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No more astrophotography? Night skies brighter every year says report

Jan 24, 2023 by Alex Baker Leave a Comment

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No more astrophotography? Night skies brighter every year says report

It’s bad news for stargazers and astrophotographers. A recent study reports that night skies are becoming almost 10% brighter every single year since the study began in 2011. What’s more, that’s the world over, not just in certain locations.

Over 50,000 citizen scientists were asked to monitor how visible the stars were during the research period to measure how light pollution is affecting human views of the stars worldwide. They were shown maps of the sky at different levels of light pollution and asked which most closely matched their view.

Light pollution is not a new problem. However, the scientists were alarmed at how rapidly the night sky is changing. The biggest culprit for this increase in light pollution appears to be the change to LED lighting outdoors. By 2020, 66% of outdoor lighting in the USA was LED, compared with less than 1% in 2011.

“A location with 250 visible stars would see that number reduce to 100 visible stars over the same period,” according to the report.

It was apparently not possible to use satellites to gather the data because they aren’t sensitive to light in the same way that human eyes are and won’t see the same wavelengths emitted from the LED lighting that humans can.

So that’s all well and good for stargazers, but how does this affect photographers that want to photograph the night sky? Obviously, our cameras process light on their sensors slightly differently than our eyes, particularly with long exposures.

Unfortunately, light pollution is always a nuisance when it comes to night sky photography. The only real solution is to look for dark field sites, away from populated places. That’s easier said than done. In many over-populated parts of the world like England, it can be nearly impossible to find a true dark field site with no light pollution.

For this, you can use an app such as Dark Site Finder to look for some really dark locations. Spain has some of the darkest in Europe, it turns out, although predictably, they are quite a drive away. You can also use a light pollution filter.

Unfortunately, this issue is likely to only get worse, not better, with time. Unless we have another zombie apocalypse, that is.

[Via Science]

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Filed Under: news Tagged With: Astrophotography, light pollution, night sky photography

About Alex Baker

Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

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Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

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