Jeff Albro: A letter to fight light pollution

A letter to fight light pollution

This was a response to an article in my local town newspaper. The article talked about improving your outdoor lighting without mentioning the harm to the night sky. This is the response I sent. It was published a week later.

Feel free to use parts of it for your own letters in defense of the night sky.

Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2004 08:20:35 -0400 (EDT)
From: jeff@antistatic.com
To: towncrossings@andovertownsman.com
Subject: "Lighting up the night" article

Dear Linda Greenstein,

Your article "Lighting up the night" mentioned the beauty of outdoor lighting but forgot the beauty that poor nighttime lighting can obscure - the Milky Way and the stars.

Out in the rural mountains, the Milky Way blazes across the night sky. In a small telescope, the Veil Nebula is a twisting swath of glowing hydrogen and star clusters shine like bags of diamonds.

Here in North Andover, the stars are washed out in an orange haze. The billowing star clouds of the Milky Way are reduced to a barely noticeable glow. This is light pollution.

It doesn't have to be this way. You can help maintain the beauty of the sky while still keeping your home and neighborhood safe:

* Make sure lights shine down, not up. Light that goes up or sideways wastes light and the glare actually makes it harder to see what you are looking at.

* Use timers or motion sensors to keep lights off when they aren't needed.

* Don't use more lights than necessary.

With just a little bit of care and planning we can all help make sure there are stars left to wish on.

Sincerely,

Jeff Albro

North Andover