Who is Milky Way Man?
STARGEEZER
MY name is Jack Troeger. I'm also known as Dark Sky Guy, Dark Sky Knight, and STARGEEZER.
I used to be a stargazer, but upon stumbling over the threshold into the big 6-0s, I became a stargeezer. Even my car's license plate--STARGZR--shouts out who I am. The license plate on my other car, which I call my Milky Way Wagon, reads DKSKYGY, dark sky guy. Oh, by the way, the image of me at my scope is from the early 1980s, MANY, MANY years ago, when I was still young!
I'VE been a stargazer / amateur astronomer since early childhood.
AFTER 30 years teaching 9th grade earth science (geology, astronomy, meteorology) in Ames, Iowa, I retired in 1999; but by then the sky had become so badly polluted with light that my students could not see the Milky Way! They were not happy and neither was I. Some of them said, point blank: "Mr. Troeger, why don't you do something about light pollution?"
SO, here I am doing something about it.
IN 2000 I created what is now called the Dark Sky Initiative.
AS you can plainly see on any clear, moonless night, the light pollution problem is worse now than when I started; and I admit, my earlier polite and civil efforts appear to have had little impact. Because being polite and civil rarely work in our overwhelmingly corporatized society, where money is the only real measure of success, don't expect me to continue to be polite and civil.
WORSE, the efforts of the national and international mainstream dark sky organizations (darksky.org) have also failed--miserably.
BUT there's something even more unacceptable, more troubling, more sinister. The dark sky organizations and the astro-publicatons seem oblivious to their failures and unwilling to foster future success by inventing and using new strategies, new methods.
UNLIKE your friendly, stay-the-course, bureaucratic, hierarchical dark sky organizations, I don't want your money, but I am pressing forward with all possible dispatch with my Dark Sky Revolution, my own 4-word solution to light pollution: LIGHTS OFF! PERMANENTLY! NOW!
ALAS, whether or not the Dark Sky Revolution is successful depends entirely on YOU. I wish no award or reward if it succeeds and no blame if it fails. You can stay the course with the darksky.org and astronomy magazines and continue to chalk up more failures, or you can step over the threshold to something new, something revolutionary, and rescue starlight!
IT'S your choice: Do nothing and lose the dark night sky...OR...get your head out of the sand (or your telescope tube) and launch a Dark Sky Revolution in your own town / city / state / nation tonight!
There's only ONE solution to light pollution:
LIGHTS OFF--PERMANENTLY! NOW!
NO EXCUSES! NO EXCEPTIONS! NO COMPROMISES!
© Jack Troeger, Dark Sky Initiative. troegerj@raccoon.com