Light pollution is one of the biggest problems facing astronomers, both professional and amateur. But what is light pollution? How does it affect us? What can be done about it? Why should we do anything about it? In the following pages I will try to answer these questions.

What is Light pollution?

Simply put, light pollution is nothing more than light that shines upwards, lighting up the atmosphere. This prevents us from seeing the stars and other fainter objects like nebulae and galaxies. And because no one lives in the sky, it is wasted light which also means wasted electricity and money. It is mainly due to poorly designed light fixtures that allow light to shine upwards and off to the sides instead of reflecting it downwards onto the ground where we need it.

These next 2 pictures show how light pollution affects the sky. They were taken by Todd Carlson who lives about 45 minutes northeast of Toronto. The first was taken the night of the August 14th, 2003 electrical blackout that hit the Northeast. The second photo was taken the next night when the power was back on.

 

In the first photo the Milky Way is very obvious but is totally obliterated in the second picture.

(This is a work in progress. More to come soon!)

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