Astronomer Martin Lewicki is on a mission to let every person see and enjoy the night sky no matter where they are.

While residents in urban areas can still enjoy the night's sky, visible stars and planets quickly disappear from sight thanks to light pollution.

As a light protection officer for the International Dark-Sky Association, Mr Lewicki works with developers and councils to adopt smarter light practices.

But while we were getting smarter with our lighting, Mr Lewicki said light pollution was getting worse.

"More than half the world's population live in urban areas and they don't get to see a truly dark sky.

"There is a generation of people in [the world's] urban areas who have never seen a true dark sky.

A view of the night skies of Earth from satellite images shows light pollution from our cities. ( NASA GSFC: Craig Mayhew and Robert Simmon )

"It's disappearing, it's getting worse, and the sky is getting brighter overall in our cities."

Turning down the lights for our own health

Mr Lewicki said although the benefits of reducing light pollution for astronomers was paramount, everyone — and everything — had something to gain.

"Recent research has shown that about a third of the species of animals in the world are nocturnal and affected by artificial light," he said.

"Migrating birds can be disorientated, trees in urban environments become stressed, insects lose their ways to navigate."

Mr Lewicki said continuous light also affected humans deeply.

"Excessive amounts of light at night interrupts the secretion of the hormone melatonin, which is an important cancer-fighting — breast and prostate — agent," he said.

Councils are typically restrained with street and park lights usage, but Mr Lewicki said all other outdoor lighting fell under the guidelines of Australian Standards 4282-1997.

"We really need to strengthen the standard; keep the light confined to the area and not escaping upwards.

"Light trespass, glare or up light creating sky glow is all light wasted, wasted energy and wasted money."

Seeing the Milky Way

Mr Lewicki suggested keeping lights downward facing, lowering wattages and focusing beams only on areas that need to be lit as ways to reduce light pollution at home.

"If we controlled the lights ... we should be able to see the Milky Way come back," he said.

"If we can get it back to what it was 30 or 40 years ago, you could see the Milky Way from some of the suburbs.

"Light pollution is part of the solution of the whole problem of the disappearance of the natural environment."

Mr Lewicki said there was a certain serenity to being able to look into the darkness of outer space.

He said he hoped it was a feeling that would not be restricted to only those who lived in remote areas.

You can learn more about the night sky thanks to a special ABC event called Stargazing Live from April 4.