights, etc) have to have a reflector. It's apparently pretty easy to police - bare bulbs are highly visible from the police helicopter.
Seems to be kinda silly to spend your lighting budget trying to illuminate the universe anyway.
And the worms ate into his brain.
Flagstaff, AZ, home to the Lowell Observatory has had a black sky ordinance on the books for 50 years now and it works wonders.
There is plenty of lighting for the town and yet you can see stars like you should be able to see stars.
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
correct. The pupil is effected (affected? - who gives a fsck) by the blue scale. The use of a red light for night time map reading etc allows the pupil to remain open and there is no visibility lost when the light is switched off.
Try for yourself. Get a torch and a red filter and a blue filter. Go out at night and let your eyes get used to the darkness. Shine the torch through the red filter such that you cannot see any white lite. You will be able to see quite well after you switch the torch off. Now try with the blue filter. Once you switch the torch off you will have to wait until your eyes adjust to the darkness again.
it is only after a long journey that you know the strength of the horse.
Here's a shot I took the other night of the sky here in the south east of Africa. Sorry it's small (internet here ain't cheap, hehe) but the clouds and trees show that those are real stars in the sky not just sensor noise. enjoy, http://edified.org/external/africa-stars.jpg
Blue is great until you get fog. The wavelength of blue light is about the same size as water, so is highly dispersed in foggy conditions. There's a reason why sodium-discharge lamps are so popular in coastal California.
I live in England, there are very few places, if any, where light pollution does not affect the night sky.
The most remote places I have been to are Pembrook (South Wales) and the lake district. I've seen light pollution, even though it is slight, in both of these places.
In the last 10 or so years the level of light pollution where I live (the edge of the peak district) has noticable increased. I used to be able to make out the milky way very easily at night, but can't see it at all any more. I don't think this is because my eyesight is degrading.
Not everyone has a 'nowhere' to drive to.