Idea Entry #8: Skyglow

While looking at the work I showed at mid-crit on Monday I was asking myself what I was interested in with the images I had. After looking and thinking, I decided that I was interested in the skies, the reflections in the water, the horizons. I was not interested particularly in the specific location's role in the image, and I have decided that I really don't want to go the direction of manipulation. So I decided to look into light pollution, and while googling it, came across the term "skyglow". So here is this week's idea blog.

"Skyglow occurs from both natural and human-made sources. The natural component of sky glow has five sources: sunlight reflected off the moon and earth, faint air glow in the upper atmosphere (a permanent, low-grade aurora), sunlight reflected off interplanetary dust (zodiacal light), starlight scattered in the atmosphere, and background light from faint, unresolved stars and nebulae (celestial objects or diffuse masses of interstellar dust and gas that appear as hazy smudges of light). Electric lighting also increases night sky brightness and is the human-made source of sky glow."

"What Is Sky Glow? | Light Pollution | Lighting Answers | NLPIP." Lighting Research Center | University-based Research and Education Organization Devoted to Lighting. Web. 02 Nov. 2011. .

"Urban Sky Glow is a problem that used to be limited to big metropolitan areas. But today, the problem has reached epidemic proportions. There are only a very few truly dark areas left on the east coast. Certainly here in Northern Virginia the sky is full of misdirected light. And the problem has worsened significantly over the past 5 years. Growth in our area and increased competition between business and even between the new breed of "super neighborhoods" have led to the rapid degradation of the night sky."

"Skyglow." Virginia Outdoor Lighting Taskforce - VOLT. Web. 02 Nov. 2011. .

"Sky-glow conscious lighting design" NE Pollard

"As society becomes more environmentally conscious the problems of obtrusive light, and particularly 'sky glow', have led many road lighting engineers to demand full cut-off luminaires emitting no light whatsoever above the horizontal. This paper looks at the range of existing fixed-angle exterior luminaires and suggests a classification for them which accommodates the wide variety of designs and requirements for the aesthetic appearance and need for light on some high vertical surfaces. The brightness of floodlit buildings is also discussed as a growing number of people feel that luminance, not illuminance should be the design criterion for helping to reduce the many over-bright installations that are also causing unnecessary light pollution."

Pollard, NE. "Sky-glow Conscious Lighting Design†." Lighting Research and Technology. Web. 02 Nov. 2011.