If not, Find out How You Can Get Them

Every night I get to go outside and look up at dark skies. It’s a consequence of where I live — in a rural location devoid of much of the light pollution associated with modern, urban life. As a result, I get to see dark night skies the way our ancestors did — in fact, the way most people on Earth saw the skies until the invention of electric lights and their widespread use outdoors. Amazingly enough, everybody had decent dark skies up until the turn of the 19th century into the 20th.  Sure, there were gaslights in some cities, but their effect was nothing like the millions of watts that now get sent skyward by our combined world-wide lighting fixture collection.

Want to learn more about light pollution and its effects on us and the life forms around us?  Check out this new three-minute video from McDonald Observatory. It could change the way you view light pollution and the dark skies.

Also, considering joining and supporting the International Dark-Sky Association. This group has done a lot  to help people save money and the environment by employing well designed lighting. Their web pages are packed with useful and money-saving ideas to help us use our lighting resources more carefully.  In an era where oil spills decorate our news pages and TV broadcasts, and depletion of energy resources is now a household term, looking for ways to use our energy supplies is a wise solution. It also returns to many humans something they haven’t seen for a long time: the beautiful night sky.