Monday night starts the Great Worldwide Star Count, a project to raise awareness of light pollution as well as collect a little data. The basic idea is simple. People around the world go out at night and look up at the constellation Cygnus (in the norhtern hemisphere) or Saggitarius (in the southern hemisphere). You compare what you see to the star charts on the web site and you have an estimate of how much light pollution there is in your neighborhood. You enter your observation into a form on the web site (along with your location) and you have just contributed a little bit to science. You can even make multiple observations from different locations. The most useful data is when a single city has data points near the center, the edge, and points in between.
Bad lighting design does more than just drown out the stars. Bad lighting design wastes energy by letting it go upward and can even create lots of bright glare and dark shadows that can decrease safety. Light pollution has many well known adverse effects on wildlife and even has been shown to increase cancer rates.
The International Dark Sky Association is the great resource for information on light pollution including sources for good lighting design and how to work with your local government addressing the issue.
The Great Worldwide Star Count begins on October 20th and runs through November 3rd. So go out and make some obsevations!
Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.
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8 comments:
That cancer link is wild.
Sorry, but I've been on the landlord to replace some lights in the parking lot out back. Until the urban wildlife behaves, I don't think we'll see much reduction in public lighting in cities. More efficient use of it can only be a good thing, though.
I love how the night sky looks in the country. And in "big sky country," it can be breathtaking.
Nice charts there,hale. I didn't know many constellations that were out there. I can only point out and identify about about five.
The light pollution is pretty bad around here in Racine. Go Up North and you see the Milky Way from my pier.
Tucson has very strict lighting ordinances. I was coming back from my run tonight and enjoying the stars on the way back.
I love to look at the sky. It is pretty bleak around here. I think I saw the Milky Way way up north one night too. It is amazing to see the difference there to here. It can take your breath away to see how many more are visible.
That cancer research *is* wild. Who would have guessed that could be the reason for the breast cancer rate being high here? I know at one point, they were looking at mercury and contaminants in fish and the water and its' consumption on the great lakes.
Thanks for the post hale. Once again, you've enlightened me. If I get the opp, I'll do it. p.s. I used your information and post on the sun and differential rotation for a classroom discussion. The kids were really into it.
That is one of the reasons I love going up north.. it's amazing the difference in the night sky. I like to just lay outside at night and watch all the stars.
I once put together a 5000 ( I think.. I know it was alot) piece puzzle of the constellations.. it was alot of fun and took me months to complete. Had it set up on a table in the back room. I'd go back and work on it very relaxing... when I got done......
a piece was missing!!!!!!!!! I was so pissed. It turned out pretty cool though, it glowed in the dark.
Oh, and my dog chewed on a piece too...... silly girl.
DA, I think I did that exact same puzzle. It was a killer. All the black pieces made me crazy. I remember I got down to about 50 pieces and had to check them all to see if they would fit. It all looked the same. It was cool when it was complete.
kk.. do you have the pieces I am missing? LOL
Ha ha... I think I gave that sucker away... Swore I would never do it again. :D
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