Skyglow (or sky glow), a form of light pollution, is the bright orange glow seen over many cities and towns. It is caused by the combined effect of the many electric lighting fixtures that shed light above the horizontal in urban areas, and results in only the brightest stars and planets being visible.

It mainly detrimentally affects astronomers, who usually can no longer practice their science in cities, and are increasingly even driven away from areas located anywhere near human settlements. It can also have detrimental effects on the health of human and non-human animals, and it means that people in urban areas all lose the chance to admire the night sky. Due to skyglow, most people in urban areas have never seen the Milky Way.

External links

• Skyglow: the effect of poor lighting (CfDS) (examples of skyglow in the UK)
• Skyglow across the Great Lakes (examples of skyglow in the US)
• Filtering Skyglow (from CCD cameras)
• Towns and Skyglow (UK skyglow image collection)