Night Skies

"Our results underscore the critical importance for bird conservation of reducing artificial light at night from buildings and other structures during migratory periods." — Field Museum Researcher

The night sky is vanishing: 80 percent of Americans can no longer see the Milky Way

By Brad Plumer@bradplumerbrad@vox.com Jun 10, 2016, 2:00pm EDT

If cities were to turn off all their lights — all their street lamps, billboards, neon signs, car headlights — a clear night sky would look something like this:

The Milky Way, as seen over Dinosaur National Park in Utah. (Dan Duriscoe)
That shimmering river of stars is, of course, the Milky Way. Most of us living in urban areas can’t see it because of all the light pollution. In big cities, we’re lucky to even glimpse the Big Dipper. It’s becoming harder and harder to pick out our place in the universe.

How hard is it? In a new study for Science Advances, an international team of researchers created the most detailed atlas yet of light pollution around the world. They estimate that the Milky Way is no longer visible to fully one-third of humanity — including 60 percent of Europeans and 80 percent of Americans. Artificial light from cities has created a permanent "skyglow" at night, obscuring our view of the stars. Read more at: https://www.vox.com/2016/6/10/11905390/light-pollution-night-sky

Why Dark Skies Need to be Preserved

The brilliance of the Milky Way isn’t the only reason to protect dark skies. So what else is at stake?

Every time I’m out in the darkness of a wilderness area, I look up at the starry sky and think to myself, wow, we don’t see stars like this in the city. There’s an awe in rediscovering the night sky, and it’s one of the many reasons I go backpacking and camping. I keep the rainﬂy off my tent, lay back, and observe. Watching stars in the night sky has become a treat, an escape from the city noise and lights.

But more and more, even the wilderness is invaded by light. Across the globe artificial light at night is increasing — and it’s getting brighter. The disappearance of dark skies has impacts beyond stargazing. Here are a few reasons it’s important that we protect our dark skies. Read more at: thesca.org/connect/blog/why-dark-skies-need-be-preserved

The Importance of Awe

The “11th emotion” got many of us into astronomy. Can children today still experience it?
Guest post by William Sheehan, courtesy of Sky & Telescope

While struggling in abject poverty in Nashville after the Civil War, future astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard received a Bible from his Sunday school teacher. He kept it his entire life, but apart from inscribing his name, he underlined but one passage (Job 38:31–32):

Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season, or … guide Arcturus and his sons?

When Barnard was a boy, it was still possible to see the Milky Way from downtown Nashville, and the sight of it filled him with awe. Today, in the U.S., less than 10 percent of children live in areas where views of the night sky are similar to those Barnard enjoyed. Would Barnard have felt the same sense of awe under the night sky that motivated him to underline that passage of Job, and that inspired him to a passionate life of studying and observing the sky, if he had lived under light-polluted skies?

Awe, the emotion that is at the heart of what motivates us to do astronomy, is only recently getting its due from psychologists. Less familiar than the “big ten” (love, fear, sadness, etc.), it has been called the 11th emotion. Humans may be the only species that can feel it, and some people may never experience it. Others, however, are intimately familiar with it and know well the accompanying tingling of the spine.

Neuropsychologist Paul Pearsall defined awe as an “overwhelming and bewildering sense of connection with a startling universe that is usually far beyond the narrow band of our consciousness.” No doubt many Sky & Telescope readers can date the beginnings of their interest to a specific occasion of awe, perhaps the sight of a total eclipse or a majestic comet.

Do young people today still experience awe? Increasingly, the visible universe is in full retreat. Of course, there will always be virtual substitutes: Cassini views of Saturn’s rings, Hubble Space Telescope images of distant galaxies, and so on.
Stunning as they are, do they arouse the same profound, potentially life-changing emotion that direct sense of connection to the universe supplies? How long does it take for them to go from “awe-some!” to “bor-ing”?

Perhaps Barnard, if he had lived today, instead of musing in solitude at the nearby planets in his small telescope, would have invested his time in Facebook. Maybe then he would have had more self-esteem, since recent studies have shown that use of social media increases narcissism (self-love).

Awe, on the other hand, leads to a sense of a small self, says psychologist Paul Piff (University of California, Irvine), and it encourages those who feel it to exhibit more prosocial tendencies. They are more generous, empathic, and caring about others than their less awe-inspired peers. Read more at: www.darksky.org/the-importance-of-awe/

Celebrate the Night Sky with us this October!

The first annual Hill Country Night Sky Month, October 2020, is a celebration of our region’s night skies and of the hard work that Hill Country communities do to preserve it.

So many ways to celebrate!

HOST AN EVENT IN YOUR COMMUNITY

ATTEND ONE OR MORE EVENTS

Check out the calendar of events
Pick and choose; virtual means you can attend a number of events, near and far

RAISE AWARENESS OF NIGHT SKY PROTECTION

The Hill Country sits on the edge of the night. To its east is a nighttime landscape dominated by artificial lighting that stretches to the East Coast. To its west lies a less inhabited landscape, famous for its starry skies. Stepping outside on a cool, clear Hill Country night to gaze at the stars helps us escape the fast pace of our daily lives, though few regulations currently stand in place to preserve this experience for future generations.

The Hill Country Alliance Night Skies program helps Hill Country counties and cities minimize the impacts of light pollution through education and outreach, the establishment of outdoor lighting policies, and the recognition and celebration of certified Dark Sky Places in our region. Join us in our effort to stop the spread of light pollution and keep our Texas night skies “big and bright”.

Learn more: https://www.hillcountryalliance.org/NightSkies