Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

"What is light pollution and its impact to the environment? What is my independent, controlled, and dependent variable?

Hi,

We will be happy to help, but first you need to be more specific in what question you are asking. What is your hypothesis?

I know that the increased light from a city makes it difficult to see relatively dim astronomical subjects like the Milky Way galaxy, but what do you want to know? If you live in a dark-sky area then you can take pictures of the stars using a tripod and a longer exposure. Then if you could drive to a place with a lot of city light in the sky and repeat your photos you could do some sort of comparison to show how much the ambient light reduces visibility of dim celestial objects.

There are apps for smart phones that can allow you to measure light pollution and record the images of stars of various magnitudes that can be seen. There is actually a group devoted to the problem of light pollution, the International Dark Sky Association: http://www.darksky.org/

Check out their website and then get back to us with a hypothesis and method for testing it and we can help you.

Sybee