Bareket observatory is the
·
Bareket
observatory IDA status report – as for 2007.
Every single week, while you
are sleeping, about 47,945
FIFTY THOUSAND SHEKELS!
Nearly 2,500,000 shekels a
year!
Lost - forever.
·
No one watt will protect you or
your property, but will waste more and more fuel- making us more dependent on
other countries.
Light pollution steals the stars light
Starlight is our natural heritage. It connects
us, fuses us, to all our ancestors and their dark and crystal night sky.
We can't afford to lose one of our greatest
treasures our ancestors bequeath to us : THE
NIGHT'S SKY
· Save
our stars!
We can't
turn the light of – but we can design, create and build smart lights.
Smart
light
Shine toward
the targets by enhancing our safety and security, protecting people and
properties, not up into the sky, cloaking the space in a dull, yellowish glow.
Nearly 95% of
Milky Way due to light
pollution.
CAN YOU?
We can't stop the progress – but we can teach everyone to use
Smart light.
We must act now!
Imagine children growing up without being
allowed to see trees or birds (or any other aspect of nature): now, how is this
any different from preventing our children from seeing the stars?! But by our
thoughtless erection of outdoor lights everywhere --- without consideration of
glare and light trespass, without consideration of safety, without
consideration of the right to privacy, and without consideration of the energy
waste and the waste of taxpayer dollars --- we are making it so that a very
small percentage of children are able to grow up in the world today with the
ability to see and ponder the wonders of our beautiful starry night sky.
Light pollution?
Simply put, light pollution is wasted light. You
can recognize light pollution by sky glow, the glow at night above the town and
harsh light shining in our eyes.
Astronomers,
in their search for an understanding of the origin and evolution of the
universe, are always striving to study fainter objects in visible light. One
important reason to make such observations is that many kinds of interesting
objects are intrinsically faint.
But
there is another, more substantive, reason astronomers are interested in faint
objects. Because light has a finite speed, telescopes act as ``time machines.''
When we look at distant objects whose light has been traveling toward us for a
very long time, we see them as they were at an earlier epoch. Astronomers are
constantly struggling to probe deeper into space in order to observe the
universe at times closer to its creation.
Distant
objects appear faint from our perspective, and to probe the distant universe
means observing faint objects at the limits of detect ability.
The words
of renowned astronomer Edwin Hubble still hold true today: ``With increasing
distance, our knowledge fades, and fades rapidly. Eventually we reach the dim
boundary - the utmost limits of our telescopes. There, we measure shadows, and
we search among ghostly errors of measurement for landmarks that are scarcely
more substantial.'' The observation of faint objects requires large
telescopes, and astronomers have constantly pushed technology in their quest
for ever larger telescopes.
To view
faint objects requires not only large telescopes but also dark skies.
Regardless of the telescope's size or type of observation being made, very
faint objects fade into the background brightness of the night sky.
Left –Bad shading, can
you see any stars???
Right – Smart light:
Milky Way is visible!
Dimming
glare safely
Some people worry that these proposed lighting restrictions might compromise night-
time safety. However, what is not commonly known is that the very changes that
darken the sky also increase the quality of ground lighting. For example,
streetlamps that use mirrors or lenses to direct the light downwards eliminate
the glare caused by horizontal and vertical emission. Glare is bad because it
reduces night vision, by making shadows darker than they otherwise would be.
Compare how much you are able to see in your room directly after you turn off
the lights at night, to how much you can see half a minute later, once your
eyes have adjusted. Proper fixtures that direct the light downwards can
illuminate dark corners without compromising pedestrians' night vision,
allowing them to see better overall.
Combatting Light Pollution
In the astronomer's ideal world, all exterior lighting would use low-pressure
sodium bulbs. These are the best choice to minimize adverse effects on
astronomical observing, because low-pressure sodium has thinner spectral lines
and as such is much easier to extract from an image. They are also the most
energy efficient, and are inexpensive compared to the metal halide bulbs
currently used for most streetlamps. Also, instead of shining a bright white
light, they are a golden yellow—easy on the eyes, minimizing glare.
These
bulbs are saving more than 60% less electricity.
Light pollution is not a
matter of life
and death. Yet it is
important nonetheless, profoundly so.
We human beings lose something
of ourselves when we can no longer look up and see our place in the universe.
It is like never again
hearing the laughter of children; we give up part of what we are.
Pic – Smart light.
