Photographers Build the World’s Largest Remote Observatory https://petapixel.com/2025/07/11/photographers-build-the-worlds-largest-remote-observatory/ #starfrontobservatories #astrophotography #remotetelescope #lightpollution #observatory #Equipment #brayfalls #telescope #nightsky #Space #astro #News
"The leading international authority that certifies dark sky parks says the artificial light from #AlligatorAlcatraz 'directly threatens' the preserve’s renowned natural darkness and disrupts endangered #nocturnal #wildlife."
There's an industry in the UK pushing a tourism-led agenda that we have dark skies that make them worthy of recognition.
It relies on chutzpah rather than hard work tackling light pollution.
Lines are drawn around places like Eryri ('Snowdonia') that are dark relative to, say, a town and declared "truly dark" and "pristine".
But these areas are blighted by 'imported' light pollution, as this shot from Anglesey, looking to the N and NE this morning, clearly shows.
New instance, new #introduction post!
The time has come for me to move on to this instance much more in line with my interests.
Gone are the many messages that I posted over the last couple of years, but I'm happy to have found a new, more like-minded community to compensate for this migration side effect.
You will find me sharing mostly #LandscapePhotography, #NightPhotography, #MacroPhotography and #BirdPhotography.
I am also interested in #astronomy and #LightPollution.
Below are a few of my landscape photos.
"Recent research shows the night sky in #NorthAmerica is getting brighter every year – on average, researchers say, you can see about 10 percent fewer stars than the year before. But the #BigBend area in #Texas has fended off the light glow that washes out starry nights."
@frankobert Darum ist es u.a. so wichtig, sich gegen Lichtverschmutzung einzusetzen. Sonst ist (nicht nur) die Milchstraße bald nirgends mehr zu sehen.
Hier gibt es Tipps vom BUND:
https://www.bund-rhein-neckar-odenwald.de/themen-und-projekte/naturschutz/nachtretter/
This also suggests that artificial skyglow (a form of light pollution) is almost certainly a source of evolutionary pressure.
If you care about #Biodiversity, if you care about #GlobalChange, or if you care about #Sustainability, you should care about #LightPollution.
It's the stupidest form of #pollution, and the easiest to fix.
Reminder: my #LPS25 talk is tomorrow - literally the last talk of the conference.
But I promise it's going to be entertaining and you'll leave on a high note! Here's a sneak peak...
In their pitch for a switch to LED lights, the Leeds City Council said "We believe that a reduction of 20% in night-time crime only is a reasonable assumption in the context of Leeds."
Statistician Paul Marchant compared the rates of crime in different parts of the city as the lights were replaced over a several year period: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12061-025-09675-1
The result: no change in crime.
This will come as no surprise to anyone who has examined the existing literature on light and #crime.
Hopefully the software will be smart enough to remove #Starlink and other satellites 
#lightpollution https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2025-06-22/vera-rubin-observatory-universe-never-before/105442694 #VeraRubin #astronomy
“Care about dark skies,”…“Because it's part of being human.”
A terrific article from our public broadcaster. Contributions from U of Regina’s own @sundogplanets
#Astronomy #NightSky #LightPollution #Canada
https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/loss-of-the-night-sky
Nature Cities chose our submission for their cover! https://www.nature.com/natcities/volumes/2/issues/6
Steffen Lohse-Koch took the photo, and also took data in our #CitizenScience project: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44284-025-00239-5
The editors of Nature Cities invited me to write a short summary ("research briefing") of our recent paper. You can read it here: https://rdcu.be/er8X3
Full paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44284-025-00239-5
@sundogplanets
It's also the sort of business that I feel like any state foreign intelligence service ought to be willing to fund. Just in case something they regarded as not being useful to them in space needed to be de-orbited in a responsible and timely manner. I feel like we should try to persuade the band to capitalise on that... 
Regardless, astronomers of the world will be willing to give Space Junk Removal Service a listen 
https://spacejunkremovalservice.bandcamp.com/album/critically-reclaimed
Citizen science study determines that more than one light per person is still on late at night in Germany https://phys.org/news/2025-06-citizen-science-person-late-night.html
Another organism found to be navigating by the stars that could be confused by both #skyglow and #satellites.
To the extent that other moth species might also be using stars as navigation guides, and to the extent that some of those species pollinate our food crops, #DarkSkies are more important than ever.
https://www.sciencealert.com/tiny-moth-seen-navigating-by-the-stars-in-scientific-first
Exposure to artificial light at night and higher temperatures can extend the growing season of urban plants by up to three weeks. This puts additional strain on the energy and water balance of trees and shrubs that are already under stress. In Europe, leaves sprout particularly earlier than in other global regions. Read more about the study published in Nature Cities yesterday: https://www.igb-berlin.de/en/news/light-pollution-extends-growing-season-urban-plants
#ALAN #LightPollution #ClimateChange #GreenSpaces
Another article about #LightPollution also came out in Nature Cities today: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44284-025-00258-2
@travislongcore is a co-author, and the paper's title is "Artificial light at night outweighs temperature in lengthening urban growing seasons"
The authors looked at how temperature, artificial light, and how urban a city is (impervious surface fraction) affect the start and end of the growing season for plants.
They found that artificial light "increased exponentially toward urban centers, and exerted stronger influence than air temperature in lengthening the urban growing season, especially by delaying its end, although the effects varied across climate zones."
In case you are interested in light pollution and didn't see it yet, check out the thread above 
Citizen science illuminates the nature of city lights: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44284-025-00239-5 -> Questions and answers about the Nachtlichter project and 2021 results: https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/rest/items/item_5035605_3/component/file_5035610/content - see also https://skyweek.wordpress.com/2025/06/15/allgemeines-live-blog-ab-dem-15-juni-2025/#Jun16 with more links like to the related long papers https://lightingjournal.org/index.php/path/article/view/133 and https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/faces/ViewItemOverviewPage.jsp?itemId=item_5022987, the personal article https://communities.springernature.com/posts/behind-the-paper-citizen-science-illuminates-the-nature-of-city-lights-citizen-scientists-insights-into-the-research-project-nachtlichter and the detailled thread https://scicomm.xyz/@skyglowberlin@fediscience.org/114692236465186253 #LightPollution
These results are particularly important for people who model artificial night sky brightness (skyglow), because up until now, most skyglow models assume that all of the light comes from streetlight-style lights.
This shows that there are a great number of light sources that shine sideways (signs, and windows), that are right now being largely ignored.
This is also important for efforts to reduce #LightPollution, because it means that while streetlights are important, fixing them is not going to come close to fixing the entire problem.
Illuminated advertisements and lights mounted on buildings are also important - and the lights from residential houses probably matter a lot more than people generally think!
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