GLOBE at Night

📷 NASA Earth Observatory/VIIRS Day Night Band and MODIS Blue Marble data/Jesse Allen & Robert Simmon Instrument: Suomi NPP - VIIRS

Energy is a precious resource and artificial light at night is not the best way to use it. How can we keep the light from shining upwards, and instead, keep it down where we need it? 🌃 Read more at bit.ly/3RY24fz #GaN20

It’s time for the July Globe at Night campaign! 🌙✨ Go outside after sunset and find this month’s constellations. Then compare what you see with our star charts and submit your observation 🌍📲 globeatnight.org 📸: E. Slawik/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani

How do we know the skies above NSF @KittPeakNatObs are among the darkest? We measure! 🌌At Kitt Peak, 3 Sky Quality Meters monitor sky brightness every night. In the first picture, one of these Sky Quality Meters points toward Tucson. 📷KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/W. Liu

Artificial lights attract insects, trapping them in endless loops. Exhausted, these pollinators can’t feed or reproduce. Fewer insects means fewer plants and risks to our food supply. 🌾 bit.ly/3RY24fz 📷KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. Ramon-Sauberan

It’s time for the June Globe at Night campaign! 🌙✨ Go outside after sunset and find this month’s constellations. Then compare what you see with the star charts and submit your observation 🌍📲 bit.ly/3RY24fz 📷NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

When the night gets brighter, wildlife pays the price. Light pollution can: 🧭 Confuse migration 🦊 Shift predator–prey relationships 🌱 Affect plant and animal physiology ⏰ Disrupt natural rhythms that guide life on Earth 📷International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

💡 We’re highlighting the 5 Principles for Responsible Lighting: • Use light only when needed • Target it • Keep it low • Control it (timers) • Choose warm-colored lights Small changes can reduce light pollution and protect the night sky. 🌙 📷Dark Sky International

For 20 years, we’ve invited people worldwide to measure light pollution 🌌 This month: learn your constellations ✨ What you can (and can’t) see in the night sky helps track how light pollution is changing it. 🔗globeatnight.org/constellations 📷KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/B. Tafreshi

This isn’t a cloud in the sky. It’s the Milky Way, seen from Cerro Pachón in Chile (with a meteor passing through!). Behind the @Geminiobs South telescope, you can see NSF–DOE @VRubinObs. 📸International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Horálek

Happy 20th birthday to @GlobeatNight!✨ To celebrate, people across the globe are sharing the important message of protecting and restoring our starry night skies. Join our fight against light pollution by submitting observations to globeatnight.org. 🌎

Where do our Globe at Night data points come from? Literally everywhere 🌍✨ Even Antarctica! ❄️ Yes, this year we’ve received observations not only from Antarctica, but also from remote and far-reaching places like North Macedonia and Iceland… and we love seeing it!

BREAKING: The largest 3D map of the Universe is now complete 🌌 Last night @desisurvey, mounted on the Nicholas U/ Mayall 4 meter telescope at @KittPeakNatObs, finished its 5-year survey of the cosmos, mapping 47M+ galaxies and quasars. 🔗noirlab.edu/public/news/no…

Want to know our top-performing country for @GlobeatNight for 2026? So far in 2026, our biggest contributors are... 🥇 United States 🇺🇸 🥈Japan 🇯🇵 🥉Australia 🇦🇺 #DarkSkiesWeek

20 years of dark sky data didn’t come out of nowhere, it came from you! (Thank you, by the way) Globe at Night couldn’t exist without you. 🥰 If you’re wondering, “what exactly is Globe at Night?” then swipe to learn! #DarkSkyWeek

🌙✨ It’s time for the April Globe at Night campaign! Head outside after sunset and find this month’s constellation, Leo (you can learn how to spot it at globeatnight.org). 📲 Get started: globeatnight.org

How many people does it take to change a lightbulb? 💡 Celia Llopis-Jepsen talks about it with NSF NOIRLab’s Connie Walker in the Up From Dust podcast episode, “Stargazers, unite for science!” from @NPR. 📷@kcur

Why is the Milky Way so vibrant over NSF @KittPeakNatObs, but not over your backyard? Light pollution. Submit a 5 sec video by 10 April sharing your love for dark skies to be included in a compilation debuting during International Dark Sky Week. 🔗 bit.ly/4djVJE0

I’ll see the veins of my city like they do in space… 🎤 @Lorde said it best, one of the telltale signs of light pollution is a luminous orange haze from city lights pointing to the sky, where they are not needed. 💡 See more at globeatnight.org 📷 C. Bouroussis

🌙✨ How dark is your night sky? This March, join the global @GlobeatNight campaign and help measure light pollution around the world. 🌍 It only takes a few minutes, but your observation can make a real difference! Get started: globatnight.org