Starship Asterisk*

Greg,

The issue of light pollution was also addressed in a very recent issue of Astronomy Magazine and, for example, the dark skies in Greece were specifically identified and mentioned. As much as I would love to state that we are in the dark by design, it could not be further from the truth.

Dark skies and access to the heavens above with the naked eye is something that should not be taken lightly (excuse the pun) or overlooked. It is a real treat being able to see the Milky Way overhead each and every night.

Comment about the August 22 APOD

[u]Earth at Night[/u]
[url]http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040822.html[/url]

Being an astronomy web-site I am surprised that they did not mention anything about the growing problem of light-pollution. This picture really highlights that problem. Most of the light you see in this picture is wasted light that is shining upward instead of downward where it is needed. If everyone was more responsible when installing outdoor lighting the night-sky would not be disappearing in so many neighborhoods (and this picture would be a lot dimmer).

A site to link to could have been:

[u]International Dark-Sky Association[/u]
[url]http://www.darksky.org[/url]

I was thinking I had seen it available as a print somewhere.

Thanks for reminding me.

For those interested in posters of the Earth at night picture, there is a similar version available in poster form at think geek here:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/posters/techie/6a93/

This poster is probably available elsewhere as well.