Science Project: Count YOUR St✵rs

Urban citizens rarely get a chance to view clear and dark skies showing the multitude of stars and constellations visible in rural areas. Today, half of the world's population live in cities. A threat that will make this a worsening problem is light pollution. The cumulative effect of street lights, yard lights, headlights, advertisement, etc, have made less of the night sky clearly visible. It is a particular concern of astronomers, amateur and professional. It is also a waste of energy to shine so much light up into the air and not direct it toward the ground or object to be lit up. This night view of North America helps illustrate the problem.

You can help bring attention to this problem by joining the Globe At Night worldwide project.

Over the last five annual 2-week campaigns, volunteers from more than 100 nations contributed 52,000 measurements, one third of which came from last year’s campaign.

This is the 6th annual. All it takes is a few minutes to participate between 8-10 pm, through April 4. Get out with your kids and follow a few directions. It is very easy. Basically, you report your location and how your view of a familiar constellation, like Orion, compares to some online examples. You can compare your report with those around the world.

Work your way across the links at the top of the Globe at Night web page to do your part by April 4.