TRANSFORMING NIGHT

Who owns the night and what is lost as we flood it with light worldwide Darkness has become legible and contested Blending archival narrative with on the ground ethnography Sara B Pritchard traces how four fields astronomy remote sensing conservation science and ecology have investigated artificial light at night turning a ubiquitous convenience into a category of harm From observatories chasing ever receding darkness to the satellite images that first rendered a nocturnal planet from space and recent Black Marble maps Pritchard shows how methods instruments and field sites shape what scientists can know about night and light and what remains unseen Across these encounters night emerges not as a backdrop but as an environment in its own right one transformed by rapidly expanding brightening illumination in the Anthropocene Transforming Night chronicles the ascent of light pollution as well as the new challenge of space based brightness from satellite constellations even as dark sky advocates fight to preserve the starry firmament Attentive to politics as much as photons Pritchard brings environmental justice to the fore highlighting tensions among light poverty forced illumination and surveillance and calls for beneficial darkness She takes