This picture was shot looking north over Cape Cod Bay. The light on the lower left is from Boston – more than 90 miles away from where I took the picture.

This is what we are losing – dark skies are quickly vanishing all over the world as the city’s insatiable appetite for bright lights grows. Even in my own little backwater town, an hour from New York City, every day it seems the security lights, the lights from the neighbor’s pool or tennis courts or the light over the back door stays on later and later.

There’s a lot you can do. Encourage the use of LEDs and other alternatives. Lobby your community to adopt stricter lighting standards. Join the International Dark Sky Association. And just turn the damn lights off.

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