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 threadChristopher Kyba 🇨🇦🇪🇺Mar 2
@jameshowell Yeah, it's rough to hear things like that. I remember hearing from some people from (I think) the US NPS that they created a scene with virtual reality goggles to show people what a natural sky looks like when you are dark adapted, and a lot of the people who experienced it didn't believe that it could be real 😥
Show threadJames Endres HowellMar 2

@skyglowberlin When I teach about retinal physiology, it breaks my heart. Often there isn't a single student who has ever experienced vision after true dark adaptation.

It turns out that—it takes time, but it's real—you can see by starlight. And the faintest stars you see? That's a single rod cell detecting A SINGLE PHOTON. Your retina is that sensitive.

Before 1879 this was an absolutely universal human experience. Now it's exotic, unimaginable.

Show threadJeff C. 🇺🇦🇬🇱

@jameshowell @siracusa @skyglowberlin What I miss most about my hometown in rural eastern Washington State is the night sky.

It wasn't akin to being in Antarctica or anything, but I DID grow up being able to stare up to see the “band” of the Milky Way. One of my first major interests as a kid was astronomy. Even had my own telescope.

Mar 4 at 5:00amWeb
Show threadJeff C. 🇺🇦🇬🇱Mar 4

@jameshowell @siracusa @skyglowberlin I now live just outside of Los Angeles.

LA has made great strides in reducing air pollution, but light pollution still basically precludes any real observation of the night sky. Stars are barely a thing here.

If I were a kid living here I very much doubt I'd have developed that interest in astronomy.

Show threadRoadskater, Ph.D.Mar 4
@jeff @jameshowell @siracusa @skyglowberlin Ditto my hometown in eastern Idaho. I remember flying home from school in Houston for Christmas back in the late 1980s, stepping out the airport door, and OMG, I haven't seen so many stars in a loooong time.
Show threadChristopher Kyba 🇨🇦🇪🇺Mar 4
@jeff @jameshowell @siracusa You can still see the Milky Way outside of the small town where I grew up, but it's a lot more washed out than it was when I was a child, and the glow from Edmonton that used to be contained towards one horizon has stretched to the Zenith.