First the street lighting, then most of the living rooms and after a fewminutes the spotlights on the clock tower of the Pieterskerk: at the stroke of10 p.m., lights went out everywhere in the center of Leiden on Sunday evening.Hundreds of people, shoulder to shoulder between the battlements of LeidenCastle, let out a collective cry of surprise as the lights went out. “I’venever seen anything like it,” a bystander told his neighbor a few minuteslater.
All this in the context of ‘Seeing Stars Leiden’, an initiative of artist DaanRoosegaarde in collaboration with Leiden, this year’s European City ofScience. The idea: the less light, the more stars emerge, which otherwiseremain hidden behind the glow of urban light. The hour and a half of darknessrequired months of preparation, ranging from informing and activatingresidents to experimenting with putting out blocks of street lighting.
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The value of this venture is, to a large extent, philosophical: ‘By showingpeople the stars, we want to reconnect them with each other and with thecosmos,’ says Roosegaarde. ‘People have been inspired by the starry sky formillennia, but light pollution is slowly disappearing that connection.’
The relationship between humans and the starry sky is not the only thing thatdeteriorates due to light pollution. Another victim is our biorhythm. Light,natural sunlight, signals the brain to inhibit the production of the ‘sleephormone’ melatonin. As soon as the daylight disappears, this plug is removedand melatonin is produced, resulting in drowsiness.
As far as the regulation of melatonin is concerned, it does not distinguishbetween sunlight and artificial light. This emerged from a playful study bythe American sleep physiologist Ken Wright, who sent test subjects on a week-long camping trip with a strict ban on turning on artificial light in theevening. The result: they got tired on average two hours earlier.
robins
Animals are also confused by artificial light: robins can be found singingunder a street lamp at night, migratory birds continue to circle en massearound oil platforms without reaching their destination and sea turtles losetheir way to the beach, where they lay their eggs. Even the increasingmortality of insects has been linked to artificial light: in the darkness,moths gather under artificial light, where they easily become prey topredators.
Moreover: artificial light is expensive, and also burns in places where it isof no use to anyone. Roosegaarde calls it ‘bullshit light’: light from emptyoffice buildings or billboards, for example. To save money, the LED lamp is onthe rise, but as a result the night is becoming increasingly blue, which manyanimals are extra sensitive to.
More and more people and organizations see the return of darkness as a way outof this cat-and-mouse game. For example, since 2006 provincial environmentalfederations have been organizing ‘The Night of the Night’ when winter timebegins. Also this year, on October 29, lights will go out everywhere in theNetherlands, from restaurants, offices and highways to Ikea stores.
‘Dark Reserves’
In addition, the Netherlands has two ‘dark reserves’ with a strict policyagainst artificial light: Lauwersmeer National Park, on the border ofGroningen and Friesland, and the Boschplaat on Terschelling. In these reservesyou can even see the Northern Lights on a good day. These ‘Dark Sky Parks’ arenationally recognized and designated by the International Dark-SkyAssociation, which is committed to preserving darkness worldwide.
Crowds and togetherness during Seeing Stars in Leiden.Image Raymond Rutting /de Volkskrant
There was no such absolute darkness in Leiden on Sunday. Many living rooms,shop windows and billboards remained brightly lit, and student associationssuch as Minerva also failed to do so. Moreover, the evening was cloudy: onlyhalf an hour pieces of the starry sky were clearly visible. Despite thesesetbacks, the evening’s goal had been achieved: “I now see about as many starsin the middle of the city as I would on any other day in the middle of thePolder,” said Tünde, an astronomy student who observed the stars in a park.showed with his telescope.
Volunteers were lined up in this manner all over town, and long lines ofpeople were waiting at each telescope to take a look as well. ‘In terms ofstargazing, it may not have been the best evening’, said Frans Snik, anastronomer at Leiden University and involved in organizing the event. ‘But itwas a great social experiment. The crowds, conviviality and togetherness werethe success. Everyone in Leiden looked up for a moment.’