“Light pollution made people forget about the sky”

Although astronomy is the mother of all sciences, light pollution in cities has made many people forget to look up at the sky. This is the view of Michel Doucet, a French engineer and physicist who is a fan of astrophotography.

“Light pollution makes people in cities forget to look at the sky. When there is this type of pollution and dust, it makes it impossible to see the stars and therefore the sky is no longer beautiful to observe or study,” he said. However, in areas uninhabited by large groups of people, things are different. “The sky there is something else, it is impressive,” he said.    


He added that in both European and South American countries, teachers do not know much about astronomy and therefore it is a subject that is not discussed much. Another problem is the existence of few astronomy clubs. Doucet is convinced that in the educational curriculum greater emphasis should be placed on the study of astronomy because from it "all the other sciences are born: Mathematics, Physics, etc.", even the lessons studied such as distances and angle measurement.    


But when did humanity leave aside astronomy, so important in ancient times? “Astronomy is a science that began with man, in the heart of man with the shooting stars that impressed him as they crossed the sky and then were put away. When did it stop being interesting? We don’t know. But there was a development by some and it was left aside by many others,” he said. For very curious men - he stressed - astronomy can provide a lot of knowledge because its field is very broad.