As cities grow, light pollution has spread across the night sky in America. Observatories find their views obstructed, and space-based options like the expensive, fragile Hubble telescope can’t entirely replace ground-based counterparts. But Tyler Nordgren wants to remind people that the stars are still worth watching. In Nautilus, Todd Pitock profiles Nordgren, who has worked to bring astronomy programs to national parks, drawing attention to the constellations that light pollution erases. “The first time people come out for dark skies, and we get Bortle Class 1 and 2 here, it affects them deeply,” says National Parks ranger Kelly Carroll, referring to the Bortle sky brightness scale. “They’re blown away. The connection with the stars is inside all of us, but it has been sequestered away.”
The fight to make Americans see stars
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
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