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
Light Pollution Map
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 data available in November 2022. This actually understates the amount of light pollution because satellites can't detect much of the blue light emitted by LEDs.
Rate of Growth
Between 2012 and 2020, light pollution on Nantucket increased at a rate of 2.4% each year, according to satellite data. Because satellites are essentially blind to the blue light emitted by LEDs, the rate of growth is actually even greater than this.
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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