Page 8 - October 5, 2022

{ 8 } SNJ Today | OCTOBER 5, 2022 OCTOBER 5, 2022 | SNJToday.com { 9 }
THE GREAT OUTDOORS

Starless Night Skies
Starless Night Skies

Light pollution is robbing us of our “starry, starry nights,” yet there are lighting
design changes that could open our skies back up to stargazing.
NATURE AROUND US by J. Morton Galetto, CU Maurice River

s a young teenager I complained
to my mother that I was having On October 20
Atrouble seeing the chalkboard in
school. It took weeks of begging to get her and 21, if we have
to overcome her vanity about her daugh- cloudless nights,
ter’s appearance and agree to schedule an
eye exam for me. Wearing glasses opened go to a dark sky The majority of birds migrate in darkness.
up a world that I had forgotten even exist- near you to view Brightly lit cities blot out stars and confuse
ed. We lived near Union Lake in Millville migrants, luring them into urban areas.
Trapped in a windowed maze of city build-
in a neighborhood without streetlights. As the Orionid meteor ings, they have fatal collisions, or circle about
evening fell, suddenly the night sky took shower. and die from exhaustion. PHOTO: PORTLAND
on a renewed glory. Looking up at the AUDUBON, PHOTO BY JURGE
heavens my eyes filled with tears. As my
nearsightedness had progressed, I had lost it. (CU Maurice River has documented this
sight of the stars. The Milky Way avian decline over the past 35 years.)
I wept in sorrow for what I had been as seen at Capitol Reef Stars are gradually disappearing from
missing for years and was now so clear. National Park’s Chimney Rock, Utah. view and younger generations don’t know
There were tears of joy, too, for what I Night skies such as this can be seen at what they’ve lost. A pair of glasses isn’t
was seeing. I refused to go back inside the International Dark Sky Parks established going to offer them a magical solution as it
around the globe by citizen efforts. The International Dark
house. It was as if I personally had redis- Sky Association assists governing bodies with ordinances did for me. The stars are still there but our
covered the universe. I told anyone who to protect night skies. PHOTO: JACOB W. FRANK FOR IDSA ability to see them is changing, as light pol-
would listen, “Just look at the stars!” lution hampers our view of the heavens.
I was lucky to have a friend named Air pollution used to be the main cul-
Steve Jublou. He was a Boy Scout who or area. Many towns and cities have ects. But the globes remain unchanged. prit. I remember going to Pittsburgh as a
loved the out-of-doors, stars, and Greek adopted “shielded lighting” ordinances. This scenario has repeated itself world- child when coal was still burned to heat
mythology. He described the hunter But vigilance is needed on the part of land- wide to the point where a quarter of the houses and the factories manufactured
Orion’s belt and the myth detailing Orion’s use boards and city engineers to make sure world’s land surface is now affected by steel. The sky was blackened; on some
adventures. He explained that because developers are aware of and institute this light pollution. And with each passing days, a permanent dusk hung in the air.
of this constellation’s placement on the requirement. It’s as simple as selecting generation people accept a new normal, in The Environmental Protection Agency has
celestial equator, it can be seen through- new fixtures with hoods, though little has this instance the increasing inability to see done a wonderful job of improving our air
out the world in the night sky. Even in been done about replacing existing lights. the heavens. A term has been coined for quality; particulate is much less of a prob-
high school it was obvious that his destiny Cities and towns that have major tele- this phenomenon—“shifting baseline syn- lem, both for our lungs and for stargazing,
would be to join the ranks of future sci- scope installations take lighting ordinances drome.” By way of example an old timer than it was when I was young.
ence teachers. His enthusiasm for the very seriously. Since the 1980s Caltech and used to tell me that ducks use to blacken Many cities still remain famous for
stars was profound and contagious. Palomar Observatory have worked with the sky on the Menantico during duck sea- smog. The growing use of electric cars will
Fred Schaaf was also a classmate; later surrounding communities to minimize son. I took his words to be hyperbole, but greatly improve their situation. You may
he would become one our country’s most light pollution. Tucson, Arizona, is sur- today I suspect they were the truth. recall news-making photographs taken
celebrated amateur astronomers, publish- rounded by observatories and views pro- I tell my grandnieces and nephews, from cities around the world during the
ing a host of books (13) on the heavens. tecting night skies is a mandate. “When things got cold the river would pandemic lockdown. People posted before
Today we are all being robbed of the When I first moved to the river in freeze nearly across, and if ducks were and during photos and marveled at the
views the night sky holds. Manmade light 1983 we could see the northern sky from stones you could hop across the river on clear skylines as cars and factories took
from street lamps, parking lots, sports our dock. Then a new car dealership their backs.” Their new normal is a few a timeout. It gave folks a new baseline to
stadiums, prisons, LEDs, gas flames, car put in lighting that blotted out the view. hundred ducks where there were once think about. But alas, we are creatures
beams and the like, intended to illuminate Later the City of Millville installed period thousands, and that’s on a great day. They of habit; hanging on to that moment and
the earth, shine upwards and reflect down lighting. It was stylish but the globes see some ducks and think, “Cool.” I see advocating for a cleaner tomorrow is dif-
off particulates and moisture, so that see- allowed light to shine upwards. The color ducks and say, “Where have they all gone.” ficult to do as the responsibilities of life
ing the heavens has become impossible. of the sky changed and the northern view And ice? Don’t even get me started. So whisk us away to our old selves.
Shields, a simple design change involv- of stars went away. Millville later adopt- each generation establishes a new baseline So how does light pollution impact the
ing a shade or hood over the light source, ed a shielded lighting ordinance advocat- of lower numbers. You can’t conceive of planet we live on—beyond the chance to
can keep the light on the intended object ed by CU Maurice River for future proj- what you’re missing if you have never seen see the Milky Way on a cloudless night