Opinion
A fan-favorite app in my family is the stargazing app: point it skyward and it names the stars, planets, and constellations above you. Lately, more of those "stars" turn out to be satellites, stretched into long, dotted lines. That's where this project started to feel
Special Interest
Satellites preform many tasks that assist in day to day lives of billions on earth, but as this number of satellites in orbit increases, the question of how they will be maintained and serviced becomes more and more important. "About 16,000 satellites currently circle our planet... Dozens more
Special Interest
Earlier concerns about satellites focused on the light pollution they created in the night sky. They could be visible to the naked eye and interfere with long-exposure photographs used in astronomy. Although efforts have been made to reduce their brightness, the growing number of satellites in orbit presents new
Special Interest
Watoga State Park is a certified Dark Sky Park in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. Its designation also covers neighboring Calvin Price State Forest and Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park, and Watoga was the first site in the state to receive it. The park is a strong example of dark sky
Arts & Lifestyle
A significant drawback of entertainment events in public parks is the light and sound pollution generated by projectors, pyrotechnics, and other equipment. Beyond distracting from the night sky, this pollution disrupts nocturnal wildlife, interfering with foraging, mating, and migration behaviors that depend on natural darkness. An infrared projector offers a
Special Interest
In the ongoing conflict between private satellite companies such as Starlink and the astronomy community, it has been found that many of the Starlink satellites which were promised to be below a certain brightness now exceed that brightness level. "Simply put, the light pollution Musk claimed would never happen
Special Interest
In September 2025, the International Astronomical Union, NSF NOIRLab, and the SKA Observatory renewed funding for the Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky (CPS) for another five years, through March 2030. As part of the renewal, the Centre's name was also shortened from its
Business
In 1993 an idea was hatched by Mike Lawson to send up a rocket that housed a space billboard. This out of the box idea caught a lot of attention on both sides seeking to debate whether or not it was actually a possibility or a good idea. “A lot
Business
One of the biggest obstacles to switching from existing park lighting to dark-sky-aware lighting is cost. To address this, this new system uses a trade-in model that lowers that cost by exchanging old fixtures for new, dark-sky-compliant ones. The process works in stages. First, auditors
Special Interest
Many astronomers in Ohio state parks have begun to notice new "stars" in their astronomy shots. As more satellites are launched into orbit, the glare from their solar panels is becoming a growing problem. Sunlight reflecting off these panels is visible from Earth, where it adds to light
Science & Tech
Campers in Ohio Parks love bringing their sites to life with string lights and decorative touches, but all that ambient glow doesn't switch off when the fun winds down. Sometimes left burning through the night, they quietly contribute to light pollution during the very hours when nocturnal wildlife
Numbers
This survey was conducted to evaluate how fireworks and drone shows are used in Ohio's state parks, and what each one costs a park in cleanup time and environmental impact. For my sampling strategy, I was connected with district managers, and naturalists across Ohio through Heather Bokman, sustainability