Christopher Kyba 🇨🇦🇪🇺Mar 2

15 years ago, I co-authored my first paper in the field of #LightPollution studies: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0017307

Up to that point, work on artificial brightening of the sky had been done almost entirely by astronomers, who (for obvious reasons) weren't really interested in cloudy nights. But because I was involved closely with ecologists from the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries @LeibnizIGB, we realized that it's also important to measure the extent to which overcast and clear nights differ.

Through a bunch of twists and turns I now work on #RemoteSensing using nighttime light, but that was the paper that launched me into this direction.

Show threadChristopher Kyba 🇨🇦🇪🇺Mar 2

Most people in brightly lit countries probably take for granted that clouds are bright at night, but this is completely unnatural. You can see it better in this pair of photos we published in a later paper (titled "Red is the new black"): https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.21559.x

This probably matters a great deal for nocturnal animals, because it's a reversal of an environmental condition that existed during the hundreds of millions of years that life evolved.

Show threadJames Endres HowellMar 2

@skyglowberlin I teach large university science courses. Hundreds of fairly privileged students in the room. It has been my habit to ask them to raise their hands if they have ever seen the Milky Way.

The results have always been disappointing. Over the past 20 years it has gotten worse and worse. Recently many students don't even know what I mean by the question, and I have to explain what a dark sky looks like.

"Raise your hand if you have ever been awed by a clear dark sky full of countless, countless stars." Always less than 5%.

Show threadReayMar 3

@jameshowell @GeoffWozniak @skyglowberlin My wife and kid and I have often tried, where practical, to catch meteor showers, sometimes planning road trips to countryside areas when they’re going to happen. None have ever been mind blowing, and yet those occasions are some of the most memorable moments I have, the bonding experiences and just taking all that in as a whole. I’m sure it’s a big part of the reason our (now) teen has been toying with the idea of getting into astrophysics.

Heartbreaking to realize how few even privileged people have ever taken the time to simply look up at night, or as you say, know what major celestial references even mean.

Show threadChristopher Kyba 🇨🇦🇪🇺Mar 3
@reay @jameshowell @GeoffWozniak These days seeing the Milky Way in a natural setting is something that is experienced mainly by only the poorest of the poor and the richest of the rich.
Show threadReayMar 3

@skyglowberlin @jameshowell @GeoffWozniak I get your point but respectfully disagree.

Anyone already in less populated areas can just look up at night and have a good shot at spotting the Milky Way.

People in more populated places but with a vehicle — not terribly uncommon — can head out of their city to get less light pollution and probably see the Milky Way. Here in Toronto, even if you head down to the lake (a walk for some, a cheap transit ride for most others), you can see way more in the night sky over the water than one may expect.

I suspect the larger reason people aren’t seeing it is just way more attention on produced entertainment (phones and streaming, etc.) than on interest in natural phenomena. No matter how accessible something may be, if you have no interest in it, it’s the same result.

Show threadChristopher Kyba 🇨🇦🇪🇺

@reay @jameshowell @GeoffWozniak You are right that you often don't have to go so far to get a hint of the Milky Way. In fact, I've seen it (and photographed it) from the city center of Potsdam, Germany (population ~180,000).

But catching a fuzzy glimpse of the Milky Way and "seeing the Milky Way in a natural setting" (as I said above) are completely different experiences.

When you see the Milky Way in an area with some degree of light pollution, it's a nice experience and it looks kind of interesting. When you see it in a place with no or next to no light pollution you are CONFRONTED WITH THE COSMOS.

Algonquin National Park is 250 km from Toronto and still has a zenith sky brightness that's ~1% brighter than natural - and the horizon will be far brighter than that. You have to get 350 km from Toronto until the zenith is natural, and even then the horizon in most directions is going to be bright rather than dark.

That being said, getting to ANY place that's not lit by directly artificial lights, even an urban rooftop or park, will allow you to see far more than you would guess.

Mar 3 at 5:22pmWeb