POV Special – The City Dark – PBS Premiere July 5th (Online July 6 – August 5)

Greetings fellow astrophiles,

Prof. John McMahon sent along the following announcement well before an actual commercial made its way to my airwaves:

Ian Cheney’s highly-acclaimed documentary “The City Dark” about the loss of the night sky will air on PBS’s program “POV” (Point of View) this July 5.

Please disseminate this info to those you know, both astro-types and others … since public awareness of light pollution’s numerous adverse effects is the first step to reducing it.

The special airs on WCNY-TV at 10 p.m. on July 5th, 2 a.m. on WCNY-2, and at the POV website through August 5th.

More information about this documentary can be found at the PBS POV website, www.pbs.org/pov/citydark/.

Is darkness becoming extinct? When filmmaker Ian Cheney moves from rural Maine to New York City and discovers streets awash in light and skies devoid of stars, he embarks on a journey to America’s brightest and darkest corners, asking astronomers, cancer researchers and ecologists what is lost in the glare of city lights. Blending a humorous, searching narrative with poetic footage of the night sky, The City Dark provides a fascinating introduction to the science of the dark and an exploration of our relationship to the stars.

I’ve included the youtube preview of this documentary below:

The issue of light pollution is never far from the minds of amateur astronomers at Darling Hill Observatory, as our Northern (Syracuse), Southern (Cortland), and Eastern (a particularly bright auto dealership) Horizons have all been negatively impacted.

If this documentary shines particularly bright to you, note that there are organizations actively engaged in dark sky/light pollution issues. These include the International Dark-Sky Association and SELENE-NY.