It's an horrific image, light pollution is even creeping into remote places such as Greenland and Madagascar. The River Nile is picked out easily.
America, Europe and Japan are a total mess and the east coast of South America is catching up.
Where will it all end?
Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better programs, and the universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the universe is winning.
Slowly but surely, we are starting to cop on to the expensive waste that light pollution brings with it, in the end, it will be all about money, which will be good for us
I'm just back from France after spending two weeks at the hang gliding world championships in the Hautes Alpes de Provence, and although France looks pretty saturated in light from the satellite photo the skies there were absolutely pristine! The Milkey Way was absolutely gobsmackingly bright all the way to the horizon. I brought my little 8" travel-Dob along, but most evenings ended up with everyone lying on rugs looking up at the sky from the camp site / landing field and following my impromptu tours of the sky with the aid of a laser pointer - very popular! I was really thrilled to see Sagitarius and Scorpius so high in the sky!! Wish we had skies like that here.
Are you sure they are the exact same picture, I would have said that yours is a slightly older version of what Paul first shown. For example look at the UK there is a hell of a lot more light pollution in Paul's image, Europe in general looks a lot worse.
What makes it interesting is that, yes, there is awareness, but I wonder if it were not for the current energy crisis of the past few years, would we see such changes.
However, seperate from that is the common sense angle - FCO street lighting to ward off stray light and so on. I have noticed on the Nass Road and along the Luas line that FCO's are being used now, as well as all along the soon-to-be-opened new N/M6 to Athlone. I think FCO is to be used on the Tullamore bypass currently under construction. And this is just in a handful of areas I know about.
When I was landing in Canada 6 weeks ago, I noticed from the air that most of the lights in Toronto were at least semi-FCO. How did I know this? I couldn't see the light itself, just the small ring of light underneath it seen on the street from above. The light pollution was small, somewhat negligible in places, even from 5,000 feet. Seeing it over Dublin at almost the same altitude whilst out in the Irish Sea (note: further away too) was depressing.
Seanie.
Midlands Astronomy Club.
Radio Presenter (Midlands 103), Space Enthusiast, Astronomy Outreach Co-ordinator.
Former IFAS Chairperson and Secretary.
I would have thought in the current economic climate that councils and companies would be looking at ways to reduce their energy bills, but this does not seem to the case.
Close to my home the industrial site of Cherrywood is under delevopment, driving home late one evening I passed by, a well known computer company that rhymes with bell have offices there, and the place was lit up like Christmas. Every room on every floor, that I could see, had the lights on, and I doubt if there are that many people working at that hour.
A new shopping centre is supposed to be built on the site, bigger than the Dundrum Town Centre, more offices are planned and the Luas line is near completion. This can only mean an increase in lighting that is too frightening to contemplate.
Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better programs, and the universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the universe is winning.
Topic Author
