Dark Skies

If you haven’t seen today’s APOD image, go have a look. It’s a view of the night sky over Flagstaff, Arizona.

Flagstaff institutded dark sky rules years ago to limit billboard lighting, bad lighting fixtures, searchlight advertizing, and other light polluting activities. While Flagstaff is no New York City and I wouldn’t really expect our night skies here to ever get that dark, Flagstaff is comparable to Rochester, NY where I lived for nearly 8 years. The picture taken in Flagstaff could never have been taken in Rochester. Worse, the picture above can’t be taken anywhere near New York City. I’ve been at Robert Moses State Park on Long Island at night, 60 miles from NYC, and the glow from NYC is a problem.

I think its past time we get sensible about our lighting.