One Fifth of World's Population Can't See Milky Way At Night 612
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Cosmos Magazine: "Light pollution has caused one-fifth of the world's population — mostly in Europe, Britain and the US — to lose their ability to see the Milky Way in the night sky.
'The arc of the Milky Way seen from a truly dark location is part of our planet's natural heritage,' said Connie Walker, and astronomer from the US National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Arizona.
Yet 'more than one fifth of the world population, two thirds of the US population and one half of the European Union population have already lost naked eye visibility of the Milky Way.'"
Re:Aren't we in the milkyway? (Score:3, Informative)
Yes we are in the Milky Way galaxy, so technically any nearby stars you can see are part of the Milky Way. However, the Milky Way they're referring to is a dense band of distant stars you see when looking towards the galactic core. It's visible as a band of white across the sky. There's some photo's in the Wikipedia article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way [wikipedia.org]
The fact that you seem to not understand what they're referring to clearly illustrates their point. (I'm assuming that your question was serious.) Apparently you've never seen (or at least noticed) this band of stars. Do yourself a favor and go out to the mountains or desert. The beauty of the night sky in areas away from the cities is well worth the trip.
Re:Aren't we in the milkyway? (Score:4, Informative)
Much like planet is greek for wonderer.
Go on mod me funny and informative.
Re:Milky Way, hell... (Score:5, Informative)
Real New Yorker's never look up. That's just for tourists.
Re:Oh, the Milky Way (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Well... I could. (Score:2, Informative)
That aside, I don't see how any government can possibly take light pollution seriously. Too much investment to satisfy too small a group - who cares if it's world heritage.
Its actually safer for people walking (no light means there are no shadows a criminal could hide in) and less light means lower energy costs.
We have a 50MPH highway, 4 lane for some parts, 2 for others, which is about five miles long. To save money, the city is trying to turn off most of the lights along the route (the whole thing used to be lit). It hasn't seemed to cause any more problems than there already were, and I imagine it's saving quite a bit of money.
Re:Aren't we in the milkyway? (Score:4, Informative)
Note to astronomy guys - some pictures of what the milky way looks like with the naked eye would be very appreciated on that wikipedia page.
The panoramic shots are cool, as are the color-enhanced ones. But for all that people talk about the milky way so often, and the fact that I have seen it several times (if faintly) in person, I've always been very vague on whether I was actually seeing it because so few of the common pictures show what it'll actually look like :)
If you look at the section labelled "Age" on the wiki page, you will see a good picture of what the Milky Way looks like to most people not living in a light polluted city.
Re:Well... I could. (Score:5, Informative)
Even just outside Lincoln, not only can you see the Milky Way, but many college kids would ask me what the haze was amidst it...I would just reply, those are the rest of the stars...they always were stunned.
Perhaps this is why kids now adays have such big egos, they don't have to look up and see how insignificant they really are.
Re:Well... I could. (Score:3, Informative)
Hawaii (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Why? (Score:3, Informative)
Anus of Uranus? [klaatu.org]
Easily found at 3:47 est [wikipedia.org]
Re:Milky Way, hell... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Well... I could. (Score:3, Informative)
Goto New Zealand. Awesome country, beautiful landscape, incredible skies.
I remember one night I got up to use the head and walked outside at about 3 in the morning in may and looked up and saw the LMC and SMC. Far more awe inspiring than andromeda to the naked eye. I wish I had spent more time there with a telescope but it just wasn't in the cards. I am truly envious of the southern skies folks.
light pollution (Score:3, Informative)
That aside, I don't see how any government can possibly take light pollution seriously. Too much investment to satisfy too small a group - who cares if it's world heritage.
Except it's not just astronomers that suffers from light pollution. Animals suffer as well. For instance sea turtles. Turtle hatchlings [sciencedirect.com] mistake beach front lights as light being reflected from water. Some in the US are concerned about the effects of net fishing wherein trawlers drag large nets which ensnares dolphins, ie the "Dolphin Safe" labels on some tuna cans, and turtles. But light pollution can have as much a negative impact on for instance leatherback turtles [conservation.org] as nets do. There are many other species that are impacted by light pollution.
Falcon
Re:Well... I could. (Score:3, Informative)
6 degrees of sky in the US is the same as 6 degrees of sky in the EU.
the other celestial coordinate is minutes of arc.
as the sky appears to move from east to west, this movement is called right ascension and is calculated in minutes seconds and hours with midnight (00) cutting through the constellation of pegasus. There are 24 hours of arc (ie the time it takes the earth to make one rotation, hence all constellations "appear" in our sky in a given day, however the sun obscures them for a portion of each day) this is where the term arc second and arc minute comes from.
Declination is the north south direction and is measured in degrees with +90 degrees being the north celestial pole, while -90 is the southern celestial pole. the ecliptic, also known as the celestial equator is at 0. The ecliptic is not the same as Zenith as Zenith is a relative value. Here in the pacific northwest zenith is about 40 degrees declination.
Objects are located with a Right ascension and Declination. Sort of like a celestial lat/lon. the measurements are universal so there's no decimal to standard conversion.
An RA of 24'00'00 is the same as a RA of 00'00'00
Astronomy is a fascinating subject. its only been recently that I have really gotten a sense of my overall location on the planet in regards to the rest of the universe. The concept that I am looking at things which are farther away than anything on the earth to me and the fact that the moon is really "out there" can be humbling.
I remember I was at a star party watching the crescent moon rise before the sun and I realized that I am looking at the moon the same way I would look across a valley at a distant mountain peak. I think that many people have this mental image of the night sky as being 1 dimensional like a movie screen and the stars are projected upon it but the reality is that you are staring across the gulf of almost incomprehensible distance. It can really make you feel small.
Re:Well... I could. (Score:3, Informative)
Here in the U.S. I'm tempted to tell Homeland Security that if we don't invest in stopping light pollution, the Martian Terrorists will use it as a homing beacon for their dirty bombs.
Re:Well... I could. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:The problem is... (Score:3, Informative)