Cleaning up the cosmosExperts have proposed various methods to dispose of existing orbital debris, such as using nets to capture junk, or harpoons and other satellites to help de-orbit dead satellites, but nothing has been implemented on the scale that would be needed were Kessler Syndrome to become a reality. “Nobody really that I’ve seen has any plans for what to do if that scenario develops, in terms of rapidly getting that debris out of orbit,” says John Barentine, principal consultant at Dark Sky Consulting. “It’s scary stuff but it’s not science fiction.”
The fight against light pollutionWith me was a small group of dark-sky activists, including John Barentine, a Tucson-based astronomer and consultant on dark-sky issues. From our vantage point, it was obvious which gas station was the larger emitter of light pollution. But, Barentine explained, both buildings met Tucson’s lighting code. I nodded, feeling depressed about the state of artificial light at night, or ALAN.
In the fight against light pollution, “constituents make a difference,” says Barentine. “What we’re missing is political will. We can reverse light pollution tomorrow. Nobody suffers when we decrease light pollution.” Explore The Night Sky With The 6 Best Binoculars For Stargazing"I've been using the same pair of Tasco 10x50's for almost 30 years," says Barentine, principal consultant at Dark Sky Consulting, a firm that helps destinations earn International Dark Sky status. "A good pair that will last for decades can be had for under $100. It's not something that people should feel like they have to spend a lot of money on."
Advocates fear wildlife, 'dark sky' effects when stadium lights turn on at U.S.-Mexico borderConservationists say they are concerned about stadium lights being built along the U.S.-Mexico border in places known for their dark skies, and one nonprofit says the lights could be harmful to southern Arizona wildlife.
"The concern that we have about the lighting, is that it’s going into very remote areas, some of which are close to conservation areas along the border," said John Barentine, of Dark Sky International. Gazing Into the Past and Future at Historic ObservatoriesJohn Barentine, an astronomer and consultant focused on dark skies research and conservation, believes that looking through a telescope can be transformative. “If I show somebody the moon through a telescope, they can, for the first time, envision it as a place,” he told me. “Now they’ve had a kind of direct experience with it.” But those rewards, he cautioned, are dependent on if and how we rein in light pollution on the ground.
Amazon Is Going to Fill the Sky With Satellites. Astronomers Aren’t Happy“BlueWalker was a shock to us as to how bright it was. We are also very worried about the impact to radio astronomy,” since one of its downlink frequencies is next to a protected radio band at 42.5-43.5 gigahertz, says John Barentine, one of the study’s coauthors and a conference attendee. A Tucson, Arizona-based astronomer, he is also the executive officer of Dark Sky Consulting, which advises companies and government officials on outdoor lighting to preserve dark night skies.
The Loss of Dark Skies Is So Painful, Astronomers Coined a New Term for ItGiven the harmful effects of light pollution, Aparna Venkatesan, a cosmologist at the University of San Francisco, and John Barentine, astronomer and science communicator at Dark Sky Consulting, have coined a new term to help focus efforts to combat it. Their term, as reported in a brief paper in the preprint database arXiv and a letter to the journal Science, is “noctalgia.” In general, it means “sky grief,” and it captures the collective pain we are experiencing as we continue to lose access to the night sky.*
A Bay Area Community Wants to Protect Its Dark SkiesA study released this year, based on observations from around the world, found the number of visible stars to be decreasing by about 10 percent a year because of the increasing use of artificial light. At that rate, half of the stars that are visible when a child is born will be obscured by light pollution when the child turns 18, said John Barentine, an astronomer and former director of public policy for the International Dark Sky Association. Barentine emphasized that we’re only beginning to understand the full impact of light pollution, which has been shown to harm wildlife, including the pollinating insects we rely on for our food supply. “I do think this is one of the most significant environmental problems of our time that almost nobody knows about,” he said. Satellites Keep Photobombing Space Images. Astronomers Need a FixThe Rubin collaboration has expressed concern about the possibility of false alerts thanks to light reflecting off of satellites or space junk in orbit and has warned that as many as 30 percent of its images could be affected by satellite streaks. For example, a glint of sunlight off a small piece of insulation shed by a satellite could appear in a telescope image like a flaring star. Unless an astronomer can also measure the light's spectrum, they might be fooled, says John Barentine, a Tucson, Arizona, astronomer who recently authored a study about light pollution from low Earth orbit objects. Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/satellites-keep-photobombing-space-images-astronomers-need-a-fix/ How Light Pollution Threatens Minnesota's Wildlife and Dark SkiesRecorded observations of light’s impact on the environment date back to ancient Rome, when people noticed that their fires affected animal behavior, says John Barentine, an astronomer and freelance dark-sky consultant in Tucson, Arizona. Gas, and later electric, lights altered the appearance of the night sky through the 1800s and into the 1900s, when observatories moved outside of cities to escape sky glow, followed by an accelerated brightening of nighttime as the 20th century went on. Then came light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. A type of semiconductor, LEDs use less energy than other kinds of light bulbs typically used in streetlights and other outdoor fixtures, making their carbon footprint smaller. They last longer and cost less to operate. Those features make LEDs environmentally appealing in many ways, Barentine says, and society embraced them.
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