Are you able to watch stars clearly at night? If not, you're sky is affected with light pollution. With more than half of the worldwide population living in urban areas and more than one fifth living in large cities of one million or more inhabitants—light pollution obscures the stars above billions of people
As an urban denizen, one might fail to notice it, but light pollution is making city slickers miss out on some breathtaking views of the night sky.
Light pollution is artificial illumination that has surprisingly changed the view of the night sky across the globe.
It is present in our surroundings since the 1800s but was undetectable at the time.
In recent times, several methods to detect this form of pollution have been discovered. A project called GLOBE at Night has been quantifying light pollution since 2006. Using people affected by light pollution, its measuring instruments collect relevant data.
As reported by The Scientific American, The GLOBE at Night’s most recent campaign was conducted in 2012. Nearly 17,000 observations from participants in 92 countries were collected. (The 2013 campaign is still accepting data for a few more weeks.)
Apart from such projects, there are also amateurs that are working towards tracking down data about light pollution. Light pollution researcher, Christopher Kyba is one of them.
Kyba of the Free University of Berlin and his colleagues published a study with the help of GLOBE at night on May 16 in the online, open-access journal Scientific Reports.
Besides this, web-based and mobile apps are also available for tracking light pollution.
Android apps like Loss of the Night have been introduced to study exactly how bad the light pollution is. The app helps measure sky glow by learning which stars are visible or invisible to the naked eye at the user’s location. This app is made by Verlust der Nacht.
Apps like Dark Sky Meter on iOS set up by Norbert Schmidt, Mario Hodzelmans, and Harro Treur can also be used. It helps users measure the pollution in the sky directly, using the iPhone camera.
Light pollution is maximum in America, Europe and even in Australia. But it is also prevalent in India. In 2012, Delhi's night sky was reported to be targeted by it.
Due to this pollution most city skies have become virtually empty of stars.
Now scattering rays from over-lit cities and suburbs, and light-flooded highways and factories won't look as beautiful.
Checkout this video of Christopher Kyba on explaining "Light at night" in Germany:
To know more about light pollution, read the Cornerstone project
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