Protect the night sky

As long as at least one person lives in darkness, there is a responsibility to tell others about it.
- Bill Hicks

If you have ever been to nature at night, where it truly becomes dark, and where, as members of the Keane musical group put it in their song, you can find Clear Skies:



then you could enjoy the view of the night sky there.


')
On a moonless night, depending on the quality of darkness, not only the Milky Way is visible to the naked eye, but also from 6,000 to 45,000 stars.

But, most likely, this view is not available to you.



The image of Europe at night is beautiful in its own way, but all this light is wasted. The light seen in the photo does not illuminate the cities and streets, but is directed upwards into the atmosphere and pollutes the view of the night sky.

Want to see how the only bright light source can change the look of the night sky?



This photo was taken in Ontario, Canada. It shows an example of light pollution of the night sky. Already, many people have never seen a truly dark sky.

And this is bad - take a look at the result of light pollution of the night sky in the city and compare it with a really dark sky.



The dark night sky is something that has been available to all people for thousands of years. If we had a more responsible approach to the choice of coverage of cities, villages and roads, we would have access to it. This is not so difficult to do.



Replacing common types of street lamps - the first two - to the rightmost one, we will not only reduce the use of electricity at night, and not only improve the lighting , but also return the night sky to ourselves. See what the most famous winter constellation of the northern hemisphere, Orion, looks like in the conditions of the suburbs and in really dark places.



It is usually considered that the US consumes the most energy, but Europe is ahead of the US in light pollution. Pay attention to the image of the night Earth from NASA.



Less than 50% of the US area has access to the sky, dark enough to observe the Milky Way - but in Europe there are almost no such places left.

And although access conservation measures taken by, for example, an organization such as the International Dark Sky Association , are extremely important, they are practically ineffective. Over the past 50 years, the problem has intensified, and the situation continues to deteriorate.



One very beautiful city in New Zealand decided to do something good in that direction. This is Lake Tekapo , with a population of less than 1,000 people.



They want their city to be included in the World Heritage list due to their sky, and become the very first place to save starlight on Earth. On Lake Tekapo, the night sky is one of the darkest, if we consider the places where there are people and electricity, and there on a moonless night you can find yourself in real darkness.



A small town just 50 kilometers from the site can damage the darkness of the night. It seems to me that the New Zealand idea is awesome, and it is necessary to preserve the beautiful view of the night sky. If we give all people access to the night sky, it will be great.