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Bright
Lights
Amateurs
and professional astronomers face many obstacles in watching
the stars in New York City, but they keep looking.
Athletes love to play here. Movie stars love to
film here. Artists hope to perform
here. But for astronomers, the dream of making it to the top
of their profession does not include a stop in New York City.
In fact, if they are lucky, astonomers will be sent as far
away as possible — perhaps to the desert or to the top
of a mountain. Basically, New York City is the exact opposite
of the conditions that an astronomer hopes to find at a viewing
sight.
The street lights, car lights, office
lights, and billboards all blend together to create a golden
glow that radiates into the night sky. Though many cities
across the country share these conditions, perhaps no city
can match the level of intense concentration of light as New
York City — especially Manhattan.
The network of street lights throughout the Bronx, Queens,
and Brooklyn as well as the homes on Staten Island and nearby
New Jersey creep up to the edge of the Hudson River to form
a backdrop for the Manhattan. The towering skyscrapers reach
high into the night sky and release banks of light from the
hundreds of windows.
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Dark Sky. The location must be free of light
pollution caused by city lights. Moving one story
above the street lights on a roof top in Manhattan
can make a substanial difference in the viewing
quality.
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Extreme Dry. The site must be free of moisture
in order to measure infrared and sub-millimeter
radiation in the atmosphere.
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Stable atmosphere. The site needs to be free
of atmospheric disruption. Just a small amount of
heat given off by a building can diminish the viewing
conditions. Although sometimes it may seem that
stars flash and twinkle, this is only due to an
unstable atmosphere and does not represent their
common state.
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Cloud Free. The locations must have the highest
possible number of clear nights throughout the year.
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Source:
Columbia University's
department of astronomy |
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