Welcome to The Deep science and technology column where we cover topics from the deep sea to deep space and beyond. 

Well, from the looks of the satellite weather photo, we just might be able to see the Sun this week and make a little Vitamin D for the first time in a couple of months.  We also may be able to see the stars at night for the first time in a very long time.  We’ve had a lot of cloud cover lately, something you’d expect in rainy season except that it isn’t rainy season anymore and this usually happens on Guam in July and August, not September and October.  It’s an El Nino year, but that’s the subject of a future column.

You can go outside and look at the stars on any night that there aren’t too many clouds, but depending on your location, you may not see too many.  There’s something else besides the clouds that steals our vision of the night sky.

Satellites are useful not only for showing us the weather but for showing us something else.  This is a recent composite picture (obviously it isn’t night everywhere at once!) of our planet at night.

The mainland US is lit up like a candle, as are Europe and India.  It looks as though Japan is drawn on the map with a light pen.  Unlike a regular map or even a satellite photo of the Earth in daytime, it’s easy to play ‘Spot the City’ with this picture.  Even in places where it’s fairly dark like South America, Africa and Australia, you can pick out the major cities like Rio de Janeiro, Pretoria South Africa, and Sydney Australia.  And in the original photo, you can pick out the tiny double dot of Guam and Saipan.  A picture of the Earth at night is a marvelous way to determine the spread of man’s influence.

Lights are lovely, but they steal from us something that’s very important.  Here on Guam, you can find many places where you can see a dark nighttime sky but dark star-filled skies are fantasy skies today for most of Earth’s inhabitants people because they can no longer see the stars at night. 

One of the saddest stories I ever heard came from John Mosley, one of the employees at the Griffith Planetarium in Los Angeles.  They had a basin-wide power outage as the result of an earthquake, and several people called the Planetarium to ask if all those lights in the sky were somehow related to the earthquake.  Mr. Mosley was confused since he saw no lights in the sky, except the stars.  Then he realized that the people who were calling had lived in the Los Angeles basin all their lives and had never seen the stars.

Slowly, silently and for the most part, without protest, humanity is losing a major part of our heritage.  In the days before electricity and television, looking at the sky at night and telling stories about what was up there was a common and much loved pastime.  Every year in November I produce a Planetarium show called Sky Legends of the World (join us on 9, 10 and 11 November for this years wonderful Legends show) and there are literally thousands of sky stories from every culture on the planet.  The inspiration for all those stories is literally vanishing into the light.

There are steps that can be taken to give us back the stars.  A good question that’s frequently asked is “Why are we paying all that money for light that shines up and not down?”  Why should we light up the undersides of airplanes and destroy our view of the stars when we actually wanted that light to shine on the highways and the ground? Have you ever noticed that Guam’s current streetlights glare into your eyes as you drive?  Have you ever noticed that orange glow that blankets the island at night?  That doesn’t have to happen.

Light from a traditional streetlight- That orange glow

	A full cut-off light that focuses its light downward where you want it.
Streetlights that focus the bulk of their light downward are available.
Have you ever looked up into a clear sky during an island-wide power outage?  Would you like your children to be able to see that same sky all the time?  Many of us are familiar with the Latin phrase carpe diem which means, “seize the day” but I give you the motto of the International Dark Sky Association.  Carpe noctem, seize the night!
	Light from a full cut-off light.

Cruise on over to the Deep Website at www.thedeepradioshow.com to learn more about light pollution and many other topics.  Enjoy!