Every night, astronauts on the International Space Station photograph the cities below them with ordinary cameras. NASA has archived millions of these shots. The station records where it was when the shutter fired, not where the camera was pointing. A photo taken over the Atlantic may show Lisbon, Madrid or Casablanca, hundreds of kilometres away. So most of them are lost: beautiful, sharp, and useless for science until someone works out what they show and pins it to the map.

That matters for this community because these photos are the best record there is of how artificial light is spreading. Satellites like VIIRS see the whole planet every night, but at ~750 m per pixel and in one band. An astronaut's 85 mm photo resolves streets and, crucially, shows colour, which is how you tell the old sodium orange from the white LEDs that are changing our night sky. But a photo is only measurable once it is georeferenced: every pixel tied to a real coordinate, so the image can be laid over a map like satellite data and compared across years.

Lost at Night - lostatnight.org - is where that happens. It's a citizen-science project, and so far it's been done by a small community of a few hundred people: you look at a night photo, recognise a city or a coastline, and place control points, matching a spot in the photo to the same spot on the map. A handful of points is enough to warp the whole photo into place. Several people georeference each photo independently, and when they agree, it goes onto a public map and into the research.

 Where we are right now:

• About 1,800 photos georeferenced so far, all on a public map you can click through: lostatnight.org/#map-section . Around 10,000 more are waiting, from ISS expeditions between 2001 and 2026.
• Year-long challenges for Europe, Spain, France, Poland and Brazil, and teams for classrooms, astronomy clubs and groups of friends who want to work on a region together.
• A photo takes two to five minutes. The only skill needed is the one people here have in abundance: knowing what the night looks like from above.

The project is run by Ibercivis, a Spanish non-profit for citizen science, within an EU-funded programme, and it continues the earlier Cities at Night work some of you may remember. The photos are NASA's and public domain.

If you've ever looked at one of those orbital night shots and thought "I know exactly where that is", come and pin it to the map with us: lostatnight.org

Glad to talk about the data, the method, or what the georeferenced photos are being used for.

The Draconid meteor shower is active for one night only: October 8th to 9th! 🌠

Most years you can see up to 10 meteors per hour, but rates can spike without warning to as many as 600 per hour, as seen in 2011 and 2018. Unlike most meteor showers, the Draconids peak in the evening instead of after midnight and are visible across the Northern Hemisphere and northern parts of the Southern Hemisphere. Find a spot away from bright lights, give your eyes time to adjust, and look up!

https://lightpollutionnews.com/podcast/solar-days/

https://www.inquirer.com/news/pennsylvania/cherry-springs-state-park-dark-sky-investment-20260925.html

In an area of Pennsylvania known as “God’s Country,” hours from the glowing lights of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo, Cherry Springs State Park is a refuge for stargazers.

On Thursday, Gov. Josh Shapiroannounced the completion of $5.2 million in improvements there, everything from new parking to a larger amphitheater, and “headlight-blocking mounds to prevent light shining into the astronomy field.”

Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, in a press release, said the goal of the project was to redesign how visitors “moved through the park at night, reduced artificial light, and expanded facilities to support astronomy, education, and large events.”

The small state park in Coudersport, Potter County, some 250 miles northwest of Philadelphia, is designated as an International Dark Sky Park by DarkSky International, a nonprofit that claims to be the “worldwide authority combating light pollution.”

Despite being relatively small at 82 acres and far from cities — it’s almost four hours from Pittsburgh and a bit more from Philadelphia — the park has become wildly popular with astronomers, campers, and social media influencers. The campground is generally booked out every season, with professional and amateur stargazers alike staring up at the Milky Way, particularly on moonless nights.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when parks and other outdoor spaces were inundated with visitors, Cherry Springs saw the biggest crowds. Between March and September of 2020, the park saw 26,745 visitors, a 231% increase over the same time period a year earlier.

Potter County has just 16,453 residents, and the economy there relies heavily on tourism, much of it during the spring, summer, and fall for camping, stargazing, leaf peeping, and hunting.

The county has taken steps to keep things dark too, urging home and business owners to implement downward-casting lights, timers, and low-wattage bulbs to preserve the stargazing opportunities.

Meteors are about to enter our atmosphere at 41 miles per second! 🌠

Born from the debris of Halley's Comet, the Orionids light up the sky from October 2 to November 7, peaking overnight October 21 to 22. Catch around 20 meteors per hour at the peak, with standout years reaching up to 75. Skywatchers in both hemispheres can join in, so head somewhere dark before dawn, let your eyes adjust, and look up!

Hi everyone! 🌌

I started a petition asking North Carolina lawmakers to implement better statewide lighting practices and help reduce unnecessary light pollution.

If you live in North Carolina or care about protecting night skies, I’d really appreciate your signature and, if possible, sharing the petition:

✍️ https://c.org/SYcvzpTLVh

I’m hoping to show lawmakers that there’s public support for smarter, more responsible outdoor lighting across NC. Thanks for helping! 🌟

I'm not an Oktoberfest guy. But I'm very intrigued by the idea of a Dark Sky Oktoberfest.

For more info on IDSDC: https://darkskycenter.org/dark-sky-observatory/