Astronomer for a Day...Er, Night

GLOBE at Night is an annual program put together by Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE), which is a worldwide hands-on, school-based science education program. They encourage teachers and students to collaborate with active scientists to investigate their environment here on Earth.

GLOBE at Night is designed to study the spread of light pollution across the surface of our planet. Light pollution is the illumination of the night sky caused by artificial light sources here on earth such as streetlights, billboards, floodlights, stadium lights, etc. Quantifying it is important because it affects more than just astronomers. Cities and suburban areas are only going to continue to grow, and with them the amount of outdoor lighting. In addition to washing out the stars at night, light pollution can mess with both biological and ecological wildlife systems. More importantly it might even impact you, at least the ladies out there, as scientist recently reported finding a link between breast cancer and high amounts of light at night. The Washington Post published an article on this discovery last week and NPR's Bryant Park Project reported the news as well. This year of the program is an especially critical one as population and census data tell us that more than half the people on Earth are expected to be currently living in cities.

Now while this isn't becoming an environmental blog, I bring this to your attention because there is an astronomical connection here. As I mentioned, astronomers are not big fans of light pollution which is why most major telescopes are far away from big cities and towns and from most light sources altogether, often in deserts or on mountaintops or both. In fact, the Canary Islands of Spain have passed a lighting ordinance to preserve the visibility of the telescopes facilities located there. The University of Hawai'i has a great website dedicated to the importance of reducing light pollution. 

Your chance to help this effort comes any night between now and March 8th when you decide to participate in the GLOBE at Night program. You will be asked to observe and record the magnitude of visible stars where you live as a means of measuring the light pollution at your location. Using the constellation Orion, you will compare how bright it appears to you with example charts on the web to approximate the apparent magnitude of the stars where you are. (They will guide you through the steps, so don't worry if you the magnitude of stars means nothing to you). This will provide the data necessary to estimate your amount of light pollution. Then you can share your results online and compare the light pollution at your location with others around the world, like a global science project of sorts!

Just follow these five easy steps and you too can be an astronomer for a night!