Details forthcoming, but for now some #UK folks may want to be aware of this event on 9th September at Newcastle.

International Dark Sky Places are natural laboratories for all manner of scientific questions relating to natural nighttime darkness. This study, led by Troy Allen (Utah State University), was conducted in Utah dark sky parks. A publication for peer review is currently in prep.

It’s not your imagination: “The luminous intensity of the average individual car headlights, taking the mean of the high and low beam lights, increased in [2016-2025] by 22%, corresponding to a compound annual growth rate 2.2 %/year.”

https://zenodo.org/records/15565958

Is it your imagination, or are car #headlights getting brighter?

@salvabara scoured the web and crunched the numbers to make this graph. It shows that car headlights on average have gotten quite a bit brighter in the last decade, and that the rate of increase is higher for low beams than for high beams.

Preprint here: https://zenodo.org/records/15565958

Related news: some headlight manufacturers are intentionally selling "brighter than allowed" headlights by engineering dark spots where the sensors that check for glare are used: https://www.theringer.com/2024/12/03/tech/headlight-brightness-cars-accidents?lid=dpe6tiyd81ev

This is part and parcel with the vehicle size issue in the US, where the general principle seems to be "my car should be the biggest and the brightest". But while cars get bigger and brighter, deaths from collisions are rising - how shocking...

Satellite observations of artificial light on the night side of Earth revolutionized studies of #LightPollution, yet certain shortcomings of existing facilities often limit their utility. Read more about what we can and can't learn about 'night lights' from satellite data.

https://www.darkskyconsulting.com/blog/what-satellites-can-and-cant-tell-us-about-outdoor-lighting-changes

"We report clear associations between circadian gene expression, daily behavioral patterns, and fitness in free-living, urban-adapted individuals. The dose-dependent nature of the observed behavioral and genetic changes supports #UrbanPlanning measures, such as the reduction of #ALAN intensities to a level that preserves wildlife health."

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0269749125009121

“Calculations show that light scattered solely by the artificial component of space debris may contribute up to 8 µcd/m2 to the brightness of the night sky in 2024, with projections indicating an increase to 19 µcd/m2 by 2035 – approximately a threefold rise. As an addition to the natural sky brightness, this is equivalent to an increase in night sky background brightness of 5 to 11% above natural levels attributable to these objects.”
https://academic.oup.com/mnrasl/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnrasl/slaf052/8140846

“This study revealed for the first time significant synergistic effects between environmental #pollutants and outdoor #ALAN exposure on #diabetes risk, highlighting the importance of environmental and light pollution in diabetes prevention and control, and providing theoretical basis for future policy development.”

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0269749125008450

Leigh Ann Henion: "All around me, people seem to constantly be talking about catching up, but catching up to what? I cannot seem to even keep up. Everything’s moving too fast. It’s too much."
Her article about burnout and the benefits of darkness (adapted from her book Night Magic). https://orionmagazine.org/article/burnout/

They buried the lede: "Reflect is planning to launch its first sat next spring to illuminate 10 locations around the world. The idea is to boost public interest with the lighting events, but so far, responses haven’t always been supportive."

https://payloadspace.com/reflect-orbital-raises-20m-series-a/

"Noctcaelador has been found to relate to feelings of connectedness with nature and attitudes favoring protecting dark skies
from light pollution. Given that #connectedness with nature relates to both well-being and behaviors which protect the planet, understanding the foundations of #noctcaelador could be an important area of study regarding reactions to, and attitudes towards, natural environments."

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/391567276_The_Personality_of_Night_Sky_Watchers_Relationships_of_Noctcaelador_with_the_Big_Five_Eysenck's_PEN_Model_and_Jung's_Typologies

I'm pleased to share this recently published paper led by University of San Francisco undergraduate student Alex Meza in which I played the smallest part. In it, we examine light pollution as a threat to #pollinators that support #Indigenous #FoodSecurity and sovereignty.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/add156

One of the earliest mentions to #LightPollution

"La lumière zodiacale est rarement visible à Paris, à cause de l’illumination nocturne de cette capitale.”

in Astronomie Populaire - Tome 1 (1880), Ch. 5, note 38, by Camille Flammarion.

"Air pollution and ALAN exposure are linked to memory impairment, with combined effects potentially amplifying risk. #Biomarkers play a key role in mediating these effects, suggesting a need for targeted public health measures to mitigate these environmental health risks."

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12889-025-22863-5

"Our results document the complex consequences of [artificial light at night] and high fructose intake on endocrine control mechanisms that can have a long-term negative impact on metabolic health.*"

(*in rats)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0303720725001108

Here's an image I took of the Whirlpool galaxy in my backyard a few nights ago with an #evscope.

My backyard is not especially dark, there is a lot of #LightPollution. But the camera integrated the starlight for about an hour, and displays the background as black (with the light pollution removed).

Without light pollution, the background would still be black, but the galaxy have more details and would be more defined, because the signal to noise ratio would be much higher.

The night sky has long been caught between two notions of 'environment': one on the ground and the other among the stars. But these two realms are much more closely connected than previously believed. Protecting natural nighttime darkness by reducing light pollution may benefit from a shift in thinking that sees an explicit connection between Earth and cosmos. Read more about how adopting this view would bring both a different ethic and a jurisprudence to bear on the issue.

http://www.darkskyconsulting.com/blog/from-the-earth-to-space-the-night-sky-in-a-continuum-of-the-human-environment

On Friday, 30th May, along with two of my lighting design colleagues, I'll be putting on a HalfMoon Education webinar "Residential Lighting Design: Function, Sustainability and Energy Systems". Participants can earn American Institute of Architects CE credits.

Registration & info: https://halfmoonseminars.org/product/webinars/residential-lighting-design-function-sustainability-and-energy-systems/

The dramatic state of light pollution and sky glow in Belgium (figure for some upcoming work).

“Using photometric and spectroscopic sensors, we observed up to 50% night sky darkening during Earth Hour from 2011 to 2024 in Hong Kong, primarily as a result of a small but critical number of lights-out instances in central business districts, as evidenced by crowd-sourced photography records. The emission reductions mostly occurred in the 445–500, 500–540, and 615–650 nm spectral ranges---corresponding to peak emissions from LED billboard screens--- and in the 585–595 nm range, associated with metal halide floodlights used for facades and billboards. Our study identifies these sources as major contributors to urban light pollution.”

(Note: not yet peer reviewed, but the authors are legit.)

https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6241967/v1