I am an active member of the Peterborough Astronomical Association. Currently I am the chair of the PAA's Light Pollution Awarness Committee. As well as making life difficult for astronomers, over $2 Billion is wasted each year on lighting everything outside, including the sky, rather than the intended target. I wonder just how much ozone depletion is being caused by this?

The above pictures are a good example of light pollution. Todd Carlson took the house pictures from his home in Goodwood, Ontario which is north east of Toronto.  The picture on the left was taken on the night of the big blackout in August 2003 and the one to the right was taken the following evening. Durham Region, where Goodwood is located has active light pollution by-laws. Most of the skyglow is actually spilling over from Toronto.

The picture of the world is self evident. Every point of light you see is wasted energy being needlessly beamed into space and furthering the depletion of the ozone layer.
Clockwise from the top left we have:
A Stellar 6" f/8 Dobsonian, a Bushnell 4.5" f/8 equatorial "Go To", "Lil Red" an Orbitor 2.8" f/4.3 refractor, and a Konus 3.5"f/13.3 Maksutov-Cassegrain.
Rounding out the images is one of the crescent moon high over Bridgenorth taken with a Nexxtech Binocular/Digital Camera
April 12, 2005

Click on the new club logo below, that I designed,  to go to the PAA's website, or on the logo of the International Dark Sky Association to go to their website.

The City of Peterborough's PUC have started replacing all street lights in need of replacement with full cut off fixtures with flat lenses. Cleary Homes, a major local developer, has begun placing full cut off fixtures in their Heritage Place subdivision.         MORE NEWS TO FOLLOW

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