| World Light Pollution |
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Light pollution images from around the world The images below were taken by photographers from all over the world. I sent out the task for volunteers to capture the light pollution from any major city. To try to keep an even playing field, the following capture parameters were stipulated: I did allow a couple of compromises, as some very kind offers came in from people who could not quite comply to one or two factors. That being said, it is still closely controlled to keep the results comparable. Canon EOS 400D (Rebel) DSLR
18-55mm Lens Tripod mounted (no Tracking) Full aperture (F/3.5) Full zoom out (18mm) ISO 800 30 Seconds No stacking or photo enhancing NO MOON! NO CLOUDS! Photograph the greatest concentration of stars visible from location as seen from within a 30 KM radius of the city centre.
More photos are due in soon so keep watching! If you own a Canon EOS 400D Digital SLR (or Rebel XTI) camera and would like to contribute an image from your city, follow the capture instructions above and send them to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it The pictures below should help you to get the settings and setup right.
Copyright ASIGN Observatory 2008 This article and images are not to be used without permission Dark Skies-Your key to a larger world.
It was a long awaited trip to the snow for my son and I. At 4am on the highway in between my home city of Canberra and our destination, we decided to pull over on the side of the road for a quick break. There were no houses for miles and the highway was ours alone. My son stepped into the night and as I turned off the headlights he muttered, “Whoa!”
As I opened my door, my eyes were immediately drawn to the magnificent display of Gods universe above. I said to him, “Can you see the Southern Cross over there?” He replied, “I have never seen it upside down like that. Normally the pointers are on the left.” I asked him, “Did you just experience a bit of spacial awareness? Did your world just get a whole lot smaller?”
His response to this question filled my heart with hope and joy. He said, “No….Bigger.”
With the majority of the human population of this planet concentrated in our cities, most people are well aware of how much their skies are filled with emission-types of pollution. One wonders just how many understand that light is a form of pollution as well. Sure, light doesn’t make you cough or irritate your allergies, but there are other things it can affect.
When your world is closed-in and the walls are close, it is easy to focus solely your own small world. When those walls come crashing down, the world suddenly becomes huge, and problems small. You become free to explore, see the bigger picture and focus on what is really important. My son reminds me that many are not aware of much outside our own surroundings because it is hidden from us. I sometimes wonder, do outlooks change, when we are awakened to the "more than us" out there?
Here in Canberra suburbs, the light pollution is not terrible, but it becomes apparent when you take a short drive out of the city, that the streetlights do in fact, obscure a lot of stars. In some cities, only one or two stars are visible at night. When you get right out of these cities more than 3 hours drive away, you can make out countless thousands of stars, the bright galactic plane of our Milky Way galaxy and the vast dark clouds of dust and stellar material that stand between us and the spiral arms of it.
When observing the night sky, it doesn’t take long to understand that we are moving. As you watch the stars and planets through the night, some rise from one horizon and set in the other. The stars in the north follow gentle arcs, while the ones in the south seem to go in circles around an invisible point in the sky. If you live north of the equator this is reversed. It is one thing to know these things academically, but when you experience it first hand, the feeling can be enlightening, even overwhelming. For me, it was almost to the point where I had to grab something to stay standing, as if the sudden onset of planetary movement through the cosmos would knock me off my feet.
Had I been living in a bigger city and not been predisposed toward astronomy, perhaps my day to day life would feel a little mundane. My understanding of the movement of our home world and our neighbors has opened my eyes to a very exciting future. We certainly have our problems here and perhaps our priorities are out of whack when it comes to feeding the poor, sheltering the homeless and freeing the persecuted. We should work on those as a matter of course but we also need to look at our future and our future is out there in the stars. If we can just keep from destroying ourselves we may just get there. To do this we need to make everyone aware of what we have in front of us.
Already we have an International Space Station in orbit, along with hundreds of satellites around our planet. We have dozens of deep space probes reaching as far out as the very edge of our solar system now. Space has become commercialized and there are fleets of passenger spaceships already nearing completion along with spaceport terminals. The most viable bit of real estate for us to develop, Mars, is currently under attack from a fleet of our craft photographing and mapping the terrain from orbit, sniffing the air from the surface, drilling the rocks, tasting the soil and drinking the water.
The moon is also preparing for another barrage of human exploration and colonization as we prepare to trial and test our hardware on this stepping stone to hop to Mars. There is even evidence of water on the moon. Where there is water and a ground to walk and build on, we can work and live. Imagine if we find uranium or a clean-burning natural gas on one of these planets. There will be no stopping us! Domes and tunnels will pave the way for workers and terraformers to begin building a hospitable environment with a breathable atmosphere. We will be able to plant trees, breed animals and start the great circle of life time and time again, ensuring the survival of ourselves and countless other species.
Yes, these future objectives are logistically difficult and sometimes prohibitively expensive but with time and perseverance, we will get there. But first we need to band together in a common interest and goal. Awareness if the key. You can’t build a home on another land if you don’t know it is there. Artificial light in our night sky hides these distant lands from view.
Many of our lights are grossly overpowered or misdirected, however, there are ways we can reduce much of it. Not only does this darken our night sky, it also conserves energy and reduces greenhouse emissions. Streetlights can be shrouded to direct the light down instead of up. They can also be reduced in wattage. Lights not in use can be switched off or put on timers so that they are only on when they need to be. You should consider how much light you need for a given purpose. Once you can see what you are doing there is no need to have any more light than is necessary.
You can also write to your local government, expressing your concerns over light pollution. The more people that do so, the more likely something will be done. Remember that excessive light at night can also affect other things. Ecosystems that rely on natural light patterns can be thrown out of balance. For humans, light can cause eye fatigue, sleep deprivation, stress and headaches. These ailments can also lead to more serious health issues. Studies show that there is no definitive proof that more lighting equals less crime. In fact, brighter light can provide deeper contrast in shadow and provide better hiding spots for criminals.
There are many advantages to having a darker sky, not being the least, less energy consumed and more money in your pocket. Want to look up at night and see a glowing sky of murky orange nothing, or see vast, clear distances to beautiful celestial destinations? Now that’s something to share with your kids. |
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