How you can see the light

THE best modern telescopes can detect stars a billion times fainter than the eye can see. One astronomer has compared it to being able to spot a cigarette from 125,000 miles away.

Yet as we advance towards the stars with greater technology, we are also in retreat from them. On our small but densely populated island, there are up to nine million street lamps.

Their glare, combined with that of 27 million homes, offices and factories, creates the orange blush of light pollution which means that our solar system is no longer visible to 77 per cent of the UK population.

Just 21.7 per cent of England has pristine skies, according to a survey by the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

The high light levels are disrupting the natural world, one study showing that blackbirds living around artificial light produce young a whole month earlier, and others prove that it changes the time flowers bloom and beetles navigate and hunt.

Perhaps there is not much that can be done to reverse the illumination of our cities. But there are ways to control the levels. The City of London, for example, is looking at replacing 15,000 street lights, using LEDs to focus their output.

There is also much you can do in your own home, installing dimmers and turning lights off. This stops light seeping from houses, as well as saving energy.

The right type of bulb is also important. Northumberland’s Longstone Lighthouse — Britain’s most powerful — uses a 1,000watt light source but people are using 500-watt lights to illuminate even small back gardens.