Light Pollution

Do you want your children to enjoy the sky as much as you do? Light pollution might cut them off from the beauty of the night sky. Already, those of us living in a city are limited to the Moon and few of the brightest stars and planets. But light pollution threatens the sky of everyone – even those who live far from urban areas.


Glow from light pollution	The Milky Way of a dark sky
© 2001 by Joe Roberts and used with permission

Light pollution is light that instead of being directed to where it can help us walk safely on the street or drive our car goes out into space. It creates a yellowish glow in the dark sky which makes viewing any object near the horizon almost impossible and blocks out stars everywhere. It’s also wasteful. Our taxes go to generating light that besides blotting out the night sky is only viewed by passing planes and the ISS.

The organization in the forefront of the fight against light pollution is the Dark-Sky Association which can help you convince your community of the importance of both using efficient lighting fixtures that direct light to where it’s needed and preserving the night sky for future generations.

A SkyWatch links page has some good resources for learning how to fight light pollution.