SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — Neighborhood street lights are frustrating amateur astronomers and one of them wants to let everyone know why.
Anthony Krishock, President of the Syracuse Astronomical Society wants the city and others to understand light pollution and how astronomers are affected by it daily.
Krishock has been fascinated with astronomy since a young age, dating back to the 1986 Halley’s Comet. That same year his father helped him build his first telescope. His love for astronomy grew from there, but as technology has advanced there are new types of telescopes that are light sensitive.
Some astronomers including Krischok use electronically assisted telescopes that help them get several electronic images of deep space objects.
“It’s not just looking at stars, we can capture deep sky objects very much the same as you would see if you did a google search, they’re gorgeous images,” said Krishock.
Krishock and other astronomers’ problems arise when there are lights in the atmosphere that take away from the focus of the images they want to capture. The light rising into the atmosphere creates a glare through the telescope imaging that makes layering of deep sky objects difficult. This problem wouldn’t be an issue if there was a way for astronomers to filter out the light, but as of now it is impossible and nothing has been created to fix this issue.
Investing in street light shades or ways to turn city or town automated lights off occasionally would be an ideal solution, according to Krishock.
“If you wanna look at deep sky objects, you either need to get out of the city or pick up some rather expensive gear,” said Krishock.
