Saving Energy Preserving Natural Night

The autumn Milky Way shines above the village of Locronan, Brittany of France. In many of the villages in this area (as well as some other areas in France) all street lights switch off in late evening to save energy, which also preserves the natural night environment, essential for both human and wild life. The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) appears as an elongated halo in the upper middle of the sky. The faint and scattered pale blue glow in the lower middle of the sky is the Gegenschein (German for “counter glow”). It is a slightly brighter region of the zodiacal band (reflected sunlight from dust in the Solar System plane). The glow appears directly opposite the Sun and can be glimpsed with unaided-eye under very dark skies. © Laurent Laveder