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Why We Need to Keep Our Night Skies Dark (Video)
Kelly
Beatty has a unique perspective on the world of astronomy:
Beatty's been on the staff of Sky & Telescope magazine
for nearly 40 years as a writer and editor, including a stint heading
"Night Sky" magazine. He's also written what's been called "the
definitive guide for the armchair astronomer," and teaches astronomy
to people of all ages. (He even has an asteroid named after him.)
Besides being fascinated with the objects we can see in Earth's skies,
Beatty takes the skies themselves seriously: his Twitter handle is NightSkyGuy for a reason. We talked a few weeks ago, in
dark-skied rural Maine, about his involvement with the International Dark-Sky Association,
and why you should care about ubiquitous light pollution, even if you
don't have a deep interest in star-gazing. (And it's not just to be courteous
to your neighbors.)
A few days ago, the Washington Post ran a somewhat unconventional travel article on Tucson as a destination for skygazers, and mentioned the influence of the ISDA and the local astronomy community in creating the local ordinances limiting light pollution:
www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/seeing-stars-in-tucsons-brilliant-night-sky/2013/08/22/5bc4d34e-05e2-11e3-9259-e2aafe5a5f84_story.html
If (when) our mountains of garage reach a certain height we can just put our telescopes on top.
We need to help be able to see the galaxy. I enjoyed as a kid. Now as a photographer for Impostor Magazine shooting fashion, this makes me miss the good old days!
Sorry astrology nerds, we need light for security. That's why there is little to no crime during the day or in light saturated places like New York City or London.
I find it's best to get above 10,000 ft, as rural as possible, and preferably the first clear night after a good rain. Oh, and when it's a new moon.
Having just been out in the Elk Mountains of Colorado, southern end of the Maroon Bells, for 2 nights camping at 11k+, the night sky before the waning moon came up was phenomenal. Great view of the Milky Way!
I have yet to acquire the appropriate camera gear, or telescope, for duration shots/filming, but I'll get there eventually!
Seriously, this is what people always say when I say outdoor lighting wastes energy and causes light pollution.
It makes me so angry that I could hide in the bushes outside their house and stab them to death with a glowstick.
Places without lots of light don't have interesting culture.
I don't think that I have ever met a person who, when away from the city lights, didn't marvel at the grand display overhead. I also don't think that I have ever met a person who upon re-entering a built up area ever said, "I'm glad those twinkling stars have finely gone away."
To be even more specific the darker it has been the more people have always marveled. When you can see our galaxy edge on in all its glory then the whole experience becomes just that much better.
But for some reason we don't fight the big box stores when they blast a megawatt or two into the completely unused corners of their lots. Or the car dealerships that seem to want to keep their cars warm with the lighting; not to mention the dealers that then use the skyward spotlights to announce that their salesmen are like the gods of Olympus.
Obviously some lighting is necessary but I would love to see some requirements for intelligent lighting. Lights that take into account that there is nobody needing their services and thus they can turn off. I suspect that at 2 in the morning all but the most populated areas would be quite dark. Plus the added bonus of reduced energy costs.
How much longer before genetic engineering gives us humans the night vision many of our fellow mammals have?
First, that lighting makes you less secure.
A thief needs light to see his victim properly. A burgler needs to see how to break in. A rapist needs to see the mark.
If they had to have a torch on them to get that, they'd be a hell of a lot easier to see.
Your "statistics" are a complete washout.
it may seem so intuitively, but research is inconclusive. Bright night-time lighting produces sharp shadows that bad guys can hide in, and reduces the eye's ability to detect peripheral movements.
See http://cops.usdoj.gov/Publications/e1208-StreetLighting.pdf
and http://keysso.net/community_news/May_2003/improved_lighting_study.pdf
Does it annoy anyone else that I you can't view slashdot videos behind a firewall and you can NOT view them on a Android device. Unless Slashdot can use a friendly format for firewalls and Android devices can you please just use YouTube or at least cross-post it. It's really annoying.
Thanks!
At ~8:05 into the video they discuss the harm of bluelight from LCD screens and the importance of melatonin.
I've been using f.lux for years. It's makes working at night much more comfortable.
Let's work on noise pollution first. Modified cars, deafening noise, thumping music so loud that you hear it ten blocks away.
There are a lot of links, but none of them go to anything relevant to the post.
I could see having a country-wide holiday every year where the lights around the city would be shut off early in the evening. We have plenty of useless holidays already, why not one that actually gives city kids a chance to see the stars?
Problem solved.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Traveled to the Cherry Springs dark sky park for the first time this past weekend. Was quite awesome. Will need to go on a night when there is less moon, but what we saw before the moon came up was fantastic.
If we must have clear skies for stargazing, but want well-lit cities, why not have all lighting off for just a few days each year. Everyone can then gaze in awe at the sky, and have practicality the rest of the time.
It could become a cultural thing where everyone participates. Even a little light pollution wrecks the experience of a REALLY clear deep black sky, so I say it's all or nothing.
Why OpalCalc is the best Windows calc
The Dark Sky Meter lets you point your (newer) iPhone overhead to determine the sky magnitude. Supposed to work reasonably well (I've not used it). Their website has a map of various readings from all over.
I propose we build an observatory in North Korea.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
but want well-lit cities,
Do not want.
Criminals don't give a damn about the 'cover of darkness'. That is just the sales pitch power companies made up to sell street lighting.
Have gnu, will travel.
We can keep the skies dark, but maybe a better idea is just to work towards space tourism and an off self sustainable off-world colony. Then you could really see the stars, and help fight Extinction.
Here's the US light pollution map: http://www.jshine.net/astronomy/dark_sky/ and here's what the colours mean: http://cleardarksky.com/lp/VndbtPObNYlp.html?Mn=cameras If you haven't been to a truly dark sky (blue or darker on that map) then you really owe it to yourself to go. Just take yourself and some binoculars and look up. Mind-blowing. Unfortunately, the skies are just getting brighter the whole time. Whilst LEDs are more directional, they're also brighter and they deliver whiter light that does more harm to your dark adaptation and is harder to filter out. If LEDs were used properly, we might have a chance for getting better illumination and an improvement in light pollution. From what I've been seeing, though, LEDs are just going to make things worse.
soylentnews.org
well that depends on design. specifically how you aim the light, or whether you leave large shadows. if you just toss up a light say "good nuff", you get what you deserve.
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
where do you live?
We really need to do something about the much more serious Aurora Borealis. When those "Northern Lights" get turned on, even the brightest stars are hidden.
We need a "+1 -- nice sig" moderation.
It's been a couple of years now, but we did have a major, regional wide power outage occur here in Southern California. With the blackout starting in the late afternoon going up until who knew when, I was looking forward to a nice dark Milky Way filled night sky,.... that was until I remembered it was a full moon. Damn, of all the luck. However, the evening wasn't a total wash. Even though it was weeknight, because of the hot weather, most folks came out of their homes, many had impromptu block parties, cooking outdoors, enjoying each others company, making the best of what turned out to be a pleasant situation. As for the so called crime that supposedly occurs in these types of situations, it seems that not much of anything occurred that evening. Well,... there was the exception of a group knuckle heads that tried to break into a BevMo store using flashlights that signaled their presence on the roof of the building. Needless to say they didn't get very far in their "endeavor". Afterwards there were a few folks who talked about turning down the lights on given nights, but talk is as far as it went and the whole episode is now sadly enough forgotten.
Less blue, "softer" light is what most incandescent lights deliver. ~2700K is what consumers expect, and that's part of the reason why bone-white compact fluorescent bulbs were so unpopular. But red and amber LEDs have been around for 30 years. Do ya think that companies could produce some less blue LED bulbs that can compete with incandescent bulbs, or is just maybe cost still an issue? And how much does the color temperature of ambient light have to do with melatonin production? Or does the presence (or absence) of light 500nm alone affect melatonin? If our resident expert can't answer these questions, then he's just blowing smoke.
Is there any way to save this video off - so I can easily show it to say local city council people?