Cities against Tasmanian Night Sky

[Overlandman]

Nothing wrong with Tassies Sky
Apart from the smoke & no rain

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-22/s ... ky/7108146

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Teen's timelapse project shows world's biggest cities set against Tasmanian sky
Posted about an hour ago


YOUTUBE: Timelapse shows cities 'without light pollution'
PHOTO: Singapore against the Tasmanian night sky. (YouTube: David Lennon)
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MAP: TAS
Travel has inspired a teenage photographer to give the streetscapes of some of the world's biggest cities a makeover by setting them against the Tasmanian night sky.

David Lennon, a Year 12 student from Tasmania, has travelled to New York, Los Angeles, London, Singapore and Doha in Qatar.

He said he was surprised how little of the night sky was visible in the cities due to light pollution, and decided to make a video showing what the streetscape would look like with a backdrop as beautiful as Tasmania's.

"Light pollution is a mass amount of light coming into the sky that blocks the stars," he said.

"You can't see past it and it can reflect on the clouds."

Lennon took the original timelapse videos during family holidays over the past three years and replaced the sky using an editing program.

The one-and-a-half minute video has received more than 91,000 views since it was uploaded two months ago.

"I think in Tasmania, it's pretty small, so you can see stars all the time wherever you are," he said.

"I'm a fan of going to the outdoors.

"I created the video to show what people are missing out on in the big cities.

"Mostly it's been a pretty good response.

"People are pretty fascinated by what you can see in Tasmania."

Lennon said he had been inundated with requests from journalists around the world for interviews since uploading the video, adding that he would see where his photography took him in the future.

"A few of my friends [at school] know about the video, mostly from my Instagram," he said.

"I'm just going to see what happens with it, I enjoy taking photos and making these videos."

Topics: visual-art, astronomy-space, tas, australia, united-kingdom, qatar, singapore, united-states

[Nuts]

Unusual. Food for thought. Cleaner cities of the future or no chance?

[Orion]

It's a very pleasant surrealistic work of art. His "world without light pollution" is impossible as presented since the cities are still fully lit. To really reduce light pollution requires turning out off a lot of those lights (many of which are unnecessary). But it's a hard idea to sell. People like light. Even when camping it's common to see people blotting out the night with overly bright lights.

[Nuts]

Pollution by light itself or light degraded/reflectance from atmospheric pollution? I'd been thinking more the later despite the use here.
Would cities look this way against Tas sky inc their existing pollutants?

[Orion]

I don't think it's the pollution, although that might add to it. Moisture adds to it as well. It's just a normal feature of the atmosphere to scatter light. It wouldn't be a problem on the Moon.

The reason it's less of an issue in Tasmania is because the cities are so much smaller. In principle it is possible to greatly reduce the amount of light pollution in large cities. I imagine that was in the mind of the artist... or maybe he just thought the juxtaposition looked cool.

What's the sky like in Hobart? That's a small but reasonably sized city.

It's funny that I have to ask because I've spent a total of many weeks there but always in summer when it stays light fairly late (and I enjoy sleeping). So I haven't been outside in the dark there all that much. That said, I don't recall grand vistas of the Milky Way. But maybe I wasn't paying attention.

[Overlandman]

Orion
There has been a fair amount of Auroras in the Hobart sky.
Regards OLM

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=13667

[Orion]

That's very nice.

How bright are auroras? I've only seen one once, in Southern California. I thought at first it was coming from a nearby (very bright) city and was some sort of event. But it was too weird a light and we eventually figured out it had to be an aurora. We read about it in the paper afterwards. Kind of rare at that latitude.

To put it into a perspective I can relate to, how well can you see the Milky Way on a moonless night in Hobart?

I'm going to have to stay up past my bedtime next time I'm there.