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Abstracts

The purpose of this project is to determine if the amount of light pollution decreases because of the decrease in human activity due to Covid-19 related shutdowns. Light pollution is a problem facing our society today causing a multitude of issues for humans and the environment. It was hypothesized that because of the decrease in human activity during shutdowns related to the  pandemic, the amount of light pollution would decrease. Pictures of the starfield around Polaris were taken when the weather was clear during the Red, Yellow, and Green phases of reopening Pennsylvania. In total, twenty-two images were taken from March to June 2020 and the number of stars in each image were counted and recorded. This data was compared to a similar study conducted in 2019. Correlation coefficient tests were conducted on the data for the Red and Green phases. These tests showed that as Pennsylvania reopened, the number of stars visible in the photographs decreased as a result of increasing human activity. A linear regression ANOVA test was conducted showing the data to be statistically significant and proving the hypothesis. 

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