Light Pollution in the Pacific Northwest
While not nearly as bad as the eastern U.S., the western half is certainly not immune to the detrimental effects of light pollution. The urban regions of the Pacific Northwest are literally awash in night time illumination, much of which shines needlessly skyward. Look at poor Calgary, in southern Alberta, Canada. Anyone living within a twenty-five mile radius of downtown Calgary cannot make out the summertime Milky way to any real extent. In western Washington and Oregon, the I-5 corridor, from Vancouver in British Columbia south to Eugene, Oregon - a stretch of over 400 miles, is a single, nearly unbroken swath of light pollution.