Stars in the Sky
Dear Tom,
When I was a kid, we couldn't count all the stars in the sky. Now I have to look hard to
see one. How come the change?
—J. Roberts, Batavia
Dear J. Roberts,
Triton College astronomer Dan Joyce says you can blame metropolitan lighting. Here's
Joyce's answer: "Back in 1978, I sent a 'real telescope' to 'Star Wars' creator George
Lucas, claiming that with it he could detect galaxies over 300 million lightyears away.
But it was with a caveat: I warned him that proximity to city lights would spoil the view.
"Imagine the disappointment of those of us in astronomy who seek to show off the
marvels of the cosmos, understanding that the galactic light has traversed space so
vast, only to be obscured in the last fifty-thousandth of a second as it encounters the
glare of metropolitan lighting wasted on the night sky."