Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Mar 20, 2006 12:50:06 GMT -6
Astronomers fight for dark skies at night
It all started during the blackout of August, 2003, when Sara Poirier was walking through her downtown Toronto neighbourhood, and saw something one rarely sees from any urban centre -- stars. Countless stars.
"People were rushing outside, saying, 'Oh my gosh, look at the stars, they're just incredible,' " recalls Ms. Poirier, an astronomer at the Ontario Science Centre. "People were just awestruck at what they could see with the lights off."
That experience led her to spearhead an Internet-based project aimed at mapping and monitoring "light pollution" across Canada, to get a detailed picture of how the lights of thousands of factories, shopping malls, homes, and cars are hampering our view of the night sky.
The project, to be officially unveiled during Astronomy Week in May, is known as StarWatch ( www.redshiftnow.ca ). It lets ordinary Canadians make simple measurements that allow for easy comparisons of light-pollution levels from one place to another -- for example, by counting the number of faint stars visible within the "bowl" of the Little Dipper. Participants then submit their results on-line.
"We're having people go out, conduct an observation, come back, tell us what they saw, and then map it according to their postal code," explains Ms. Poirier. "It's really just a platform from which you can do all kinds of science."
Story here: www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060318.wxlight18/BNStory/Science/home
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I think it's a good effort to get inolved in...
