Patterns in sky brightness depend very strongly on location

At many locations around the world, the night sky shines hundreds of times brighter than it did before the introduction of artificial light. Berlin based researchers from the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland ...

Twinkle, twinkle little star: New app measures sky brightness

Researchers from the German "Loss of the Night" project have developed an app for Android smart phones, which counts the number of visible stars in the sky. The data from the app will be used by scientists to understand light ...

Hubble observes glowing, fiery shells of gas

(Phys.org) —It may look like something from "The Lord of the Rings," but this fiery swirl is actually a planetary nebula known as ESO 456-67. Set against a backdrop of bright stars, the rust-colored object lies in the constellation ...

The wings of the Seagull Nebula

(Phys.org)—This new image from ESO shows a section of a cloud of dust and glowing gas called the Seagull Nebula. These wispy red clouds form part of the "wings" of the celestial bird and this picture reveals an intriguing ...

Image: Hubble peeks inside a stellar cloud

(Phys.org) -- These bright stars shining through what looks like a haze in the night sky are part of a young stellar grouping in one of the largest known star formation regions of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a dwarf ...

STAR TRAK for December

Venus will be at its dazzling brightest as December begins, appearing in the southwestern sky after sunset. This beautiful "evening star" will set two hours after the sun on Dec. 1 and an hour later at month's end.

Clouds amplify ecological light pollution

The brightness of the nightly sky glow over major cities has been shown to depend strongly on cloud cover. In natural environments, clouds make the night sky darker by blocking the light of the stars but around urban centers, ...

Channel island named first 'dark sky' community

The Channel Island of Sark has been designated the first dark sky community in the world in recognition of the lack of light pollution that allows clear views of the stars at night, officials said Monday.

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