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Let’s turn off the lights and turn on the night: to the rescue of starlight in an age of artificial lighting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2021

Andrea Sosa Open the ORCID record for Andrea Sosa [Opens in a new window]
Andrea Sosa*
Affiliation:
Centro Universitario Regional del Este, Universidad de la República, Ruta nacional 9 y ruta 15, 27000, Rocha, Uruguay email: asosa@cure.edu.uy
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Abstract

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Our ancestors contemplated an inspiring night sky of science, philosophy, art … today, it is estimated that one third of the world’s population have never seen the Milky Way. The progressive degradation of the quality of the night sky due to an inappropriate use of the artificial light at night, as well to other sources of sky pollution, must be considered as the fundamental loss of a scientific, cultural and environmental heritage of humanity.

In this public talk we summarized the most relevant aspects of light pollution, the reasons for promoting good lighting to protect dark skies, and some of the initiatives at a global level that are being developed to preserve the darkness of the night sky.

Keywords

astronomical heritagedark skiesartificial light at nightlight pollution
Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 15 , Symposium S367: Education and Heritage in the Era of Big Data in Astronomy , December 2019 , pp. 328 - 331
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Astronomical Union

References

Bortle, J. 2001, Sky and Telescope, 101, 126 Google Scholar
Cheung, S. (Ed.) 2018, IAU Journal of Light Pollution. International Astronomical Union Office for Astronomy Outreach and National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. April 2018.Google Scholar
Falchi, F., Cinzano, P., Duriscoe, D., Kyba, C., Elvidge, C., Baugh, K., Portnov, B., Rybnikova, N., & Furgoni, R. 2016, The New World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness, Science Advances, 2, 1–25 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed