Last week on vacation, having backpacked in clear weather into Green Lakes in the Three Sisters Wilderness Area in Oregon, I was reminded again of the beauty of the starry night sky. Even with the not-yet-full moon, we could see many stars; but after the moon went down, the multitudinous stars came out in full glory. Living in urban areas, we lose so much to light pollution!
Backpacking into Green Lakes is classed in 796.510979587 Backpacking in Deschutes County, Oregon (built with 796.51 Walking [“Class here backpacking, hiking”] plus notation T1--09 Geographic treatment plus T2--79587 Deschutes County).
Comprehensive works on stars are classed in 523.8 Stars.
We have mapped the LCSH “Light pollution” to 363.7 Environmental problems for works that treat light pollution as an environmental problem with multiple impacts and to 522 Techniques, procedures, apparatus, equipment, materials of astronomy for works that emphasize the impact of light pollution on practical astronomy, impairing the ability to observe celestial bodies (e.g., Preserving the Astronomical Sky).
Great article!
Light pollution is one of my major bug bears too! The stars from Hawaii were just awsome when I was there... no pollution.
Posted by: Mark | September 17, 2008 at 07:22 PM