1y ago

The loss of dark skies is so painful, astronomers coined a new term for it

www.space.com The loss of dark skies is so painful, astronomers coined a new term for it

'Noctalgia' is a feature of the modern age.

Given the harmful effects of light pollution, a pair of astronomers has coined a new term to help focus efforts to combat it. Their term, as reported in a brief paper in the preprint database arXiv and a letter to the journal Science, is "noctalgia." In general, it means "sky grief," and it captures the collective pain we are experiencing as we continue to lose access to the night sky.

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It’s shocking how many lights are left on during the night in a city or a built up area. Does a big box store need to keep its logo lit all night? We’re so desperate to shut out the beauty of the planet and blind ourselves with human made ugliness.
- It's frustrating how many people have security lights aimed wrong. They're often aimed high, wasting light to the sky, and they're often mounted low, blinding you walking into your own home and leaving you vulnerable.
  
  Or those backyard street lights bright enough an airplane could land with!
  
  The sad irony is that with no around to monitor the property, these [in]security lights are often just providing light to any thieves. If you see flashlights bobbing in a yard, it's suspicious. If you see someone walking through someone else's yard, it might just be the owner. If you light the yard and you aren't around to look, do the thieves make a sound?
  
  Be nice if everyone just used infrared and/or motion detection. There's no reason to have outdoor lights on all night.
  
  This. I’m visually impaired and actually need a lot of light to operate normally.
  At one point in my life I lived in a large building where all the hallways were operated by infrared sensors. It was honestly pretty cool to just walk around and get the light I needed without pressing any buttons.
  I’ve often thought about how neat it would be if we could do same for outdoor spaces.
- TBH if I’m out at night I’d much prefer it to be bright and lit up in the city. If the city is dark and quiet at night it feels more unsafe to residents.
  Not saying it’s right, but it makes sense
  
  The city can be lit and bright and keep the light pollution to a low. If only street lights were on, and these were directed towards the ground.
  
  Additionally, you’d use a different kind of light for street lights. On the island of Hawaii, that island specifically has a light pollution law that mandates all street lights have to use an orange light bulb, and they can only be in certain places. It’s amazing because you can see so many stars in the night sky.
  If city lights are gonna be on 24/7, we should start to see if we can get traction for reduced brightness and installing less light polluting lights.
  
  It's technically not orange light bulbs they have to use, it's a specific lamp style called 'low pressure sodium'
  Here's an article that explains the reasoning behind Hawaii's lighting sources and the regulations:
  https://www.accessfixtures.com/hawaii-lighting-ordinances-dark-sky-regulations/
  
  That site is claiming that phosphor-converted amber LEDs provide all the benefits of low-pressure sodium. They do not; one of the benefits of LPS is that astronomers have a very narrow frequency band to filter out, while PC amber is much wider. Monochromatic amber LEDs are more comparable to LPS.
  
  We put a yellow bulb for our house porch light, and it doesn't even attract bugs! It's like a win/win.
  
  My gf says the same about our hood. I like it dark as it is. We spend a lot of time walking at night, and I don't feel it's any less safe.
  If you're on the street in the dark, your eyes adjust so you can also see into the shadows. If it's lit up, you can only see what's in the light.
  I'm actually a bit nervous under the bright lights! Having said that, I'm a man and don't have the same concerns as a woman (in the dark).
  On top of that, I almost always carry a pistol with tritium sights or a light. So maybe that's another reason I'm a bit more confident in the dark?
  
  On top of that, I almost always carry a pistol with tritium sights or a light. So maybe that’s another reason I’m a bit more confident in the dark?
  Yeah, carrying a gun everywhere might have something to do with why you feel comfortable and other people don't.
  
  Meh, a gun is a rock-bottom, last resort thing. It's not something where a sane person thinks, "I'm armed so I have nothing to fear."
  Hard to explain to someone that doesn't carry, but it makes one hyper-aware of their situation, because it's a trump card you don't want to play. Makes you more likely to avoid risk, if that makes sense.
  
  I’m actually a bit nervous under the bright lights!
  Yeah, because everything outside the light cone will be pitch black to you. I think that's another benefit of those old orange lights. They don't cause your eyes to adjust, so you can still see well how the surroundings look like.
  
  I walk in the woods behind the neighborhood at night. Without a flashlight, I can see the sandy trail and be aware. With a light, all I can see is what's right in front of me.
- Or the big advertisement screens. I get the need for street lights but they also don't have to be the most brightest super white LEDs that exist either. Nowadays I literally can't even tell whether it is cloudy or not, because the sky is just this mushy grey noise. And the sad thing is that I still remember the night sky from a couple decades ago when cities weren't quite as bright. Now you can be lucky to see the little dim flickering of the brightest odd stars every now and then.
  
  the sky is just this mushy grey noise
  You might even say it's the colour of television, tuned to a dead channel
- As someone currently living across the road from a strip mall with a dozen various businesses…NO YOU DO NOT NEED TO KEEP THE LIGHTS ON 24/7

96 comments