Home / Series / Be Smart / Aired Order / Season 2019 / Episode 17

Why We Are Losing the Night Sky

It never gets dark anymore. Not REALLY dark, anyway. Not like it used to. Most humans on Earth live under light polluted skies. That's because, for the past century and a half, since the dawn of electric light, we’ve been losing our connection to the night. We need artificial light for modern society, of course. The problem is, we need darkness for our health, and for the health of wildlife and ecosystems, and we’re not getting enough of it. I traveled to McDonald Observatory in far west Texas, one of the darkest places in North America, to learn what people are doing in order to preserve dark skies, and to see truly dark skies for myself (and so I could show them to you!). This video features time lapse night sky images that I’ve been collecting for the past few years, and I hope they make you feel something special. Turn out the lights, keep looking up, and don’t be afraid of the dark.

English
  • Originally Aired July 14, 2019
  • Runtime 7 minutes
  • Network YouTube
  • Created July 15, 2019 by
    Administrator admin
  • Modified July 15, 2019 by
    Administrator admin