India from Space at Night

In case you missed it, here is an amazing image of India from space at night.

The image, taken November 12 2012, was published on the NASA Earth Observatory site. The image shows the density of population there. The lights of more than 1.2 billion people are represented here. India has 30 cities with populations over 1 million - imagine how much energy could be conserved if the lights were retrofitted so as to not shine wastefully upward into space.

By the way cities in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan are also visible near the edges of the image.

There are several high-resolution download options on the NASA site that are worth checking out, including a Google Earth KML file.

Another Commercial (Sorry)

Back again, this time posting a commercial from a few years ago, again with an astronomical theme.

What do you think? Are there other astronomically-themed commercials out there that have caught your eye?

An Astronomy Themed Commecial

Gosh, has it really been since July? Sorry about that.  I will be blogging more soon about light pollution and other things on my mind.

Until then, check out this cool commercial from Dell: Meet Billy: The boy who captured the stars

Arthur C. Clarke on Light Pollution

I can't tell you how many of Arthur C. Clarke's books I have read. I have a dozen or so in my collection today, but have read many times that. His words took me far across the universe and back again many times. He was certainly one of the authors who helped to cement my love of astronomy, space and science fiction.

Back in 2001 Clarke recorded a short message of support for the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) and its efforts to fight light pollution. I remember seeing a quote from it in an IDA newsletter when Clarke passed away in 2008.

Flash forward to 2012 where I am now working for the IDA. I was going through some old junk at the office, deciding what should be tossed and what should be kept when I ran across the Clarke video tape. After some effort finding a working VCR I confirmed that this indeed was the message that Clarke had recorded for IDA back in 2001 (a good year for it, don't you think?).

I didn't know if other copies of the tape had been made or not, but I knew that it had to be preserved and seen. I got it digitized and just recently had the chance to put it together and post it up for the world to see. So here it is:

I am happy to have found the tape and that I could help to get Sir Arthur's message out to the world.

The City Dark on PBS

An important (and award-winning) documentary called The City Dark will soon be shown nationally on PBS.  The target date for broadcast is Thursday, July 5 2012, but each station can essentially show it whenever they feel like doing so.  So be sure to check your local listings to find out when it will be shown in your area.

You can also watch The City Dark on your iPhone or iPad through the free PBS iOS app.

Filmmaker Ian Cheney recently appeared on CBS News to talk about the film. You can watch the interview below.

And here is the trailer for the film:

 

Watch The City Dark - Trailer on PBS. See more from POV.

Washing One of Gemini's 8-meter Mirrors

It takes careful work to wash a telescope mirror, especially one that is 8.1 meters across and still installed in its telescope. Here is a cool video that shows off the process as it is done for the Gemini South telescope.

Two Steps Backwards for Dark Skies (and a pretty video)

The electronic billboard bill is now law in Arizona meaning that while the state's astronomical observatories are protected from their bright glow, the central and southwestern part of the state will now be no man's land.

The City of San Diego will now apparently be allowing "brighter outdoor lighting". According to this news report:

The report says the last changes, made in 2008, were overly influenced by astronomers and "dark sky advocates."

Sigh.  "Dark sky advocates".

In other news the winners of the 2012 Earth and Sky Photo Contest have been announced.   Follow the link to check out the beautiful photos of the night sky. A video of them is embedded below.  Maybe it will help to push the other news out of your mind.