STARRY, STARRY NIGHT
The night sky has long been a source of rapture and reverence. But with the increase of artificial light – in rural as well as urban locations – it’s never been more important to appreciate and preserve this astronomical wonder
Where to fully appreciate this astronomical wonder
Perspective comes from looking up into the night sky; a dark and glittering cloak, thrown around the world, containing all the mystery of the universe. Infinite, profound and – if the weather is clear – a revelation of celestial bodies twinkling back at you. As the late Stephen Hawking recommended, “Remember to look up at the stars… try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist.”
That wonder has been intrinsic to the human experience since ancient times, when people navigated by stars, built shrines, or ‘henges’, to understand astrological moments such as solstices and equinoxes, and used that knowledge to plant crops after frosts or harvest before winter. Later, seers and astrologers
Less than 100 years ago, everyone could look up and see a spectacular starry night
looked to these pinpricks of light to divine the inner workings of fate. Could they have foreseen that, by the 21st century, the heavens would largely be obscured by the workings of man?
Less than 100 years ago, everyone could look up and see a spectacular starry night, but from the 1950s, when streetlamps began to dispel the night in earnest, dark skies became rarer and rarer experiences for anyone but those in the remotest of places. Today, most people will now never see the Milky Way from where they live.
And it’s not just cities that suffer; light pollution is increasingly bleeding out into rural areas, too. Indeed, the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) insists that “darkness at night is one of the key characteristics of rural areas and represents a major difference between what is rural and what is urban”. To that end, the CPRE’S ‘night blight’ campaign aims to raise awareness and includes interactive maps to show the extent of light pollution in areas around the UK (nightblight.cpre.org.uk/maps/).
“When you see a truly dark sky, it blows your mind,” says Robin Scagell, president of the Society for Popular Astronomy. “A lot of people find the experience almost frightening because it makes our role in the galaxy so clear. It also makes people wonder, ‘Why can’t we see this at home?’ We don’t realise how obscured our skies have become.”
Importantly, creeping artificial light is not just an aesthetic or philosophical issue, but an environmental one, too. It is about wasted energy, burning our council taxes in its dazzling glare, and that impacts on animal and plant life, which depend on the daily cycle of light and dark to govern reproduction, nourishment, sleep and protection from predators. Too much light can actually drive wildlife away or even kill it – indeed, three species of moths have become extinct as a result since 2000.
But is light pollution inevitable in a modern society addicted to a 24-hour day? The British Astronomical Association Commission for Dark Skies says no. “One of the obstacles to finding a solution is that everyone in this country has grown up with excessive lighting around them – and they think it’s normal,” says coordinator
Bob Mizon. “It’s so easy to get back to the dark night – you just put the light where it’s needed. Most environmental problems have a complex solution, but this is relatively simple and could be achieved overnight if there was legislation around it. The night sky is the only part of the environment with no protection in law.”
For Moffat in Dumfries and Galloway, awareness was a community effort – the town being relit over three years with dark skyfriendly lighting, earning it the title of Europe’s first Dark Sky Town. It’s listed among the UK’S other Dark Sky Discovery Sites, places that are recognised for low light pollution, accessibility and excellent star-gazing potential. Globally, the International Dark Sky Association also recognises areas with low light pollution and, here, the UK punches well above its weight in the largest category, having four of only 11 Dark Sky Reserves around the world (see below right).
In darkness, we are all illuminated by distant worlds visible once more – it’s a gift we should preserve. Robin Scagell looks up at the sky and points out the Andromeda galaxy – the twin of our Milky Way, and one of the nearest galaxies to us. “Its light has taken 2.5 million light years to get here to earth,” he muses. It’s a shame to thwart it when it finally does arrive.