This time-lapse video of the Orion constellation beautifully illustrates how light pollution alters our view of the night sky
Sometimes you just want to enjoy the galactic #views without actually venturing beyond Earth’s atmosphere (ya know, space travel being so inaccessible for non-astronauts and all), but it’s hard to when everywhere we look there’s so much light drowning out the stars. To that point, this time-lapse video of the Orion constellation by filmmaker Sriram Murali beautifully illustrates how light pollution affects the environment.
Not that there’s anything beautiful about light pollution. Seriously, it blocks the night sky for one-third of humanity, but Murali’s “Lost in Light II” reveals the breathtaking views that lie behind it, which are sadly going unnoticed by anyone who lives in or near a major metropolitan area.
Also, it makes us long for a stargazing road trip, but until we can arrange that, we’ll settle for watching this fascinating video over and over again.
“Lost in Light II” shows us the night sky over San Francisco, where you’d be hard-pressed to find glistening clusters of stars due to city’s extreme levels of light pollution. But with its lens aimed at the same portion of sky, the camera films from different locations with decreasing light pollution ratings, gradually revealing more and more stars, and ultimately, the Orion constellation in all its nighttime glory.
Gorgeous. The comforts of the city are undeniable, however, this kind of makes us wish that someone would flip a switch and turn out the lights during all the clear nights so we can see as far into space as our eyes allow.
