The Moon- Reflections Ramadan 16

Yesterday, at fajr time the sky was simply beautiful. Through the date palm tree branches, I caught glimpses of the twinkling stars. I made dua for sometime. Growing up, the moon always resembled a 25 fils coin. Somehow, the visible craters looked like the deer in the coin.

We're past the half way mark. It's time to begin preparing for some of the best days of the year- The last 10 days of Ramadan. I spent sometime today morning arranging my room to minimise all distractions. [And my laptop might just go too!]

Here, in Al Ain, there's virtually no pollution. It's one of the cleanest and most beautiful cities in the world. The sky is very clear throughout the year. However, most major cities have actually lost their skies. For man, deforestation, building dams, destroying habitats, industrial pollution, cars, landfills, air and water pollution, was not enough damage to the Earth. Excessive lighting has destroyed most of our skies as well.

Light pollution is excess or obtrusive light created by humans. Among other effects, it disrupts ecosystems, can cause adverse health effects, obscures the stars for city dwellers, interferes with astronomical observatories, and wastes energy.

One of the examples of light pollution is the Luminata Festival in Toronto. The source is a broad spectrum metal halide lamp pointing upward into the sky.
I understand the laser beams look great. But what's the point?? It's definitely not more beautiful than the stars in the sky that Allah (swt) has created for us naturally.

Skyglow reduces the contrast between stars and galaxies in the sky and the sky itself, making it more difficult to detect fainter objects. If you go camping a lot, you know what I'm talking about.

Here are some light pollution reducing tips from Wikipedia
Reducing light pollution implies many things, such as reducing sky glow, reducing glare, reducing light trespass, and reducing clutter. The method for best reducing light pollution, therefore, depends on exactly what the problem is in any given instance. Possible solutions include:

• Utilizing light sources of minimum intensity necessary to accomplish the light's purpose.
• Turning lights off using a timer or occupancy sensor or manually when not needed.
• Improving lighting fixtures, so that they direct their light more accurately towards where it is needed, and with less side effects.
• Adjusting the type of lights used, so that the light waves emitted are those that are less likely to cause severe light pollution problems.
• Evaluating existing lighting plans, and re-designing some or all of the plans depending on whether existing light is actually needed.