Save the Night | Be the Solution, Stop Light Pollution
"Here on the island of Nantucket, 30 miles out to sea, we’re blessed with dark skies. For now.
Seen from space today, Nantucket glows like a firefly in the night. Our view of the starry skies is at risk of slowly, imperceptibly, disappearing. It’s estimated that two-thirds of Americans can no longer see the Milky Way at night because of the glare of artificial lights where they live. Light pollution not only spoils our view of the night sky, it also affects our health, wastes resources, and impacts other creatures on our planet.
Fortunately, there are still plenty of places on Nantucket where it’s possible to see stars from horizon to horizon. But if we don’t work together to preserve our dark skies, we’ll lose them."
Maria Mitchell Association website, https://www.mariamitchell.org/the-dark-night-sky
Nantucket Night Sky Quality Data
Satellite Data (2023)
Orbiting satellites have mapped how much light is shining upward from the ground below. Here’s what Nantucket looks like as seen at night from space, based on the data collected in 2023. This actually understates the amount of light pollution because satellites can't detect much of the blue light emitted by LEDs.
Sky Quality Monitoring Data (2022-23)
In June 2022, we launched a Sky Quality Monitoring Program to collect data about the brightness of Nantucket's night skies using Sky Quality Meters. The first year of SQM data (June 2022 through May 2023) showed that the island average was 20.65 on the SQM scale. The point at which the Milky Way is difficult or impossible to see with the naked eye is approximately 20.2 on that scale. (As this diagram illustrates, the higher the number on the SQM scale, the darker the night sky is, and the less light pollution there is.)
Our goal is reduce light pollution so that the island average is at 21.0 — or even higher!
To learn more about our Sky Quality Monitoring Program,
click here.
Let's make Nantucket an EXCELLENT DARK SKY SITE!
The Bortle Scale
The Bortle scale is a nine-level numeric scale that measures the night sky’s brightness of a particular location. It quantifies the astronomical observability of celestial objects and the interference caused by light pollution. John E. Bortle created the scale and published it in the February 2001 edition of Sky & Telescope magazine to help amateur astronomers evaluate the darkness of an observing site, and secondarily, to compare the darkness of observing sites. The scale ranges from Class 1, the darkest skies available on Earth, through Class 9, inner-city skies.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Do you want to help preserve Nantucket's dark skies?
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