The issue of light pollution ran think again tonight after reading about some cosmic events that I would really like to see one of the events is the impact of a recent solar storm that will generate some fantastic Aurora.The second is the next annual Perseids meteor shower. While the former will be seen in many places, the meteor shower should be visible in most parts of the world-except when there is cloud cover or heavy light pollution.
Imagine what night on this planet would have looked like from space just a few hundred years ago; it would have been very dark.
To give you an idea of just how much of the modern world has spread across the planet are tendrils, check out the image of Earth at night:
Image from NASAA larger and clearer representation can be seen here (opens in new window). Although locations Australia seems to have very little night light; the larger the picture shows a better detail to this country with its relatively small population seriously light up the night sky.
Above image is a composite image of hundreds of pictures of DMSP satellites.Published by NASA back in 2000.Given the pace of modernisation in developing countries and further urban sprawl elsewhere within the planet over the past 10 years, I hate to think how the same image would look like now I would hate to think how much electricity use snapshot represent.
Do you live in a city?To understand the effects of human-generated light; make a goal that at some stage management out of an isolated area on a clear night-get as far as you can from a light source.Look to the sky-I guarantee that you will wonder-struck at how beautiful our little part of the universe is.If you receive a particularly clear night, it is almost as if you can reach the stars.
