PSA: City light haze is wiping out my star cluster pics

Went out to shoot the Pleiades from a field edge. Sky looked black to my eyes. Put my camera on a long exposure. The frame filled with ugly orange fog. From a shopping plaza miles away. Could not get any clean details. This much wasted light hurts night skies and burns power all night. I read about full cutoff fixtures that help. Does anyone here work on dark sky advocacy? How do you edit out light pollution in post?

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4 Comments

jana_burns6mo ago

Heard it messes with migrating birds too... sad stuff.

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xenas166mo ago

For the longest time, I just thought bad lights were ugly and made it hard to see stars. Reading about how they confuse migrating birds totally shifted my view. Seeing @quinncoleman mention dark sky groups shows people are actually working on solutions. It's not just a small annoyance, it messes with whole ecosystems. Birds get lost and exhausted because their natural guides are drowned out by our lights. Fixing streetlights isn't just for us, it's for keeping their paths safe too.

7

davis.olivia5mo ago

Wow, I never even thought about the birds before.

3

quinncoleman6mo ago

Light pollution sucks. Ugh, this makes me so mad. That orange fog ruins everything. I volunteer with a dark sky group to push for better lights. For editing, I stack exposures and use filters, but it's a band-aid. We need real change with proper streetlights.

1