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NEW YORK. March 22. KAZINFORM. A worldwide star-counting program is hoping to conquer light pollution.

Globe at Night, one of the cornerstone programs of the International Year of Astronomy, got underway this week. The two-week online campaign, which runs from March 16 to March 28, calls on the public in 110 partner countries to go outside at night and count the stars visible in and around the bright constellation Orion. Participants then match what they can see to online charts of stellar brightness. Astronomers hope to use this data to determine how much of the night sky has been lost to light pollution?and where changes need to be made. "Sadly, about 60 percent of all Americans do not live in a place where they can see the gorgeous arc of the Milky Way across the sky," said Connie Walker, Globe at Night project co-manager at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Arizona. "Since half of the world's population is living in cities and our urban centers continue to grow, we are rapidly losing our ability to see the universe; Kazinform quotes National Geographic News. "By matching what you see in the sky with one of those charts, you are actually measuring the level of light pollution in your area," Walker added. She hopes that the Globe at Night project will motivate people to conserve their night sky. "Although it is a global problem, you can correct it locally by simply changing your lighting habits," she said.