City Lights To Dark Skies - International Dark Sky Week 2014

[From the Bad Astronomy post where I saw this: http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/04/23/light_pollution_what_you_can_do_to_keep_the_sky_dark.html]

This week, April 20 – 26, 2014, is International Dark Sky Week, a global effort to get people to appreciate the skies above them. Light pollution — excess light thrown into the sky by street lights, houses, buildings, and pretty much everything that makes light — reduces our ability to see the stars, sometimes dramatically. I lived in Chicago for a year, and on the clearest nights I could only see the very few brightest stars, struggling against the mighty orange glow of the city projected upward.

This light is wasted; it’s money thrown away, it’s low-efficiency, and in many cases the lights being used at night aren’t really doing a good job of illuminating the ground and making it safer.

Astrophotographer Mark Gee (who has been featured on my blog before; see Related Posts below) made a short and lovely video to highlight the issue. His work is stunning, and well worth your time.

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