Citizen Science Project

For my citizen science project I will be helping to organize and collect data to measure the amount of light pollution that has been seen and growing throughout the years leading to “loss of the night”. No longer are you able to see stars in the sky like you were to hundreds of years ago but rather you are just able to see artificial lights that have, over time, intensified. For this project, I will be collecting visual data as well as computer/phone data. Through an app provided by the starters of the project, I will be taking photos of the sky, particularly at a certain stars to see how much of the night sky has been polluted with lamp designs. Through the data collection, I would be able to pay attention only to certain organisms, phenomena, and data because of the fact that these would be the main factors

I wouldn’t say that there is an objective perspective you would have to take as you collect the data, however, being that this project does have to do with the idea that light is polluting the dark; the majority population would agree that artificial light is affecting the night sky. However, data can be biased by perspective because a citizen scientist can go to a place that is relatively lighter and brighter to take pictures of skies that show little to no star, rather than an area that isn’t as bright just to prove that artificial light pollution is serious and growing.

2.

The main scientist that had started this project was Franz Holker because of the fact that light pollution wasn’t only taking the night away from the Earth, as well as its stars but was also wasting a lot of money as well as energy resources. Not only does it hurt human resources and health but also hurts the Earth’s environments as well as threatens wildlife. I think their motivations were for the love of the Earth and its night sky. Everyone loves to go out and star gaze every now and then but especially in today’s society;