Malargüe light pollution: a study carried out by measuring real cases

B. GARCÍA; A. RISI; M. SANTANDER; A. CICERO; A. PATTINI; M. A. CANTÓN; L. CÓRICA; C. MARTÍNEZ; M. ENDRIZZI; L. FERRÓN

Innovation in Astronomy Education

Cambridge University Press

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2008; p. 135 - 158

The use of artificial illumination to ensure human activities during the night contributes to the so called light pollution. This kind of contamination affects the vision of the night sky and unnecessarily consumes an important amount of energy. Since the ’80s, light contamination has been a subject of study; there are several cities in the world where the use of street lights is being regulated, especially for public illumination. In the city of Malargüe, in the south of the Mendoza province, a city regulation was passed on April 14th, 2005 by which the sky is protected from this kind of contamination. As a consequence of this accomplishment, an interdisciplinary team will perform a series of measurements of the impact of traditional street lights and of those recommended for the control of the light pollution in this city. In this work, the general characteristics of this topic and the preliminary results of the measurements are presented.