Light Pollution

[Colin_hutcheson]

Hi guys, i don't normally sign petitions, but this is one which may help we astronomers. It may lead to a reduction of every atronomers' gripes: light pollution. Help us reclaim the night sky as it should be seen. For details follow the link:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/starry-night

Colin

[julesstoop]

Just fyi:

You must be a British citizen or resident to sign the petition.

[buggs_moran]

Bollocks...

I have British ancestry, I should be able to sign to bring you dark skies.

[STARNIGHTER]

Well, I hope your efforts make a difference over there. Air and light pollution have always been a big issues here in the USA, but in my experience absolutely nothing will bring back the clear skies we used to have decades ago. I agree that we should try to avoid further pollution, but I'm afraid that increasing populations, expanding cities with more and more lights, have made those long ago starry nights rare. There are remote places one can still go with fairly good observing skies, but such places are becoming more and more rare!

This is sad, especially for young people who are interested in astronomy. They may never see the kind of star packed skies that we did at their age.

Encouraging, nonetheless, that efforts to at least try to help are happening. Good luck to you!

[Sky Guy]

in my experience absolutely nothing will bring back the clear skies we used to have decades ago. I agree that we should try to avoid further pollution, but I'm afraid that increasing populations, expanding cities with more and more lights, have made those long ago starry nights rare. There are remote places one can still go with fairly good observing skies, but such places are becoming more and more rare!

This is sad, especially for young people who are interested in astronomy. They may never see the kind of star packed skies that we did at their age.

Nor did we have the kind of skies that our grand parents had.

I attended an interesting talk at the annual meeting of the International Dark Sky Association earlier this month on "generational environmental amnesia". Studies indicate that people tend to think that the environmental situation that they experienced as a kid was pretty good even if wasn't. They are able to see the changes (usually negative) in their lifetime but don't see the bigger picture of how things were before.
This very much applies to light pollution. As STARNIGHTER points out really dark sites are becoming quite rare. Most people have no idea what they are missing.