On October 12, 1983, an explosion at a power station plunged two square miles of Los Angeles into total darkness.The Griffith Observatory on Mount Hollywood was inundated with calls asking what was wrong with the sky: It had a bright band of light streaked across it.
What people were seeing for the first time was the Milky Way, billions of stars that appear clustered together in a great hazy band of white.
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“I believe this is one reason children are not developing their powers of critical thinking: They are not being forced to think and question more deeply, something that tends to happen to you when you see the vastness of a starry night.”
La Claire, who is responsible for the Planetarium’s current exhibit, Our Vanishing Sky, says light pollution affects our sleep patterns by fooling the brain into thinking it is still daylight.
“The pineal gland, sometimes called ‘the third eye’, senses blue light through our eyes. It tells the body when it is day and when it is night.
“Many night lights have a blue component. The problem starts before we go to bed. We just don’t feel sleepy when we are out in this light at night.”
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