Light Versus Night
UT's video guide to cutting light pollution
By Richard Whittaker, 8:17PM, Thu. Jul. 1, 2010
If you've ever wondered why you can't see many starts in the city at night, it's called light pollution. UT Austin and the McDonald Observatory are spending this week educating people on what they're missing when they blank out the night sky with unnecessary or badly-aligned bulbs.
As explained in this week's issue, light pollution doesn't sound like a big deal, but it has serious environmental, ecological and medical effects.
The positive part? As Rowena Evans, editor of the International Dark-Sky Association's Nightscape magazine, said it's the only form of pollution that can disappear with a flick of a switch.
Got something to say on the subject? Send a letter to the editor.
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Environment, UT, Light Pollution, Dark Skies Initiative, McDonald Observatory