OTHER TYPE OF MAPS: NIGHT WORLD MAPS

A map of the world (in Latin mappa mundi is a cartographic representation of the entire surface of the Earth in a spherical or flat form; among the latter we find even the celestial planispheres with the visible sky -and constellations interpreted culturally- that varies according to the latitude of the Earth from which its projection is situated, but we will already talk about them …

Returning to the most usual ones, it should be noted that they can be terrestrial or maritime, and frequently thematic: physical (geographical, geological, topographic), political (borders) or social (made with indicator data, which gives them very different aspects). It is true that sometimes they combine different variables in the representation and, although they are apparently objective they do not get rid of having an ideological load on the scales used … But then, what is a nocturnal world map? One that appears only black? Hopefully. It is at least black and white, but that white becomes yellowish because at night you know what happens: many lights turn on …

Mapamundi nocturno: España de noche vista desde el Espacio.

And that’s what we’re going to tell you in this post, of a world map that collects all that light pollution that is so unecological in terms of energy consumption and in so far as it affects the diversity of the environment including human health, apart from hindering astronomical observations, and also with citizen collaboration. Collaboration consisting of several tasks. Are you interested in participating?

Our watchword is #bestarfriendly, that is, be “friendly” with the stars and by extension with the starry sky or the night sky -well, always, but from the part that touches us especially this, although do not forget that The Sun is the biggest star we see every day … (but not the biggest one that exists …)- and that implies that do not pollute luminously or do it minimum as possible and in any case their struggle would be promoted at a particular way and/or at institutional level. Apart from this, you can contribute by participating in the very interesting and very useful STARS4ALL and CITIES AT NIGHT projects.

STARS4ALL as it appears on your website, is a European project raising awareness about the negative effects of artificial light on human wellbeing, biodiversity, visibility of stars, safety and energy waste.
All #astrotourister that prides itself of being it must know the project because ASTROTOURISTING is much more than stargazing and in our divulgative facet it is mandatory to share its purpose, support it and practice it.CITIES AT NIGHT, is described on your website as a citizen science project that aims to create a map, similar to Google maps, of the earth at night using night time colour photographs taken by astronauts onboard the ISS.

 

CITIES AT NIGHT is described on your website as a citizen science project that aims to create a map, similar to Google maps, of the earth at night using night time colour photographs taken by astronauts onboard the ISS 

The result, for now, you can find it here. But...

wants to be much more and is in process for it, what happens is that it needs many more committed people, #astrotouristers like you, and also ASTROTOURISTING to move towards a level where they create a funny and collaborative platform to assemble that huge amount of images on a nocturnal world map with which to detect and evaluate the light pollution existing on Planet Earth. How? We have already talked about crowdfunding on this website and again someone else needs it, this time with the aim of doing citizen science through video games to get more knowledge and for the good of everyone, so you just have to click then in 3, 2, 1, …