Blogtrek

Reclaiming the Night Sky

In the beginning was the Big Bang, and then the galaxies and stars were created. The stars lived their lives and exploded, scattering life-stuff all over the place. Some of it came together to form our own blue and white planet, along with a star for it to orbit. If we walk out on our planet-home at night with no clouds or moon and look up, we can see the stuff from which we were created.

Or maybe we can't. More likely the pale light of Sirius is drowned out by the blaring lights of a garish auto dealership; the delicate glow of the celestial road of the Milky Way is hidden from our sight by the line of screaming blaring light on the roads of the suburban business district. More and more the lights of our homes, our institutions, and our highways are blinding us to the glories of the universe. That includes the lights of my, the lights in your subdivision and your home, and the lights at my home. There is light pollution all over the place. It is time we reclaimed our night sky. It would be nice if for two hours, the entire nation, or at least half of it, could turn out its lights so we can see the night sky.

A high school student from Midlothian, Virginia, is trying to get us to do just that. She is Jennifer Barlow, and her web site is http://www.nationaldarkskyweek.htmlplanet.com I found out about this energetic, enterprising young woman through the Richmond Astronomical Society I belong to, and she gave a talk to our group on Monday night. She has declared the week of 2003 April 1-8 to be National Dark Sky Week, and is asking us to turn out all outside lights and bright indoor lights between 10 pm and midnight every night during this week. I feel that this is a good way to get to know and appreciate the night sky. So therefore I urge us to turn out our lights during this time. Perhaps we could urge our neighbors and community associations to take part in this endeavor. This is our view of the Cosmos that is being ruined - the Universe from which we all came. So I urge us all to take part in this project this April.