The Globe at Night program is an international citizen campaign to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution by inviting people to measure their night sky brightness and submit their observations to a Web site from a computer or smart phone.
Light pollution threatens not only the beauty of the night sky, but can affect energy consumption, wildlife, and health. In the past eight years that the Globe at Night project has been keeping statistics, nearly 100,000 measurements have been contributed from people in 115 countries during the campaigns each winter/spring.
Lighting showrooms can bring attention to the growing problem of light pollution by hosting an educational seminar or encouraging the community to come together in a fun event that generates awareness. The Globe at Night Web site offers an interactive data map, or see how individual cities rank with its regional map generator. The Globe at Night Web site is easy to use, comprehensive, and holds an abundance of background information.
For Globe at Night 2014, the organization is collecting observations from people all over the world every month of the year. The Web site helps citizens find constellations in the night sky, find
the latitude and longitude of the location where the observations are being made, plus users can match their observations to one of the seven magnitude charts and note the amount of cloud cover.
The first campaign for Globe at Night began on January 20 and will continue throughout the year. A Globe at Night Web app helps citizens submit their data to the group using a handy Web app that is compatible with most smartphones, tablets, or computers. There are also two native smartphone apps: Android phone users should find the Loss of the Night app; iPhone users should download the Dark Sky Meter app.
Globe at Night 2014 Dates and Constellations
Northern Constellations
Orion
January 20-29, February 19-28, March 21-30, 2014
Leo
April 20-29, May 19-28, 2014
Hercules
June 17-26, July 16-25, August 15-24, 2014
Cygnus
September 15-24, 2014
Pegasus
October 14-23, 2014
Perseus
November 12-21, December 11-20, 2014
Southern Constellations
Orion
January 20-29, February 19-28, March 21-30, 2014
Crux
March 25-30, April 20-29, May 19-28, 2014
Scorpius
June 17-26, July 16-25, 2014
Sagittarius
August 15-24, September 15-24, October 14-23, 2014
Cetus
November 12-21, December 11-20, 2014
