"Telescopes Useless By 2050"

[Syrinx]

Ground-based astronomy could be impossible in 40 years because of pollution from aircraft exhaust trails and climate change, an expert says.

Aircraft condensation trails - known as contrails - can dissipate, becoming indistinguishable from other clouds.

If trends in cheap air travel continue, says Professor Gerry Gilmore, the era of ground astronomy may come to an end much earlier than most had predicted.

Aircraft along with climate change will contribute to increased cloud cover.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4755996.stm

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. Peak oil will take care of the cheap travel...

no worries. :)

[Syrinx]

4. That's neat how you did that!

You took two dark clouds, and wove them together into a beautiful silver lining! Way to go! ;)

[Viva_La_Revolution]

6. It's a gift...

Or a survival instinct. Haven't figured out which. :)

[titoresque]

2. They're Chem-trails eom

[MercutioATC]

15. Well, I suppose SOMEBODY had to say it...

:rofl:

[titoresque]

18. .......

http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Chemtrail_101.html

Do yourself a favor. :eyes:

[MercutioATC]

21. I'm an air traffic controller...I know better.

Might the government at some time and on a limited basis have released chemicals into the air from an airplane for various reasons? Of course.

Are the things we see in the sky when we look up on any given day anything other than exhaust and water vapor? No.

The claims of the "chemtrail"-spraying planes flying in suspicious patterns is laughable. I know, I'm one of the people who watches the planes....

[depakid]

3. Another fantasy

People just can't understand that their world is not going to just go along on its merry way without cheap fossil fuel.

[Bucky]

5. Not to mention the expanding universe theory...

Since all objects in the universe are moving away from us, then eventually they'll be too far away to be seen even thru the telescope. Didn't realize that would happen within 44 years, but I guess it had to happen eventually. Ah well, stars are pretty lame compared to flashing neon martini signs anyway.

[Canuckistanian]

7. Light Pollution

Our obsession with lighting up the night streets is killing scientific observations.

There are only a few places in North America where the night sky can be seen with any clarity.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

8. I live next to Joshua Tree National Park

in SoCal. When I first lived here in 1991 the sky was so dark and the air so clear that it literally took your breath away when you left the house at night. The stars were so vivid that they seemed three dimensional (I wasn't the only one with this observation). The city I live in (Yucca Valley) had strict light pollution restrictions. You could see forever.

Fast forward 15 years. The smog from L.A. crept through the pass several years ago and there's always a haze in the Park. New car dealerships and malls have lit up the sky with unshielded parking lot lights, approved via a waiver by a city council composed of businessmen and developers who are more concerned with increasing growth than the quality of life. Palm Springs, San Bernardino, Big Bear City and Barstow have grown so much that their light pollution has almost made it impossible to see the Milky Way. Moreover, when it was Joshua Tree National Monument, only 400,000 people visited each year. Now that it's a National Park, however, there are more than 1.2 million visitors annually, bringing with them all the vehicular pollution that further diminishes the Park's air quality.

As L.A.'s smog continues to drift eastward I fear for the future of all the telescopes on Kitt Peak, near Tuscon.

[dorkulon]

9. Gotta say I'm kind of into electric light

It's quite useful. But there really is nothing like the night sky out in the wilderness...

I just think it's a fair trade. If we could ever find a way to power the world via clean methods, I could deal with dimmer stars in order to see what I'm doing. Just a city/night person, I guess.

[ikri]

10. Electric lights can be fixed though

How hard would it be to add a cover to the top of a street light to ensure that all light from the lamp is aimed at the ground and doesn't shine upwards to create a strange orange glow over the town/city?

Probably wouldn't cost more than $2 per lamp and would help curb light pollution in towns and cities.

But as ever in the society that we live in, if our elected officials are offered the chance to spend $1 now to save $2 later or spend $0.5 now with a future cost of $5 they'll almost always choose to spend the lower amount now and pass the costs on later. So given the option to spend $10 per street lamp with not light pollution protection mechanism or $15 for a better lamp that cuts light pollution, they'll choose the $10 every time.

[dorkulon]

11. Would that really work?

Seems like there'd still be a lot of light reflecting upward of the ground. I'm no expert, obviously.

[ikri]

12. It would never be 100%

But it'd be a hell of a lot better than it is now.

[Canuckistanian]

13. Nobody's asking people to turn off all the lights

There are things that can be done to minimize light pollution. Proper use of lighting, the right bulbs, etc.

This website, darksky.org, http://www.darksky.org/index.html tells us how to do simple things to avoid this problem.

[dorkulon]

14. I'm all for it, then. n/t

[AllegroRondo]

16. Best star viewing I ever had

was in a small boat about 20 miles out on Lake Michigan. Sad to think you cant get viewing like that anywhere on land.

[bloom]

17. The other day I was noticing how clear the sky was

and then later in the day - the only clouds were those from airplanes and it seemed like a plaid sky - the way the contrails wove together.

[titoresque]

19. see link at post #18

It's a good read.

[pitohui]

20. it is sad

we have cheated future generations of the night sky

in many areas we ourselves are cheated of the night sky

they say the children of mexico city have never seen the stars