Have you ever seen the Milky Way from where you live? Most of us have not and it’s largely due to increased light pollution from outdoor lighting. Light pollution not only wastes between 2 to 10 billion dollars a year in energy and money but it causes human sleep disorders and disrupts habits critical to ecology.
GLOBE at Night is working with citizen scientists around the world to observe and measure the changes in light pollution.
GLOBE at Night is an annual 2-week campaign in March. People all over the world record the brightness of their night sky by matching its appearance toward the constellation Orion with star maps of progressively fainter stars. They submit their measurements on-line and a few weeks later, organizers release a map of light-pollution levels worldwide. Over the last four GLOBE at Night campaigns, volunteers from over 100 nations have contributed 35,000 measurements.
Citizen scientists, mark your calendars for March 3-16, 2010, each night from 8-10pm, when there will be no visible Moon and the constellation, Orion, will be visible to naked eyes from almost any location on Earth! It’s easy to get started and Teacher and Family Activity Packs can be downloaded for free. If you do participate, consider sharing your experiences here on ScienceForCitizens.net on your very own Member Blog.