Losing the Dark - Flat Screen Version

Starry skies are a vanishing treasure because light pollution is washing away our view of the cosmos. It not only threatens astronomy, it disrupts wildlife, and affects human health. The yellow glows over cities and towns — seen so clearly from space — are testament to the billions spent in wasted energy from lighting up the sky.

To help raise public awareness of some of the issues pertaining to light pollution, Loch Ness Productions in collaboration with the International Dark-Sky Association has created a 6.5-minute "public service announcement" called Losing the Dark. It introduces and illustrates some of the issues regarding light pollution, and suggests three simple actions people can take to help mitigate it.

Losing the Dark was initially created in fulldome video format for digital planetarium use. It also has been made as a conventional flat screen video, for use in classrooms, kiosks, museum theaters, and advocate multimedia presentations. Classic planetarium theaters without fulldome capability can show this version using their traditional video projectors.

More information and links to downloads at: http://www.darksky.org/losingthedark

Losing the Dark is a joint production of the International Dark-Sky Association and Loch Ness Productions.

Writer/narrator: Carolyn Collins Petersen

Audio/video production: Mark C. Petersen

Music: Geodesium

Time-lapse photography and animation: Dome3D, Loch Ness Productions

Additional imagery: NASA, DigitalSky 2, Adler Planetarium, Gregory Panayotou, Gemini Observatory / AURA, Dan Nixon /

Need-Less Campaign, Thomas O'Brien / tmophoto, Babak Tafreshi / TWAN

Special thanks: Dr. Connie Walker (NOAO) and the IDA Education committee

• Category

  Science & Technology

[Christopher Odell]

great stuff. i'm working on getting light shields put in in my home community here, very small town but still it's not easy. not gong to give up though :)

[IntDarkSkyAssoc]

Hang in there and keep up the good work!

[Nils Allen]

Nice, simple and elegant -- if only everyone could experience this in a powerful way. Join IDA and do your part! Myself, I show the beauties of a dark night sky to thousands of visitors at our National Parks - this gets folks thinking "How nice it would be if dark skies could be found near my home".

[IntDarkSkyAssoc]

Thank you! Keep up the good work!

[TheBystanderOK]

Great video, good information! Shared on my fb page and the Asterisk forum.

[IntDarkSkyAssoc]

Thank you for sharing!

[JanScott Burgett]

A great short video that packs a lot in 6+ minutes, the problems, the simple and reasonable solutions, and the rewards. Another seed us dark skyers can use to sow. Thank you IDA and Lock Ness!

[fernandobeltranp]

"The sky of the month" turn off (virtually) the lights of major cities in the Northern Hemisphere. Each month a different city.

Sevilla (Spain) in January .....

Mexico City in February ...

Bilbao (Spain) in March .....

Paris in April ........

London in May ......

... is our particular contribution.

[Aamer Qudmani]

This depends on the efficiency of the power source, and we can't keep that under control...

Now this is not your subject but it's very important: energy saving bulbs are gonna cost a lot more energy soon to (treat) people since our immune system is in danger "Light Exposure and the Internal Clock" "Niki Wilson"

[docplux]

The video says it's a half ton of coal to power a 100watt bulb nightly for a year. It's really 35% of a ton (700lbs) to power a 100-watt bulb 24/7 for a year.So, to power a bulb nightly it should take half that, 350lbs of coal.

That IS a lot, but it's not the half ton this video suggests. Again, hyperbole isn't needed to make a valid point and it makes it difficult to take your society seriously for those of us who bother to check the math. Sorry for the downer comment, overall I like your msg

[elektramunhoz]

I live in the country side of a very small city in Brazil. It used to be dark and comfy. Now, unfortunately, they're lotting the place. With every new home and its lights, I notice the night animals and birds are disappearing. But I'll do my best to share this, both talking to people and sharing your video. It's worth trying!

[Jayhasb]

Just started searching for dark sky in my area. Thanks for a great video.

[Maverick85d]

It's great if you're an astronomer, it's too bad most of the people don't give a fuck about light pollutionn.

[Per Moen]

Hope you make it.

[Jaime Aguirre]

I have translated the video professionally and would like to donate my rendition so it can be recorded in Spanish. The screen caption that YouTube shows in Spanish is crude and incorrect in many cases.