This is the gauzy band of light stretching across the night sky. The center of our galaxy, it's especially prominent during the summer. Studded with bright stars, fuzzy nebulas and dark pockets of interstellar gas, its pervasive glow comes from millions of stars so distant that they cannot be seen individually.

Throughout history the Milky Way has inspired legends in many cultures.

Today, about two-thirds of Americans live in locations so hampered by light pollution that they are not able to make out the Milky Way, he said. It is lost in the glare from city lights, used-car lots, homes and shopping centers.

Arrigo said light pollution wastes billions of dollars a year in the United States, money spent on electricity for "light shining straight up.

"That's not good for anybody."

The National Park Service put together a group called the Night Sky Team to study the effects of light pollution in the country's parks. "They have not found a place where you can go and be 100 percent free of light pollution," he said.

From Bryce Canyon National Park in southern Utah, one of the darkest sites in the country, long-exposure photographs will show the glow of Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. Even at 2 a.m., some businesses that are closed for the night leave their lights on, Arrigo noted.

"It's senseless. . . . It's a mind set. This country likes lights and they like the waste, and they don't really care."

Dave Crawford, executive director of the International Dark-Sky Association, based in Tucson, Ariz., says not only is energy wasted, but light pollution "blinds both astronomers and everybody, and can cause accidents."

Until now, he notes, humans have lived with a natural circadian rhythm, the ebb and flow of sleep and wakefulness that is coordinated with natural lighting.

"We need a good daytime and a good nighttime," Crawford said. "Most people forget there's a night, except to watch TV."

Without the reinforcement of natural periods of light and dark, he worries, health can be compromised. That's not only true for people but for wildlife and domestic animals subjected to light pollution, Crawford added.

Arrigo notes that Tucson was one of the first cities to pass a light-pollution ordnance. Its dark skies are a delight to astronomers.

He would like to see more cities adopt such ordinances. "A lot of the resort communities are doing it," he noted. "I'm hoping it'll catch on in the Park City area more."

Meanwhile, people can help by installing what he calls "night-sky friendly outdoor lighting products."

For more information, check out Starry Night at StarryNightLights.com and the International Dark Sky Association site on the Internet, www.darksky.org.

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E-mail: bau@desnews.com