I was reading in National Geographic the other day, a recent article about light pollution.
I have always known it was a problem near the cities in the U.S. It was able to see more stars at night in the mountains where I spent several summers. But, I don’t believe I was ever seen the stars as bright as I have here in Iraq.
At FOB Hammer–there was always a problem with dust or air pollution blotting out the stars at night. Here in the city–there is plenty of sky. I will admit that we have many outside lights out here. I have to walk away to see the stars clearly. But, i can see more stars here than I ever could in South Carolina.
It is a beautiful sight.
In America, we need to take more steps to reduce our outside lighting. Some are necessary. Some other spades of lighting could be use to disipate the lights more. Mainy of the office building lights need to be turned off at night anyway to save electricity.
I believe that we need the night as free of artificial light as possible. Not only will it improve our stargazing, but it will improve our sleep as well.