Don't know if anyone has seen this or not?

[Manok101]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/01/16/169511949/a-mysterious-patch-of-light-shows-up-in-the-north-dakota-dark

Thought this was worth sharing here. Guess North Dakota is out of dark spots to visit for astronomy purposes.

[ndastgir]

very interesting! never thought a gas development field would need so much light!

[jason.p]

I'll never complain about a couple of street lights again

[studdedsole]

I hope this isn't the "model" being used to exploit the gas fields in the Irish sea close to the Blackpool coast, it feels like there is going to be more light pollution to add to the winter illuminations which we can see on a clear night from the east coast of the Isle of Man.

Interesting that there are no suggestions of fracking being a primary cause of earth tremors in the North Dakota region, if the process was a cause you could imagine all the existing activity and up to eight new wells per day being drilled would generate some serious earth movements.

[Cath]

These oil companies cause so much polution and waste so much energy .. the quicker we move away from oil/gas the better.

[Paul M]

Interesting!

I live within a few miles of a fracking site to our east. It been in the news recently for causing some earth tremors. They are back drilling and exploring again.

To our west are the Irish Sea/Morecambe Bay gas fields.

So we'll get it with both barrels!

They'd have to go some to spoil our night sky. Blackpool Illuminations (more like abominations) do a real good job of that!!!

[badgerchap]

One great thing about them there windfarms that everyone seems to hate so much is they don't need a bean of light on 'em! If only non-astronomers cared about such things...