Less Light = Milkier Way, Astronomers Say

Shutting lights off would be a bad idea, but dimmers between midnight and dawn would be useful. it might look odd, but perhaps mirrors or reflective neon paint with a glow in the dark tint on walls of surrounding buildings would be extremely useful in optimizing light in low lit areas.

this is a shot in the dark... but for green energy when it comes to light. Why not make a world wide, or at least nation wide effort in short term, to build solar nets. we know light bends and refracts in prisms and glass. if its light on the eastern coast, have several large glass lenses catching un-used light, then send the light via fiber-optics cable, to the west coast, the light of dawn emitting from street lamps during the witching hour. and vice versa when the sun sets on the opposite side of the country.

Even assuming for a moment that it were possible to transmit sunlight in fiber optic cables that far, there's other issues to consider:

If you use a series of conventional cables, then you'd have to string so many from coast to coast that they would completely obliterate the sky over all the landmass inbetween. Thus plunging most of the rest of the country in permanent darkness.

If you used one giant-diameter "cable" between the coasts, then you'd effectively be building another "Great Wall" and bisect the country into North and South. We tried that once before and it didn't work out so well.

When I was a kid (yes, there was electric light then...) I remember gazing at the Milky Way at night from our yard in a small rural midwestern town. These days, I have to be far from civilization to see it as it appeared then. Mountain meadows in the Colorado Rockies, desert plains in northern Nevada, you have to be far afield for a proper viewing, for true. I suspect most people these days have no idea what the effect of light pollution is, never having seen the real night sky. How sad...

Turning off lights when they are not needed and minimizing the use of 'night lights' is a great idea. It just makes sense. It's basic. It's practical.

when i said it was a bad idea to shut the lights off i meant street lights, because then crime would go up if there are sections of town with no light.

Yeah a huge fiber cable would be worthless, if it were up to me id rather just convert all electricity into radio waves like tesla wanted to do.

What? And (further) mess up my digital TV reception???? Have you lost your senses?

Is that why it took them this long to figure out the Milky Way is as big as Andromeda if not bigger, not much smaller and rotates much faster than they thought.

So if their basic understanding of the Galaxy we live in is off by such a large margin how much is the rest of the conclusions about the universe.

I do understand that it is harder to study a forest from a point in the middle (can't see the forest for the trees and all that) but the distances involved to other galaxies is many magnitudes greater.

That said the light is not going away. The place to study space is in space. The back side of the Moon is close to ideal. NSA could put their spy satellite tech into a new Hubble and give them a few decades of new information for the cost of creating dark spots to see from.

If you wish to see the Milky Way just plan to stop on your next trip out of the urban sprawl to the less populated desert areas. Then I dare you to find a spot without a star in it. Wait a bit for your eyes to adjust and a star will be there.

Brad

Friday, August 28, 2009

Light Pollution that we have to fight about

The day of my childhood, after having dinner that weekend we were playing around at our grandfather's harmoniously chic back yard. The house that located in the city near suburb just began to quiet, and there we cheerfully joked while the smell of grass and the beautiful flowers fragrance the atmosphere. Sparkling stars, the calm moonlight and gentle breezes of wind comple our joy...
Over there sat at the corner, our fat grandmother who occasionally supported her chin with her stick, staring with smile partake of such a beautiful night and happiness with her beloved randchildren ...
The night went on, I grabbed my sister's hand and embraced her with love and the moon began to fade away darken the sky and it looked the stars sparkling more clearly..... a drop of sweat glistening from her cheek and drop on my arms when she turned to look at me with her spoiled and happy smiling..., with a deep sense of my grateful to a such charming smile, I presented a kiss on her puffed flawless chin and caress her damp forehead ….then I whispered "I Love You" at her ear.
We sat on a little bench at that time, I was behind and with affection hugging her, we sometimes do small swings while singing together, singing from the most beautiful songs to the funniest one ...and sometimes we boomed the sky with our laughs. I really enjoy her cute funny nan. Looking far above at the sky, we see so many stars shining brightly here and there as if they were a long with us, with our jokes, our happiness and our songs. That night was the night with plenty of beautiful memories and the most memorable time with her. My little sister had never seen our mother who passed away since she was born. The night in which as nine years older brother I was trying my best giving her warmth and affection of the mother on her fifth and my heart goes out to my beloved sister.
But such a lovely evening seems to be never will happen again in the present or in the future..... Star-studded evening in which my little cute sister ever tried counting .......the darkness of the background sky brightened by sparkling galaxies in the Milky Way........ Night that we always miss in the rest of our life ... an evening that I want to spend with my children, with my grandchildren.... the night that I'm afraid and doubt it can be enjoyed anymore!!??
Light pollution has caused all that……….the vanished unforgettable beautiful night. The light pollution that occurs because of negligence, lack of consciousness, lack of information etc. it's hardly noticed by most people though it is very simple case as the matter of fact.
Light pollution occurs because the artificial lights is not proper or properly installed so that it's light strewn mess everywhere, reflectance of the excessive light from surface of objects and mother earth accumulating and form an orange sky glow and the hyperbolic non-directed light or non righteous lighting can also cause irritating glare and looks very disrupting or even endangering safety as well. Light pollution plus air pollution combination are increasingly thicker in the sky, as the result there is no more cleanly clear darkness sky. It changes the world over urban areas and the sky glow blocking eyes and we hardly able to see the bright blinking stars scattered in the Milky Way.
Light pollution is unconsciously not only wasting a huge amount of energy and money but it also damages the environment and the ecosystem because the blazed world of light pollution may affect wild animals' behavior such as mammals, birds, insects and fishes in the sea; besides all that polluted lights also very destructing the view of beautiful architectural building's design. (dedicated for my little cute sister) Thank you for your time.