Light Pollution Map using Google Earth Plug-in

For anyone who's downloaded (or interested in downloading) the Google Earth plug-in for Google Maps, here's a glimpse of its power and a handy place to refer back to when checking how much light pollution there is in a given area. This gadget doesn't include a search capability, but it is pretty easy to interactively search for a spot on the map. Also, the map below is just for North America but you can Google "google earth light pollution overlay" to find similar maps for other areas of the Earth.

Note: If you don't already have the Google Earth plug-in installed, depending on your browser the gadget below may prompt you to install the plug-in or may just show a Google map of the United States. If the latter is the case, click on the ZOOM link below which will display the map in a full browser window; you will then be prompted to install the plug-in.

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