The good old days

I had lunch yesterday with a hockey buddy who plays on our Old Geezers team. The discussions, of course, started with hockey, but then went all over the map and eventually ended on our mutual interest in astronomy. This reminded me of the days that I used to enjoy spending under the stars.

As I get older, I find it more difficult to make time for things that I enjoy because work takes up more of my life. Recently, I accepted two editorial posts, which together do not take a whole lot of time, but when combined with my other responsibilities, consumes day and night. I keep on kicking myself for constantly making choices that bring me angst, but I always feel compelled to provide service in my area of expertise.

During our lunch conversation, I recalled one particular night on which I observed a spectacular meteor. Early that evening, long ago, I viewed familiar objects with my new 10" Dobsonian such as the Pleiades and the Andromeda galaxy. Then I focused on M31, M32, and M110. The night was warm and dark, and as midnight approached, the skies got darker as the lights went out one by one all around my neighborhood.

My log book (my memory is too unreliable these days), dated September 26, 2003, reads "Later that night (about midnight) I went up on the upper deck to take in the wonderful sky. I was looking at the Milky Way with its clean dust lane down the center when a meteor shot right along its length through the middle of the dust lane. It started somewhere above 45 degrees from the horizon, maybe near Perseus, and beyond the zenith before it broke up into pieces. It looked like fireworks with maybe 4 obvious fragments. This was one of the brightest meteors I have seen. This wonderful evening made me realize that I want to spend more time under the stars."

Almost 10 years later, I still recall the deep satisfaction of seeing nature at work, the meteor silently streaking across the sky along a smooth arc until it broke up.

In my next entry, dated December 17, 2003, I wrote, "I read my last entry and am ashamed at how long it's been since I went out observing! Though, I did get some nice pictures of Saturn a few nights back (and also the moon)." (See an older post at http://unknownphysicist.blogspot.com/2010/12/nostalgia.html)

Sadly, my last entry in my log book was on 5/8/04, the day after I bought a large 12.5" Dobsonian (I had sold my 10" scope to raise some cash). It ends with "When looking for M81/M82, I found a very dim and broad patch at 50x. At 212x, I could not see it. It was in the vicinity of Caddington Nebula, and it fits the description, so I believe I was looking at IC2574."

Life got too busy to do much observing. I have occasionally (perhaps 5 times in total since 2003) taken out a telescope to show a friend the wonders of the night sky. Though I really enjoy my research, I think I spend much too much time on related service activities to the university and my profession. I continually break promises to myself to take out my telescopes in order to meet my work commitments.

(To the right is a photo I took with my digital camera and telescope back in 2002 of M13, the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules.  This is a spectacular cluster to view in the eyepiece of a telescope, appearing as a scattering of diamonds on black velvet.)

So, next time you visit me, if the skys are clear, ask me to show you the wonders of the heavens. I would appreciate the kick in the butt to take out my telescope. Perhaps such a reboot will get me into the habit of occasionally enjoying some quiet time under the stars.

Clear Skies!

Down with Light Pollution

I admit that I don't like light pollution because it spoils the beauty of the nighttime sky. It obscures the majestic swath of stars across the sky that make up our Milky Way Galaxy (yes, this is what our naked eyes would see without light pollution - but a tad dimmer) and washes out the delicate structure of galaxies and nebula as seen through the telescope. Because of light pollution, many people are unaware that the Andromeda galaxy appears larger than the moon in our skies and can be seen with the naked eye.


The most useful lighting radiates downward illuminating our yards, roads, and parking lots. However, lighting that is poorly designed can radiate in all directions, thus wasting that 50% of the light that goes up into the sky and pollutes our view.

There are several negative consequences. Most obviously, energy is wasted. With simple reflectors that direct lighting downward, half the wattage is required to get the same amount of useful illumination.

Bright street lights that are not aimed downward can temporarily impair a driver's vision. Our campus at Washington State University has lighting in several places near crosswalks that is blinding to drivers and obscures pedestrians. I once almost hit a pedestrian at such a crosswalk.

As we age, our pupils respond more slowly under changes in lighting; so, older drivers that leave brightly-lit shopping centers have trouble adjusting to lower light levels as they leave the parking lot. Several accidents have been attributed to this effect.

Contrary to the claim of business owners that bright lights attract customers, studies show that glaring lights are less inviting and result in fewer customers. Many municipalities believe that bright lights reduce crime; but, cities that have reduced lighting levels have found crime rates to either stay the same or decrease. Ironically, the lighting at our local Walmart is of the full cutoff type, which sends the least amount of lighting upward.

Bright night lighting has other negative impacts on the environment. City lights are known to disorient migrating birds and have been found to be responsible for the demise of whole flocks of confused animals that flew into structures such as buildings.

Night lighting is also known to adversely affect our circadian rhythm, which requires periods of dark. The biological effects of bright nighttime lighting has also been associated with increased incidence of certain types of cancer.

Turns out that there is one other reason for eliminating light pollution. A form of nitrogen oxide in our atmosphere breaks down chemicals from vehicle exhaust and other man-made sources. However, this compound is destroyed by the sun, so this natural cleaner works only at night. Researchers at NOAA and CIRES found that light pollution also destroys the nitrate compound, so its cleansing effect is lost.

Let's fight light pollution so that we can save energy, decrease greenhouse gasses, protect wildlife, improve our health, and allow nature to clean the pollution that we create. All it takes is light fixtures that direct lighting downward. The icing on the cake is that decreased light pollution will allow us to once again stare in awe at the beauty of our universe, allowing photons that originated millions of light years away in other galaxies to directly tickle our optic nerves.

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