Diane Turnshek
Special Lecturer | Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA, UNITED STATES
Diane Turnshek has spent her career studying astronomy and is one of the foremost experts on light pollution.
Biography
Diane Turnshek has spent her career studying astronomy and is one of the foremost experts on light pollution, artificial light from such sources as streetlamps, residential houses, businesses, construction sites, vehicles and billboards. This excessive artificial light, or light pollution, doesn't just stop us from admiring our galaxy, but it adversely affects human health, harms plants and animals, and wastes money and energy. Turnshek was part of a team that helped draft the City of Pittsburgh's Dark Sky Ordinance for all of the city's parks, facilities and streetlights.
Areas of Expertise (4)
Dark Sky Ordinance
Light Pollution
Artificial Light
Astronomy
Media Appearances (5)
Astronomer Diane Turnshek leads the fight for Dark Skies in Pittsburgh and beyond
NEXTpittsburgh online
2022-01-19
Diane Turnshek loves to gaze into the infinite beyond of the night sky. But it took an assignment to the remote wilderness of Utah for her to learn how much she was missing.
ABC Action News online
ABC Action News online
2022-01-03
"Light pollution severely affects the natural environment pollinators, and bird migration, fireflies," said Diane Turnshek, a special lecturer in the Carnegie Mellon University physics department.
Did a Meteor Explode Over Pittsburgh?
The New York Times online
2022-01-02
Diane Turnshek, an astronomer who lectures at Carnegie Mellon University, felt something powerful on Saturday morning, too. She was in her home atop a Pittsburgh hill, 1,120 feet above sea level. Her initial thought was that her dryer had fallen off the washing machine in the room next door.
What too much artificial light steals from our night skies
PBS online
2021-12-16
Astronomer Diane Turnshek, who’s based at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, said it will be the first city to follow the IDA’s newest guidelines, but it’s not the first to address light pollution on the local level. Flagstaff, Arizona, was the first city to receive official “International Dark Sky Place” designation in 2001, but it enacted the first-ever outdoor lighting ordinance back in 1958, according to the IDA.
Ever wondered about the best time for stargazing?
The Washington Post online
2020-11-16
“Part of it is that it tends to be drier in the winter,” said Diane Turnshek, an astronomer at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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Industry Expertise (1)
Education/Learning
Accomplishments (1)
Dark Sky Defender Award, nternational Dark-Sky Association (professional)
2015
Education (2)
University of Arizona: M.S., Astronomy 1981
Villanova University: B.S., Astronomy 1977
Affiliations (4)
- International Astronomical Union
- American Astronomical Society
- American Physical Society
- Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
Links (3)
Event Appearances (5)
Methods and Modeling
(2023) 9th International ALAN Conference
Foreign Policy Association’s Great Decisions Lecture and a Panel on “Cities and Infrastructure”
(2022) IntersectCMU Conference
“Blue Sky Thinking, with Stars"
(2021) PA Conference for Young Women in Physics
“Alteration in the Experience of Dark Nights Due to Artificial Light”
(2021) Temporal Belongings Conference: The Material Life of Times
“In Conversation: The Art and History of the Night Sky"
(2021) The Frick
Articles (1)
Multiple angle observations would benefit visible band remote sensing using night lights
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres2022 The spatial and angular emission patterns of artificial and natural light emitted, scattered, and reflected from the Earth at night are far more complex than those for scattered and reflected solar radiation during daytime. In this commentary, we use examples to show that there is additional information contained in the angular distribution of emitted light. We argue that this information could be used to improve existing remote sensing retrievals based on night lights, and in some cases could make entirely new remote sensing analyses possible. This work will be challenging, so we hope this article will encourage researchers and funding agencies to pursue further study of how multi‐angle views can be analyzed or acquired.
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