About Skyglow

Skyglow is a summer research class at Carnegie Mellon University about nighttime light pollution.

Due to the pandemic many summertime research internships melted away and to fill the gap the Office of Undergraduate Research initiated a new program of summer research-oriented classes.

While the classes are free for the students, this course gave them the opportunity to trade summer income for class credits. Skyglow, a 9-unit and ten-week course taught online, is one of several new summer research classes offered to all CMU students from all programs, levels, and locations.

Skyglow’s 15 students are skilled programmers, but few have actually ever seen the Milky Way. The goal of the course is for them to learn about light pollution through lectures and projects, and to understand why we should care, explore innovative ideas for mitigating light pollution, and intern with professional researchers from around the world. Diane Turnshek, an astronomer and physicist, and Stephen Quick, an architect and urban designer, are the co-Instructors.

This website is dedicated to sharing the work of the Skyglow students in hopes that others will find the materials enjoyable and useful.