Is your sky dark enough?
28.03.2011
When was the last time you saw a really dark sky — a sky so dark that you felt you could just reach out and touch the stars? And how did it make you feel? Perhaps you were in a desert, in the mountains, or just somewhere far from civilization. You probably weren't at home in a town or city, where light is necessary for safety.
Dark skies do more than inspire us and show us our place in the cosmos. They're part of the natural world, and they teach us about it. The constellations move with the days, months and seasons. And the alternation of bright days and dark nights is important to keeping our body chemistry (and that of plants and animals) in balance.
It's never dark in Munich. Photo: Mike Pilewski
Astronomers, biologists and psychologists are worried that truly dark skies are becoming rare. They'd like your help in finding out how serious the problem is. A programme called Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment, or GLOBE, is asking people around the world to measure the light pollution where they live.
It's easy to do: on any clear night between now and 4 April 2011, just look at a couple of well-known constellations and note which stars you see. The GLOBE at Night website has charts for comparison. The data will be added to 52,000 observations sent in from 100 countries over the last five years.
die Hand/ Hände ausstrecken
Wechselfolge
nützen
Verschmutzung
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