Star Lights
Early this month I was traveling back to Manila from my holiday vacation. While the bus was on a stop somewhere along the route, I can't help but notice that Sirius and the Orion stars are larger and brighter than I was used of seeing them and there were more stars then I can normally see. Immediately, I realized that it was because I was standing near some rice fields and almost no street lights. The first for a long time, I was away from the city lights that normally pollutes the view of the skies at night.
I remember growing up in the province I was once told that I couldn't count the stars I see because it is infinite. As a child I believed that because when I gaze up back then, I knew it will be difficult to count them. Today when I look up on a clear sky I don't think they would sum up close to a hundred if I count. So why do we not see like as many as there was before? Its because of light pollution.
City Lights
Light pollution is global phenomenon caused by wasteful lighting practices in our attempt to turn night into day. Here in Manila, excessive lighting is most noticable in the streets. Roam around the city and you would notice different areas have differents designs of street lights. It's not so hard to guess which ones are efficient and not.
Efficient lighting is when we direct the lights where it is intended to. This kind of lighting reduces and produces almost no light pollution.
I disagree to skeptics who claim the phenomenon is non threatening. They say that is a problem only to astronomers. Aside from blinding the night skies for astronomers and the those gaze up, wasted light big waste of energy and energy cost. In estimate 30% of the light energy we consume are not direted to its proper use and go wasted glarring our atmosphere. Aside from this studies now show that it also has health and environmental consequences.
Global awareness about light pollution is increasing. Thanks to the independent groups and their websites. This year we can take part in a global survey aiming to measure the amount of light pollution around the world . Go this website-http://www.globeatnight.org/analyze.html and follow 5 easy steps. No need for special tools or knowledge, just naked eye and your observation. Hope that we can increase from only 12 participants from the Philippines last year.
Early this month I was traveling back to Manila from my holiday vacation. While the bus was on a stop somewhere along the route, I can't help but notice that Sirius and the Orion stars are larger and brighter than I was used of seeing them and there were more stars then I can normally see. Immediately, I realized that it was because I was standing near some rice fields and almost no street lights. The first for a long time, I was away from the city lights that normally pollutes the view of the skies at night.
I remember growing up in the province I was once told that I couldn't count the stars I see because it is infinite. As a child I believed that because when I gaze up back then, I knew it will be difficult to count them. Today when I look up on a clear sky I don't think they would sum up close to a hundred if I count. So why do we not see like as many as there was before? Its because of light pollution.
City Lights
Light pollution is global phenomenon caused by wasteful lighting practices in our attempt to turn night into day. Here in Manila, excessive lighting is most noticable in the streets. Roam around the city and you would notice different areas have differents designs of street lights. It's not so hard to guess which ones are efficient and not.
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| Light Pollution in Manila |
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| Misguided Street Lights |
Efficient lighting is when we direct the lights where it is intended to. This kind of lighting reduces and produces almost no light pollution.
 |
| Example of Directional Lighting |
I disagree to skeptics who claim the phenomenon is non threatening. They say that is a problem only to astronomers. Aside from blinding the night skies for astronomers and the those gaze up, wasted light big waste of energy and energy cost. In estimate 30% of the light energy we consume are not direted to its proper use and go wasted glarring our atmosphere. Aside from this studies now show that it also has health and environmental consequences.
Global awareness about light pollution is increasing. Thanks to the independent groups and their websites. This year we can take part in a global survey aiming to measure the amount of light pollution around the world . Go this website-http://www.globeatnight.org/analyze.html and follow 5 easy steps. No need for special tools or knowledge, just naked eye and your observation. Hope that we can increase from only 12 participants from the Philippines last year.
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