Don't light up my nightI remember looking at the stars with my mother when I was a child. She pointed out the Milky Way and a number of constellations. She said to me: “There are too many stars to count!” Today, 50 years later, when I walk outside and look up, I see only a few identifiable constellations, no Milky Way, and I would dare say that there were so few stars that if I took In a little while, I could count them all. . Are there really fewer stars in the sky? No way. The stars are up there, they simply can no longer be seen with the naked eye from the vast majority of highly populated vantage points. The culprit, I learned, is called “light pollution.” According to the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), light pollution is “artificial luminescence created by a combination of urban sky glow, glare, and light trespass” (Petersen). This means that artificial lighting during the night has created a luminous halo, or “glow,” over urban and some rural areas, eliminating the natural state of total darkness. “Glare” refers to horizontal light shining directly into the eyes. “Light trespass” involves unwanted artificial light spilling onto and into a property (from floodlights, security lighting, street lighting) that would otherwise be dark (IDA). Astronomers were the first to notice this problem 30 years ago when they became frustrated when the glow of the sky began to impair their ability to see the stars (Bower). Since the invention of the incandescent light bulb by Thomas Edison in 1879, people have illuminated the night in ever-increasing ways and intensities. As a result of this man-made illumination, in his article, Our Vanishing Night, Verlyn Klinkenborg shares: “In most cities, the sky looks like......the middle of a sheet of paper. ...... International Dark -Association of Heaven. International Dark Sky Association. 2011.Web. November 22, 2011Klinkenborg, Verlyn. “Our night of disappearance”. National Geographic. National Geographic Magazine, November 2008. Web. November 22, 2011. Milbourn, Todd. "Truckee fears its star power is in jeopardy". Sacramento Bee. (2008). Web.November 2, 2011. Navara, KJ and Nelson, RJ “The dark side of light at night: physiological, epidemiological and ecological consequences.” Journal of Pineal Research, 2007: 43(215-224). Wiley Online Library. Internet. November 28, 2011.Petersen, Aili. “NIGHT LIGHTS”. American Scientist 89.1 (2001): 24. Gale OpposingViewpoints in Context. Internet. November 2, 2011. Spivey, Angela. “Light at night and the risk of breast cancer worldwide”. Environmental HealthPerspectives, 118. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, 2010: A525(1).Web. November 14. 2011.