Saving Our Skies
Space
Images taken from
space can tell us a lot
about light pollution.Scott Kardel
In 1962, as NASA astronaut John Glenn made his
historic orbit around Earth and crossed into darkness,
residents of Perth, Australia vied for his attention by
leaving their lights on. The city’s mayor argued that it
was “morally wrong for public money to be wasted” in
lighting the night, but he was overruled. Glenn easily
spotted them on his Mercury fl ight and again years
later during his 1998 Space Shuttle fl ight.
These days, no one is leaving their lights on just for
the astronauts, yet the crews of the International Space
Station (ISS) have plenty of lights to see. Their photog-
raphy is documenting our cities in ways that Glenn
never could.LAS VEGAS STRIPCities
from
ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF EARTH SCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING UNIT / NASA-JOHNSON SPACE CENTER26 July 2014 sky & telescope