From the famous...
"I enjoyed being out there, every element had something different about it but actually being out in the middle of nowhere, with the stars out, is just a fantastic place to be."
Prince Harry,
commenting on his time serving
in Afghanistan on the BBC News
"Growing up in Karnal, India, some of my precious memories are sleeping under the stars in summers and being awed by the majesty of the night sky. My mother pointed out the milky way and some of the constellations; I suspect some times we gazed forever, without blinking for minutes. Something about the night sky causes us all, young and old, to ponder over the very basic questions. We are inspired and motivated."
"When you look at the stars and the galaxy, you feel that you are not just from any particular piece of land, but from the solar system"
Kalpana Chawla,
US/Indian Astronaut, who lost her life
in the Space-shuttle Columbia accident
Visit her Memorial website
"I remember as a very small child being completely blown away by looking up into the night sky and wondering what it was all about. I think I spent most of my childhood being torn between music and astronomy. I support this campaign because I think particularly kids have a right to see the night sky. We all do, but it certainly pains me to think there are people growing up in this country who may never even see the Milky Way unless they go somewhere else."
Brian May, from the CPRE website.
"The Campaign for Dark Skies deserves wide support during this special year [2009, International Year of Astronomy]. But it's not just astronomers who want to experience a clear view of the stars, just as it's not just keen ornithologists who would feel deprived if song-birds disappeared from parks and gardens. It's indeed a deprivation if young people living in cities never see a dark starry sky - just as it is if they never see any natural countryside."
Sir Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal of England,
at the UK opening of the International Year of Astronomy 2009.
"There is a large community of ornithologists but even those of us who are not ornithologists would miss the song birds in our gardens [if they were to disappear]. Likewise I think there is a much larger community than those who would call themselves even the most casual of astronomers who do feel deprived if they cannot see a dark sky and they would feel it sad if children cannot see a dark sky...
Indeed, to be slightly romantic, the night sky is one part of our environment we have shared with all cultures in all periods of human history. It is very special..."
Sir Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal of England,
during oral evidence given at a UK Parliament Select Committee on Science and Technology meeting.
"Light pollution is increasing. Unless something is done, future generations may never see the stars."
Sir Patrick Moore, from the CPRE website.
"Springfield! Turn off your lights! Nobody likes sickly orange barf glow!"
Lisa Simpson, on The Simpsons!
"In our carelessness, we have flooded the night sky with light, so that many of us can no longer see the stars. But we can reverse this trend, quickly, cheaply and easily. It's time to bring back the night sky."
Prunella Scales, from the CPRE website.
"As an amateur astronomer as well as a writer, I am driven to fury at the way we so stupidly and wastefully pollute our skies. ... Light pollution is as mindless as Musak, and harder to escape. ... For millennia, mankind marvelled at the stars. Who'd have thought we'd so mindlessly destroy them?"
Terry Pratchett, from the CPRE website.
"The wonder of the night sky is something which fewer and fewer of us are able to experience. With more thought put into lighting design, we must be able to find a better balance between our fear of the dark and our wonder at the beauty of the night sky."
Jeremy Irons, from the CPRE website.
"A bright starlit sky creates in us a sense of awe and wonder at the scale of the universe. Any further encroachment of this precious environment diminishes the nature of what it is to be human."
Joan Bakewell, from the CPRE website.
"The night sky is part of our human inheritance. We are poorer without it."
Libby Purves, from the CPRE website.
"The natural world, our traditional source of direct insights, is rapidly disappearing. Modern city-dwellers cannot even see the stars at night. This humbling reminder of Man's place in the scheme of things, which human beings once saw ever twenty-four hours, is denied them. It's no wonder that people lose their bearings, that they lose track of who they really are, and what their lives are really about."
Michael Crichton, Travels, Pan McMillan Publications
Author of "The Andromeda Strain", and "Jurassic Park"
"...A town debars
Much notice of what's going on in stars.
The idea is no doubt to make one job
Of lighting the whole night with one big blob
Of electricity in bulk the way
The sun sets the example in the day."
Robert Frost, 'The Literate Farmer and the Planet Venus', 1942
American Poet
"The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value."
Theodore Roosevelt
From the victims...
The following are extracts from letters received by the BAA Campaign for Dark Skies, from victims of waste light - both astronomers and non-astronomers.
"I am heading towards the end of my tether because of the lights continually being on and illuminating my property, my daughter is fed up because her passing interest in astronomy has all but ended from home."
Fife resident, 2004
" My local council last week installed new street lighting along my road. My front bedroom is now bathed in permanent light and the shadows cast by my driveway gate reach the back of the house with light right into my back garden! I'm going to write to the council ... though I doubt whether it will achieve anything as councils these days seem to be able to do anything they like with MY money with no accountability."
Seven months later...
"Having had a few nights good sleep while the lights had been off (ongoing fault on them) I got fed up with them and decided to phone around. [They] tried to convince me that the new lights gave out less glare than before !!! Told him that they cast shadows 200ft away in my back garden and he said something about looking into it when he could. I also told him my neighbours were annoyed as well.
The next evening when the sun set I thought that the lights had gone out again as it was so dark in my garden that I went to look and low and behold the street light was on but not shining back onto my property!! They have fitted a "shield" at the back of the reflector which covers only about 25% of it but in my estimation has cut the glare onto my property/into my bedroom by 90%. My neighbours saw them doing it and it took about 10 mins - the workmen have promised to come back and do another lamp for them when they've got more in stock."
Leicester resident, 2004
"...all my views have now been destroyed by so-called security floodlights. I am in despair."
Wiltshire man, 2000
"...this person is keeping us awake...all through the night. We have also noticed that the owls no longer seem to be in the area, and the lights have spoiled our view of the night sky."
Suffolk woman, 1999
"[The council and the Citizens Advice] said unfortunately that there were no laws... so now I just close my curtains, which makes for very long days. I only hope I can rid myself of the spots before the eyes these blasted lights leave."
Staffs. woman, 2000
"Light ... from next door keeps me awake, and gives me stress. The council said they have no powers... I need your help desperately."
Northants man, 1999
" The neighbours have one ["security" floodlight] which comes on when I go out at night to look for bats."
Leicester woman, 2004
"I have been forced to sleep in the spare bedroom at the front. It has made me ill."
"[3 years later] The neighbours and their persistent love of illumination... eventually ...forced me to leave where I was living. "
Herts. man, 1993, 1996
"The camp site produces a huge orange glow visible for miles around... and the landfill site is a few yards into Wiltshire, and...the Wiltshire Committee took no notice."
Hampshire woman, 1996
" They have completely compromised my personal security by lighting my interior with their security lights. "
London woman, 2001
" The golf range lights, three miles distant, dazzle pedestrians in our road and cast strong shadows in our lounge.
"
Shetland man, 1998
" I have noticed considerably less birds in the garden this year. [My neighbour] has clear glass globes all around his house, on 24 hours a day. They not only illuminate the bedroom, but the whole of my garden including the sky "
Herts woman, 2001
" We had wonderful dark skies, with stars a wonder to behold. Now the [catering firms] harsh glaring lights cause severe pollution. They are glaring through the window so much - I want to lie and look at the stars."
Powys woman, 2000
" The night club has a high powered multi-beam light on its roof, 7 days a week. I have spoken to the Council, but they were rather confused about the whole affair. "
Essex man, 1997
"The nights this autumn have been blighted by [the neighbours] lights all round the property. A request for lower powered bulbs was met with abuse. There are owls, foxes, deer around here, and we love observing the night sky. Can we do anything? "
Yorkshire woman, 2000
From Campaigners...
"Half of our environment is above the horizon. Half of our environment is not protected by the force of law. The night sky, by its very nature a site of special scientific interest and an area of outstanding natural beauty, has been quietly and gradually taken away, over the last fifty years, from those dwelling in towns and urban fringe areas, throughout the developed world. Sky-glow and obtrusive waste upward lighting also detract from the character of the night-time scene and are detrimental to local amenity, not just for astronomers, but for the public in general"
Bob Mizon
"Very early in the morning 4:13 am on January 17 a massive earthquake hit Los Angeles and an area of 100 miles surrounding it. This left the area without power or any amenities at all. ...Children were crying and adults had no way of calming them. I asked a few kids why they were so upset and it was not because of the ground movement but because the sky was on fire and burning, they had never seen the sky, the stars, the milky way and were frightened by the brilliant pinpoints of light and the band of fire running through the sky. That alone is a serious endictment of our polluted environment."
Carlo Godel
"Light from galaxies has taken tens, hundreds, and thousands of millions of years to reach us on Earth, only for the signals to be lost in the last fraction of a second of its journey due to being swamped by light pollution."
Bob Mizon/D J Reynolds
"An English journal has become alarmed at the relation of electricity to song birds... all the English song birds may be said to be insectivorous, and their diet consists chiefly of vast numbers of very small insects which they collect from the grass and herbs before the dew is dry. As the electric light is finding its way for street illumination into the country parts of England, these poor winged atoms are slain by thousands at each light every warm summer evening, battering themselves against the globes until the ground beneath is strewn with them. The fear is expressed that when England is lighted from one end to the other with electricity the song birds will die out from the failure of their food supply. "
Los Angeles Times, September 14th, 1897.
"It is amazing how little light you need. I climbed down Mount Fuji in Japan, and have been walking around the volcanic peak of La Palma, both thanks to light from the Milky-way. On both occasions no artificial lights were visible, and the Moon was below the horizon."
Dr Darren Baskill
"...[We] went to the Longstone lighthouse. It was claimed to be the most powerful in British waters and can be seen from 30 miles away. It only has a 1000 watt bulb. If they only need 1000 watts for a lighthouse, why do they sell 500 watts to shine down gardens?"
Alan Dowdell,
Energy Manager of the Hampshire County Council
From scientists...
"Astronomy is the oldest science, with roots extending more than five thousand years to the building of Newgrange, Stonehenge and similar structures. It is a key part of mankind's cultural inheritance which attracts people towards science and into a scientific way of thinking. Concepts and ideas derived from astronomical theories and observations are often found in fields far removed from science... the 'inspiration' of astronomy extends into many areas of our lives, including philosophy and religion, and provides us with a unique, and rapidly changing, perspective on our universe... To draw a veil across this aspect of humanity's cultural heritage... is to deprive us of a source of inspiration that has operated for thousands of years."
Professor Mark Bailey, director of the Armagh Observatory, Northern Ireland
"For eons, all life on Earth has been shaped by the constant cycle of day and night. But in many places, night has been lost. This loss entails a dramatic reduction in biodiversity. "
Dr Klement Tockner, director, German Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries
From the media...
"Last year I saw the results [of anti-light-pollution regulations] first-hand, during a vacation trip to Arizona. Tucson is a strikingly beautiful city at night. There are plenty of streetlights, billboards, and illuminated retail areas, but they tend to do a better job of directing the light where it does the most good. "Full cut-off" streetlights feature shaded bulbs that don't produce glare. Instead of being dazzled by the unshaded blue brilliance of mercury vapor lamps, nighttime drivers in Tucson travel through glowing golden corridors of light directed down to the street instead of into their eyes. This is the result of a desire to both help the astronomers and save on energy bills, but the most noticeable effect may be that Tucson looks much better than other cities.
"
Jim Quinn
American Heritage of Invention & Technology
"To put it bluntly, the night sky is disappearing and a great many youngsters have never had the opportunity to see the night sky in all its glory. There is hardly a place in the country immune to light pollution. The garish glow of street lamps obscures the velvet blackness of the skies and so destroys natural beauty.
It puts our petty problems and worries into a proper perspective and cuts our more ludicrous pretensions down to size."
John Florance
Leicester Mercury
"Despite the grim news on the latest shuttle tragedy, tonight there will be schoolchildren throughout the world who will be inspired by the Columbia Seven. They will look into the dark sky and decide that they, too, want to explore the stars."
Orlando (Florida) Sentinel editorial
"Why do people have those all-night lights that never go out and light up everything within sight of their houses so it looks like Stalag 17?
Because they are afraid of the dark, paranoid about burglars and bears, and determined to obliterate the Milky Way. If I ever go off the deep end... I'm shooting out as many all-night lights as possible before they come drag me away."
A very amusing and flippant column by John Harrigan of the New Hampshire Sunday Times
"Having had a few nights good sleep while the lights had been off (ongoing fault on them) I got fed up with them and decided to phone around. [They] tried to convince me that the new lights gave out less glare than before !!! Told him that they cast shadows 200ft away in my back garden and he said something about looking into it when he could. I also told him my neighbours were annoyed as well.
The next evening when the sun set I thought that the lights had gone out again as it was so dark in my garden that I went to look and low and behold the street light was on but not shining back onto my property!! They have fitted a "shield" at the back of the reflector which covers only about 25% of it but in my estimation has cut the glare onto my property/into my bedroom by 90%. My neighbours saw them doing it and it took about 10 mins - the workmen have promised to come back and do another lamp for them when they've got more in stock."
"We did specifically choose environmentally friendly light but, to be perfectly honest, our concerns were more about our immediate neighbours accross the road than our intergalactic neighbours. "
Due to concerns about glare and "up" lighting, the Town of East Hampton (New York State, USA) desided to refit over 80 post top "carriage style" street lamp fixtures. These fixtures are identical in daytime appearance to those they replaced. However, at night, improved optics produce more light on the ground and lessened glare, because the light bulb is recessed into the opaque cap.
The previous style, a "traditional" post top, had the bulb in the center of the globe, which produce glare and "up" light. The manufacturer of the original lights (The Montauk Carriage Light), Magniflood of Long Island, produced the new design to meet the Town's desire to see their star filled night sky, clear of "light pollution".
"It is a beautiful and subtle yet bright enough
illumination pattern that really works! BRAVO! Much better than the
previous light scatter from those fixtures."
"I'm excited that the new lights not only
lessen glare and stray light, but provide more light where it is needed
most: on the walkways and the road, making it safer for drivers and
pedestrians alike"
"Montauk is now safer from glare, more beautiful at
night, and our stars can shine through""
"The astronomical community is thrilled that
Montauk is committed to restoring and protecting the pristine night sky
over the East End. Montauk can be an astro-tourism destination,
particularly during the long, clear and dark nights of the winter."