Stargazing in the city: what you can (and can't) see at night

A lit up cityscape at night, with various tall towers looking over smaller industrial buildings, with a waterfront in front of the city.

Light pollution has become an unavoidable facet of modern life. Artificial light shines from homes, streetlamps and countless other sources, illuminating our cities and towns before inevitably bleeding into the skies above, where it dramatically reduces our ability to observe fainter stars and the deep-space wonders that populate the night sky.

The issue has intensified in recent years and is only set to get worse, as the relentless expansion of urban centres brings artificial light further into the countryside, permeating and degrading our view of the heavens.