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Light pollution denies our birthright, to view the universe in which we live. Beside the orange glow of sodium street lamps, increasingly replaced by an even more challenging glow of 'white' LEDS, there is also the growth of 'Rottweiler' spot lights on people's houses. This is driven by fear of night time crime but there is little evidence to show that these lights reduce criminal activity. In fact, a recent study of Thames Valley and Oxfordshire police records showed that lighting actually increased crime!
The picture (left) shows the exact same area of sky. The one on the left shows many stars and the Milky Way from rural Monmouthshire. The one on the right was taken from Sussex University campus where strong sodium lighting is (or was) everywhere, on site and in the surrounding area.
Summer Sky in Monmouthshire (left) and Sussex (right) Taken by KA Moseley
This picture shows how one spotlight, at Trellech Primary School, dominates the dusk view; at nighttime it is even more overpowering. (Picture: KA Moseley)
This video (can be enlarged to full screen) shows some of the problems of light pollution, as illustrated in the American port city of Duluth, on Lake Superior. It focuses on an additional factor of light pollution, besides the quantity and lack of upward shielding; the colour temperature. By reducing from 4000K to 2700K, lighting is more bearable. Anyone blinded by modern vehicle headlamps, usually on German made cars, will know the problem. About three quarters of the way through the video there are studies showing that more lighting does not deter crime.
Useful links concerning light pollution. The first link is to a 'zoomable' map of light pollution in England and Wales (see screen grab below):
http://nightblight.cpre.org.uk/maps
http://www.britastro.org/dark-skies/
http://darksky.org/light-pollution/
http://www.darkskydiscovery.org.uk/dark_sky_places/
The link below brings up "Lost in Light", a video by Sriram Murani. It comprises a set of time lapse movies, taken in mid 2016, showing the southern sky from progressively darker locations in California. At the lower right one can make out Scorpius, with its principal star Antares, Mars (reddish and very bright) and Saturn, dimmer and yellowish. The Milky way only becomes really visible when the light pollution is low.
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