Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Here you can see the sky glow from a small town in western Kansas. This is Hays, KS. Around 30,000 people live there with smaller cities around it. Hays is the largest city in Western Kansas and as it gets bigger, so does the sky glow. Skies are sure beautiful in Kansas, however, there is no legislation reducing light pollution other than certain state parks. As you can see in the picture, the sky glow cuts out part of the dark sky. "The sky is on fire." This is the sort of things that are hurting astronomers.

2 comments:

  1. I live just east of Great Bend and the glow from it totally ruins any viewing to the lower western skies. I Use an 8" Celestron GoTo. Great Bend recently built some new ball fields and they were testing the lights recently.... That is going to be a real PITA!! Thankfully, the rest of the sky is pretty dark. Love your pictures, and I'm very envious of that HUGE Meade!!

    Clear, dark skies to you!!

    dave weller, Great Bend, KS

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  2. Thanks Dave. I appreciate others in this great and fullfilling hobby. I understand your pain. I was born and raised in Hays, KS on a farm south of there and always loved the dark skies and always kept looking up. Without KS legislation, there is no way to gain control over useless lighting and over lighting. Kansas doesn't believe in full cut-off fixtures. I've been trying to get Hays to consider the benefits of proper lighting. It's a win win situation for everybody.

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