Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T09:41:27.409Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Disappearance of Darkness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Norman Sperling
Norman Sperling*
Affiliation:
Chabot ObservatoryOakland, CAU.S.A.

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Until the last century, virtually all humans knew the appearance of the dark night sky. Even unschooled urbanites knew some constellations and planets. By 1909, light pollution made authors admonish readers to do their skywatching from the countryside rather than the city. The warnings have escalated along with the light pollution. Light pollution’s effect on professional and volunteer observational astronomy, along with telescopes’ changing focal ratios, largely determine which kinds of astronomy are done in which institutions. In times and places where individuals perceive little possibility to change their culture, astronomers cope as best they can. When activism earns results in other cultural matters, astronomers sometimes become activists to fight light pollution. Chabot Observatory has felt many of these influences in its 105-year history, and they can be read in its plans for the future as well. Despite winning some battles, the war against light pollution is still being lost, so a different approach is suggested.

Type
Light Pollution
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 112: Light Pollution, Radio Interference, and Space Debris , 1991 , pp. 101 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1991

References

Baker, Robert H., “When the Stars Come Out”, New York, Viking Press, revised edition, 1954, p.24.Google Scholar
Beet, Ernest Agar, “The Sky and Its Mysteries”, London, G. Bell and Sons, 1957, p.11.Google Scholar
Bernhard, Hubert J., Bennett, Dorothy A., and Rice, Hugh S., editors, “Handbook of the Heavens”, New York, Whittlesey House, 1935 (first edition), pp. 83–84.Google Scholar
Berry, Richard, “A Manual for the Study of Light Pollution”, Toronto Center, Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, 1 November 1974.Google Scholar
Betz, Jack, “Dark Pollution”, Middle East Region, Astronomical League, 18 May 1974.Google Scholar
Chant, Clarence Augustus, “Our Wonderful Universe”, Yonkers-on-Hudson, NY, World Book Co., 1928(?), p. 150.Google Scholar
Crawford, David L., “Light Pollution: The Adverse Impact of Urban Sky Glow on Astronomy and on the Environment,” Tucson, Arizona, National Optical Astronomy Observatories, Kitt Peak National Observatory, October 1985.Google Scholar
Crawford, David L., personal communication, August 1988.Google Scholar
Draper, Arthur L., and Lockwood, Marian, “The Story of Astronomy”, New York, Dial Press, 1939, p.24.Google Scholar
Dunkin, Edwin, “The Midnight Sky: Familiar Notes on the Stars and Planets”, London, The Religious Tract Society, 1869 (?), p.3.Google Scholar
Guillemin, Amedee, Ciel, Le, 3d edition, Paris: L. Hachette, 1866. pp. 384–385. This is the earliest edition I have been able to check.Google Scholar
Guillemin, Amedee, edited by Lockyer, J. Norman, revised by Proctor, Richard A., “The Heavens: An Illustrated Handbook”, 4th English edition, New York: Scribner, Welford, 1871, pp. 271–273.Google Scholar
Hale, George Ellery, “The New Heavens”, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons 1923, p.1.Google Scholar
Hinks, Arthur R., Astronomy, London: Oxford University Press, 1944 printing of 1936 second edition, p.11.Google Scholar
Hoag, Arthur A., and Peterson, A. R., “Observatories and Outdoor Lighting”, Tucson, Kitt Peak National Observatory, April 1974.Google Scholar
Martin, Martha Evans, and Menzel, Donald Howard, “The Friendly Stars”, New York: Dover Publications, 1964 edition, p.82.Google Scholar
Mood, John and Stephanie, , “Palomar and the Politics of Light Pollution”, Astronomy Vol. 13, No. 11, November 1985, pp. 6–23.Google Scholar
Morrison, Martin E., Takahashi, Allen B., and Kingsley, W. Wightman, “Chabot’s Century of Science Education”, Sky & Telescope, Vol. 65, No. 5, May 1983, pp. 398–400.Google Scholar
Neely, , Henry, M, “A Primer for Star-Gazers”, New York, Harper and Brothers, 1946, (first edition), p.19.Google Scholar
Olcott, , Tyler, William and Putnam, Edmund W., “Field Book of the Skies”, New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1929 (first edition), p. 441.Google Scholar
Oliver, , Westwood, John A., editor, “Astronomy for Amateurs”, London: Longmans, Green, 1888, p.295.Google Scholar
Pike, Robert, and Berry, Richard, “A Bright Future for the Night Sky”, Sky & Telescope, Vol. 55, No. 2, February 1978, pp.126–129.Google Scholar
Riegel, Kurt W., “Light Pollution”, Science, Vol. 179, 30 March 1973, pp. 1285–1291.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Riegler, Gideon, “The Amateur Astronomer”, London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1910, pp. 20–23.Google Scholar
Serviss, Garrett P., “Curiosities of the Sky”, New York; Harper and Brothers 1909, p. 312.Google Scholar
Serviss, Garrett P., “Round the Year with the Stars”, New York: Harper and Brothers 1910, p.17.Google Scholar
Sidgwick, J. B. “Introductory Astronomy: A Guide for Night Watchers”, New York: Philosophical Library, 1944, p.v.Google Scholar
Smart, W. M., “The Sun, the Stars, and the Universe”, London: Longmans, Green 1928, p.143.Google Scholar
Smith, Clarence R., “Earth and Sky: Marvels of Astronomy”, Chicago: University of Knowledge, 1938, p.69.Google Scholar
Sperling, Norman, “How to Fight Light Pollution”, Sky & Telescope, Vol. 55, No. 2, February 1978, pp. 133–138.Google Scholar
Sperling, Norman, “Licking Light Pollution”, Sky & Telescope, Vol. 60, No.1, July 1980, pp. 17–20.Google Scholar
Sperling, Norman, “100 Years at Chabot Observatory”, Astronomy, Vol. 12, No. 1, January 1984, pp. 26–28.Google Scholar
Sperling, Norman, “Of Pupils and Brightness”, Griffith Observer, Vol. 49, No. 1, January 1985, pp.14–19.Google Scholar
Sperling, Norman, “Light Pollution: A Challenge for Astronomers”, Mercury, Vol. 15, No. 5, September-October 1986, pp.144–150.Google Scholar
Stetson, Harlan True, “Man and the Stars”, New York: Whittlesey House, 1930, p.5.Google Scholar
Steward, , Kitt Peak National, and Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatories, “Light Pollution: A Threat to Astronomy in Pima and Santa Cruz Counties”, Tucson, December 1971.Google Scholar
Swezey, Goodwin Deloss, and Gable, J. Harris, Boys Book of Astronomy, New York: E.P. Dutton, 1921, p.63.Google Scholar