June 2025: Cozy Lychnology, Light Pollution News.

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This Episode:

We finish out our stellar June lineup by exploring our ancient relationship with the night. We always knew chocolate at night was a good thing, but dang, the Mayans took it to a whole new level! Can the stars heal the mind? A new dark sky trail, and much more!

This month, I welcome back Editor-in-Chief of one of my favorite magazines, Astronomy Magazine – David Eicher; the host of the Restoring Darkness podcast, Michael Colligan; and Professor of Anthropology from Bellevue College, Dr. Nancy Gonlin!

Host:

Guests:

1. Dylan Strome on the Gr8 Chase: Race for the Wild Card, celebrating St. Patrick’s Day and Jason fixes 3-on-3 OT, Unscripted with Virk and Demers.
2. Archaeologists Explore Life After Dark in the Ancient Night, Nancy Gonlin and April Nowell, Atlas Obscura.
3. Light pollution’s impact on Indigenous cultures, Abbe Whitford, Astrobites.
4. THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN COSMOLOGICAL VIGNETTE: FIRST VISUAL EVIDENCE OF THE MILKY WAY AND TRENDS IN COFFIN DEPICTIONS OF THE SKY GODDESS NUT, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage.
5. Perinatal Exposures to Ambient Fine Particulate Matter and Outdoor Artificial Light at Night and Risk of Pediatric Papillary Thyroid Cancer, Environmental Health Perspectives.
6. Association of outdoor artificial light at night on blood pressure and hypertension: Insights from a population-based survey, Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community.
7. Flagship Project 2: Astronomy for Mental Health, Office of Astronomy for Development.
8. Relationship Between Darkness and Healing of Night Sky in Planetarium, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
9. Prevalence of Individuals with Pervasive Developmental Disorders living in Southern California that Have Sleep Disorders and/or Sleep Medication Prescriptions with Respect to Light Pollution at Night, Neurology.
10. Associations between light at night and mental health: A systematic review and meta-analysis, Science of The Total Environment.
11. Land Use Commission endorses Ryan Field sign plan, Matt Simonette, Evanston Round Table.
12. Being a parent can be dizzying. To reorient, I look to the stars, Gila Lyons, Los Angeles Times.
13. Middle Fork’s new Dark Sky Trail, observatory ‘a huge team effort’, Dave Hinton, News Gazette.

Light Pollution News: June Highlights

NHL Podcast Insights and Lighting Choices

The NHL podcast Unscripted recently featured Capitals player Dylan Strome, with much of the discussion focusing on Alexander Ovechkin breaking Wayne Gretzky’s career goal record. The conversation also highlighted Capitals defenseman Jakob Chychrun’s unique lifestyle, specifically his switch from electric lighting to beeswax candles—a segue into broader discussions about light and its effects.

Historical and Cultural Significance of the Night Sky

A notable Atlas Obscura article explored how ancient humans adapted to life after dark. Research discussed in AstroBites and a 2020 paper, “Whitening the Sky: Light Pollution as a Form of Cultural Genocide,” argues that modern artificial lighting disrupts cultural traditions by severing communities’ connections to the night sky. Aboriginal Australians, for example, used constellations and variable stars such as Betelgeuse, Aldebaran, and Antares to track seasons and time.

Mythology and the Night Sky

The Egyptian sky goddess Nut, often associated with the Milky Way, represents both the day and night sky, embodying ancient reverence for celestial cycles and the afterlife.

Health Impacts of Light Pollution

Recent Yale University research links increased exposure to fine particulate air pollution and artificial light at night with higher risks of pediatric thyroid cancer. Specifically, children in areas with higher artificial light exposure face a 23–25% increased risk, with each 1 millicandela/m² rise in light pollution correlating to a 7% higher risk. Other studies report associations between light pollution and hypertension in Ghana, as well as links to adult mental health conditions like depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. However, effects on youth mental health appear less significant.

Mental Health and Natural Darkness

A small study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that exposure to a natural, dark night sky led to greater psychological restoration and relaxation. Meta-analyses confirm that artificial nighttime light most strongly impacts adult mental health.

Innovative Lighting and Dark Sky Initiatives

Northwestern University’s Ryan Field incorporates green design, including a canopy to reduce stadium uplighting and ‘halo’ LED signage to minimize light pollution. Illinois’ Middle Fork River Forest Preserve, the state’s only International Dark Sky Park, now offers a dedicated trail for unobstructed night sky viewing.

Personal Reflections on the Night Sky

A Los Angeles Times opinion piece by Gila Lyons emphasizes the enduring comfort and perspective provided by the night sky, describing stargazing as a timeless human ritual that connects generations and offers moments of peace amid daily life.

Light Pollution News: June Read Along

Let’s start things off with a fun warm up here. This caught my eye – it’s a recap of a clip from the NHL podcast, Unscripted. Whereby hosts Adnan Virk and Jason Demers chat with the Capitals player, Dylan Strome.

While much of the conversation revolved around Alexander Ovechkin, for those who pay little attention to hockey, Ovechkin recently broke the Great One, Wayne Gretzky’s, career goal record of 894 goals.

In the interview, there was some clubhouse discussion that eventually circled over to Capitals defensive player, Jakob Chychrun, who appears to have some eccentricities. Including, it was revealed that Chychrun may have ditched standard electric household lighting for beeswax candle lights.

Given today’s show, I thought this would make a good segue into some conversation topics.

Nancy, I want to revisit the article that brought you into my view. That was this piece about 6 months ago out of Atlas Obscura, whereby you and your colleague, April Nowell, looked at an aspect of early human life that I think, while many of us took for granted, probably don’t know too much about.

The piece titled ‘Archaeologists Explore Life After Dark in the Ancient Night,’ (linked in our show notes), details various snippets of the human experience after the sun went down. Previously, on this show, we’ve talked about topics such as the medieval European practice of ‘two sleeps.’

Just your luck, Nancy, we actually had some pertinent archaeological related news that came through this month! From AstroBites, for some reason, this month they take a look at the 2020 paper, which I wasn’t aware of, titled ‘Whitening the Sky: light pollution as a form of cultural genocide.’

The thesis is that through modern outdoor lighting technologies, we are, pardon the pun on the connotation, whitewashing cultural traditions and systems of knowledge by eliminating communities’ connections to the night sky.

It’s said that aboriginal Australians used constellations to identify planting seasons. Such peoples also observed the brightness variability of the orange star that demarks the shoulder of Orion, Betelgeuse. This star is technically a semi-regular variable star, at 400 days. In addition to Betelgeuse, aboriginal Australians also identified variability in the bright red star in Taurus, Aldebaran, and in the red star Antares, in Scorpius. 

From the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, a researcher took a look at the Egyptian Goddess, Nut (Noot). Specifically, the researcher looked to interrogate the popular assumption that Nut represented the Milky Way in visual depictions between the 13^th Century BC to the 8^th Century BC.

While the Milky Way certainly played a part in Nut’s daily activities, the Goddess Nut’s representation is a bit more encompassing, noting a later preference for daytime over nighttime. Nut’s role as the sky goddess typically involves swallowing and birthing the daily sun, and of course, acting as a sherpa to the afterlife.

Switching over to some health news, researchers from Yale University identified a correlation between exposure to small particle air pollution and generalized light pollution, with pediatric thyroid cancer.  Researchers looked at 736 cases of thyroid cancer between the 19 year span of 1982 – 2011. They utilized modeling to obtain an air pollution projection, and also utilized the “New World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness.”

According to the study, for every 10 micrograms per cubic meter increase in fine particulate, the overall risk of cancer appeared to rise by 7%. With regards to generalized (exterior) light pollution, individuals residing in areas with a medium – high exterior artificial light score incurred 23-25% higher odds of thyroid cancer than those in low exposure settings. Every 1 millicandela per square meter increase in light pollution appeared to raise the risk by a similar 7%. This latter light pollution association was not seen in children under 14.

Elsewhere on the health front, from the Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community, researchers identified an association between generalized light pollution via the VIIRS dataset and Ghanaian propensity for “higher systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and increased odds of hypertension”.

A study in Neurology looked to see if generalized light pollution had any impact on individuals with pervasive developmental disorders that also had either sleep disorders or were prescribed sleep medication. The team found low significance with regard to light pollution’s effects, opting for other more correlated variables.

To close out on health news, maybe, really, all we need is just a day or two to unwind from our day to day stress. Here’s a fun article, I’m not sure how much you can glean from a study with a population of five, but have at it!

In the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, a team of three looked at how differing levels of night sky brightness affected individuals’ ability to feel mentally refreshed. To do this, they took said five women and put them into a planetarium, whereby they experienced a cascading level of night sky darkness from city to a perfect night sky. The team measured brain activity, heart rate, and psychological feeling, with the latter being a survey on a rating scale. It was found that the more natural the night, the more “healed” the individuals felt.

This one coincides nicely with a study from the Science of the Total Environment, whereby a team did a meta-analysis of past studies on mental health and artificial light at night. The most significant associations appeared in light’s effect on adult depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. Meanwhile, the lowest association stemmed from youth depression and general anxiety.

Which coincides with a similar piece from the Weather Channel this month.  Were you aware of the ‘Astronomy for Mental Health?’ Apparently, the IAU has been backing a workshop project that helps utilize astronomy and recognition of the night sky for the benefit of positive mental health. You’ll recall a year or so back that we had an article showcasing a VA hospital in Pittsburgh installing an observatory to help veterans overcome trauma. Well, much of that idea is in use here. Learn more about that in our show notes, where the IAU has useful tools and activity sets.

Before we go today, I’ve got some good lighting news!

Have you guys been paying attention to the rebuild of Northwestern University’s Ryan Field?

The stadium has some rather interesting features. For one, it will be a pretty small stadium by D1 college football standards at 35,000. It also has a very green forward design. In addition to large swaths of open space outside of the field, the design team just unveiled its external signage details.

For you at home who might not be aware, the stadium has a canopy cover, capturing much of the harmful stadium uplighting we see at professional sporting events. In addition, the stadium won’t directly illuminate its signage, rather, it will be utilizing ‘halo’ lighting of 3000-4000K LED lights to effectively add a glow to the fixed lettering. Further lighting plans to harness ambient internal stadium lighting, rather than projected exterior lights.

This is a good lead in to our last article for the day. In Champagne County, Illinois, a new trail has come online at the Middle Fork River Forest Preserve. The Middle Fork River Preserve is Illinois’ only International Dark Sky Park. The dark sky trail only spans a mile but provides open views of the night sky.

We’ll close things out today with a reflection. This comes to us by way of the Los Angeles Times, an opinion piece by Gila Lyons. Can the stars at night be our own paused moment of zen? Perhaps that’s why so many folks are drawn to the dazzling “pinpricks of light” as Lyons puts it.

For Lyons, while the night sky has never been the main story in her life, it’s been a common binding force. First, in her youth, backpacking across Death Valley’s pristine nights in a sky so free from “moisture and light pollution that there was no black.” Then, now, as a mother of a young child, simple excursions to roll out the trash can to the curb at night provide glimpses of a significantly dimmer sky but a reprieve nonetheless.

For Lyons, asterisms, such as Orion’s sword, and the parade of planets like Venus point to a timeless human ritual of looking up passed down through millennia, for which, like those before her, she now extends the experience to her toddler.

I will leave you with this, as written by Lyons:

“When we decided to leave the city for the suburbs last year, we gave up so much, but we were ready for more space, more quiet, and one of the big motivators for me was to live in a place with some access to the night sky. We would miss our friends, the familiar (too-crowded, too-narrow) streets, and all the events and activities we were part of there, but I felt the lack of darkness and astronomic context acutely.

It’s my dream to take my husband and son to one of the few truly dark places we have left in this country, to experience the night sky as I’ve known it to be. But even this view from our driveway now comforts me deeply, offering glimpses of the people I used to be, of the transcendent amid the laundry, of the universe every trash night.”