When Marina DeLuca, environmental advocate for Group for the East End and chair of the North Fork Dark Skies Coalition, came home to finish her college degree during lockdown, she noticed a startling change: her East Marion neighborhood, comprised mostly of second homes that were usually dark during the off-season or weekdays, was full of people fleeing the city, and each of those houses now had lights on throughout the night. DeLuca also observed that the once-visible stars in the neighborhood were becoming harder to spot in the night sky.
“When we look at the North Fork, most of us who have been out there for a long time, we’re able to see the stars at night. We’re able to see the constellations. We’re able to see the Milky Way. So we’re so used to having that every night,” DeLuca says. “In an area like the North Fork, it’s not going to be one project that blocks out our ability to see the sky at night.”
Decades ago, the homes in a typical North Fork neighborhood weren’t producing much illumination after dark, save for a porch or post light. But with an increasing population of full-time and second homeowners, along with more construction, things here have changed — and some folks are hoping to reverse the effects. Enter the dark skies movement.
crusaders of the darkness
The dark skies movement advocates for more responsible lightscaping and lighting fixtures and for decreasing over-illumination. On the North Fork, that mission is spearheaded by North Fork Dark Skies Coalition, an alliance of local environmental groups and organizations that call for appropriate, dark sky-friendly lighting.
Light pollution is an entirely man-made phenomenon, since the power to light the night has only been possible for the last 150 years. According to the Dark Skies Association, 80% of the world’s population lives under that orange sky, also called skyglow.
You may well have noticed that creeping evening orange glow obscuring all but the brightest stars. This is light pollution, which can radiate from any poorly implemented light source. Last year, Science published the results of a study based on a citizen science project that showed light pollution increased around 10% per year between 2011 and 2022.
Out on the East End, it might seem like a little extra light on our dark roads at night is a good thing, but we’re not talking about a few streetlights. We’re talking about excessive or poorly implemented sources, such as lights that point upward or are on when they don’t need to be. Not only does orange glow affect animals, disrupting migrations and breeding habits, but it affects people’s health. Almost all life on Earth has a sleep-wake cycle called a circadian rhythm that roughly follows the pattern of natural light. Disrupting this rhythm causes a host of physical problems.
“There’s three things you need to be able to sleep: darkness, quietness and coldness,” says Steve Bellavia from the North Fork Dark Sky Coalition and Custer Institute. “We evolved on a planet for the last five billion years that when it got cooler, darker and quieter, you went to sleep.”
bad for brains
“Going outside and looking at the stars is kind of important… it’s in our genes and in our DNA that we connect back to where we came from,” says Bellavia. “It’s physiological, but it goes even way deeper than that. It’s cosmological. Chemicals in your brain that let you do [anything] came from stars. So, it’s not just a hobby. It’s your ancestry. A very long, deep, 13-billion-year ancestry.”
None of the elements that make life possible would exist without the intense process that is a star’s lifecycle.
In October 2023, a team of scientists in Australia published a paper in the journal Nature Mental Health that described the findings of the largest-ever study on nighttime light exposure. Participants wore a sensor on their wrists to measure their light exposure over seven days.
The study found that greater nighttime light exposure was associated with increased risk for major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, PTSD, psychosis, bipolar disorder and self-harming behavior. In the same study, it was shown that daytime light exposure has the opposite effect on those issues.
Being able to see the stars at night can give an observer a sense of awe, something that has been shown to reduce stress. It’s not just romantic or dreamy: a study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology in February 2024 showed that a greater connection to the night sky is significantly and positively related to a person’s mental health and happiness.
Gazing at the cosmos may induce a calming fascination that only the vastness and beauty of the night sky can provide, eliciting the profound sensation that we’re truly all small in comparison to the universe — a notion that puts one’s personal problems into perspective.
“The telescope really is a time machine, and you get to look back in time every time you look up at the stars; even with your bare eye, you’re looking back in time. [When] you’re looking at a star, that light left that star 4,000 years ago, 10,000 years ago, 100,000 years ago,” says Jason Cousins, president of the Long Island Amateur Astronomers, which keeps a telescope at the Custer Institute and Observatory in Southold.
Astronomy may also shift focus to a broader human identity. This diminished “small self” can make people feel connected to others and concerned for humanity’s shared interests.
“The calcium in your bones, the iron in your blood, every element and chemical on Earth that makes you alive came from a star,” says Bellavia. “That’s why it’s so deep, right? If you can go outside and see the stars, you’re seeing where you came from, you’re seeing, you know, your birthplace.”
The North Fork is one of the last places on Long Island where you can observe the cosmos with minimal skyglow, and Custer Institute and Observatory is the perfect place to both stargaze and learn. For those who want a more self-directed experience, the Long Island Amateur Astronomers lend telescopes to their members. A night spent looking into the past just might be the ticket to a better present.
a solvable issue
Fortunately, light pollution is an environmental problem with an achievable solution. North Fork Dark Sky Coalition has guidelines for how to choose and set up landscape lighting that will stay where the light is needed for security and not interfere with the night sky. Timers and motion lighting can also mitigate light pollution.
The towns of Riverhead, Southold, Southampton and Shelter Island all have “dark skies” codes on the books that restrict lighting for residential and commercial properties in an effort to preserve the night.
There are some fairly easy changes and habits you can undertake to help ditch that orange glow at night. According to the North Fork Dark Skies Coalition, these include fully shielding uplight fixtures and using amber light sources, steering clear of uplighting trees, walls and fences, using motion sensors for outdoor fixtures and having timers shut off lights between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. And, of course, like your parents used to tell you: when you leave a room, turn off the light.
“[Decreasing light pollution] is something that is so small and so tangible. It’s turning off your lights when you go to sleep. You save electricity, you’re saving money… It’s just so easy to fix. And that’s what’s great about it,” says DeLuca. “All these [environmental] issues can feel like a lot — this is the easiest one to do something about. For all these reasons, whether it be our own mental well-being, whether it be the disruptions to our nocturnal pollinators, disruptions to other animals and ecosystems, we really can do something about this. This is solvable.”
