The night sky is still there. We just can’t see it anymore.
≈ 25 stars visible to the naked eye
I’m Royce Dcunha — a student and space enthusiast. This project is about how artificial light is erasing our view of the universe, and what it takes to get the stars back.
ROYCE DCUNHA · MUMBAI, IN
01 / WHY IT MATTERS
83% of humanity lives under a light-polluted sky. One in three of us can no longer see the Milky Way.
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A
Sleep
Artificial light at night suppresses melatonin and disrupts the circadian rhythm every living thing runs on.
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B
Wildlife
Migrating birds and hatchling sea turtles navigate by starlight and moonlight — skyglow sends them the wrong way.
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C
Energy
Light radiated into the sky does nothing for anyone. It is pure waste — billions of dollars of it, every year.
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D
The cosmos
Every civilisation before ours navigated, farmed and dreamed by the night sky. We are the first to lose it.
02 / SAME PLANET, DIFFERENT SKIES
03 / SEEN FROM ORBIT
India,
switched on
From orbit, light pollution isn’t abstract. Every bright pixel is sky that someone underneath it has lost.
NASA VIIRS NIGHT COMPOSITE · 20.6° N, 78.9° E
DELHI
MUMBAI
KOLKATA
BENGALURU
04 / THE BORTLE SCALE
Drag toward darkness
Astronomers grade night skies from class 9 — inner city — to class 1, the darkest places left on Earth. Drag the scale and watch the sky respond.
05 / TWO INDIAN SKIES
Mumbai vs Hanle
Two skies, one country, 2,000 kilometres apart. Drag the seam between a megacity’s glow and India’s darkest sky.
06 / GETTING THE SKY BACK
Turn the lights off
Light pollution is the only pollution that vanishes at the speed of light. Tap each fix — and watch the sky above this page respond.
0 / 6 LIGHTS OFF