What is Light Pollution?
My bedroom at home is on the top floor of our house. It sits back from the main road and there are no streetlights that flood my room with a hazy orange glow. Instead, the only thing I can see at night is the distinct outline of the pine trees that line my yard. Sometimes I pop the screen of one of my windows out and crawl through my open window onto the roof so I can view the unobstructed night sky. The Big Dipper is always easily visible on a clear night, as is Orion, and even the Seven Sisters, faint and clustered together. I can even see the Milky Way. This, I have come to realize, is a rare view for most of the world’s population. A view of the Milky Way over Eagle Lake, Acadia National Park,…