Star Light, Star Bright

[Corwin C]

I had an interesting experience a little while back that I'd like to share. I was out after dark with a family member who grew up and has lived his entire life in several of our country's more metropolitan areas ('da big city). Being privileged to live in a place far away from city lights, I stopped and shut off the car well away from town and the main road as is normal for me, and looked up at the stars. After the requisite few minutes for our eyes to adjust to the darkness he was absolutely astonished at the night sky. He had seen nothing like it before and had no idea that the number stars is so vast and colors so vivid when you're able to be in a truly dark place. He had never seen the Milky Way with his own eyes. He had never been in a place where the stars look like you can reach out and touch them. I had a pair of cheap binoculars in the car and had him peek at the Milky Way and was able to see for himself what Galileo saw when he turned his telescope to the heavens. We were also able to see three of the moons around Jupiter. For him it was a memorable experience, for me, I realized how much I take for granted at times...

Do yourselves a favor. If your travels take you to some of the more remote areas of the world, and you find yourself over a hundred miles from city lights, take the time to look up at the night sky.

[Wolfgang92025]

Corwin,

So far I have spend my whole life living in the big city, but because it has been out west for my adult life, I've been fortunate enough to get way out into the desert or mountains to be able to see the night sky without the light pollution. That is especially true in remote places in the southwest were dry air and altitude can make for great night time viewing.
No wonder man has looked to the skies and wondered......
Just another reason to go out and go camping

[Scooter]

Read somewhere when NYC had a blackout, authorities were besieged with "strange lights in the sky" calls. Folks never knew all that stuff was up there.

[Scooter]

Will also add, minimizing light pollution is relatively easy and cheap for cities to implement. If only it were on their radar of priorities. Most are blissfully ignorant.

[deleted]

Gosh I love this post. I always feel the same way your friend did when I see the stars away from the city. One of the reasons I wanted my tiny trailer is so that when I'm staying overnight somewhere with no city light I can start learning long exposure night photography shooting up at the heavens and capturing the light trails behind the stars as the earth rotates. I even brought my tripod with me to Michigan when I picked up the trailer but mother nature had other plans and unfortunately made sure the sky was filled with heavy clouds and the air was thick with mosquitos each evening.

Anyways, thanks for sharing this story. Definitely makes me grateful and is a needed reminder that it's easy to take situations and special moments for granted if we're not paying attention.

[markhusbands]

"Will also add, minimizing light pollution is relatively easy and cheap for cities to implement. If only it were on their radar of priorities."

Yes. It just requires submitting to regulations regarding downlighting, and limits on nighttime commercial lighting. I think it is worth it, but there is a lot of resistance.

[Bogo]

I grew up with few streetlights and an astronomy club so I was out looking at the stars all the time. I don't do it as much now. In the past couple decades most of my late night outdoors watching has been for Aurora. If you want to do allot of star photography, get an equatorial mount with tracking. They can be made relatively cheaply if you have some mechanical skills. A few of the real simple designs will work for up to 10 to 15 minute long photos. That will allow most photos using regular camera lenses to be taken.

On the camera side. Get some larger aperture lenses.

[atahoekid]

I consider myself lucky since I live in the mountains and get a pretty good view of the night skies on most evenings. when I was younger and had a house full of young kids and the wife was working nights, I used to get all the kids to bed, turn down all the house lights then walk outside into the driveway and look at the stars and be amazed by the quiet. A long as my neighbors had their porch lights off I could see the stars quite nicely. I don't do that as often now. Not sure why... I guess I need to do that again, soon!

[GPW]

The Amazing thing is, think what you can’t see!!!

[PaulC]

The Amazing thing is, think what you can’t see!!!

Now that's very cerebral

Cheers
Paul

[TENNJIM]

I grew up on a farm in Tennessee away from city lights and had a good appreciation of the night sky and stars. Living in the west for more than 40 years and camping in the mountains every year, I stand in absolute awe at the clarity and vastness of the night sky. Thinking that many in our cities are never fortunate enough to see it is a sad thought.

Jim B / Utah

[Verna]

I grew up in the country south of Indianapolis. Since I now live on the suburbs of Indy, I do miss all of the stars, although I can see quite a few from here.

Now here's a warning....when you do get to a place where you can see lots of stars, please make sure you're sitting down, or at least standing in one place. I sure have a nasty scar on my knee from walking while stargazing. I tripped and my knee slide down the side of the asphalt driveway in a campground. 5 stitches and after 5 hours in the ER later, the only thing I wanted to gaze at was the inside of my eyelids!!!

[rebapuck]

What is it with cities? I live in a small city and it seems the gov'ment is putting up new street lights all the time. Why? Not every stretch of road has to be illuminated. That's what headlights are for. And, dang, they use electricity that has to be paid for!!

[pmowers]

My wife has always wanted to go to Iceland and see the Northern Lights. We were at a conference in Las Vegas where they were also having a international competition and we were sharing an elevator with several people wearing shirts that said Iceland. We asked them if they were from there and was told that they lived in Reykjavík. We asked when was the best time to go see the Northern Lights, and they told us they did not know as they had never seen them. I guess that the light pollution is too high, and people just do not get out of the cities.

[Mary C]

I live way out in the woods. I may see only trees when I look around me but I can see forever when I look up. I remember when I was young and city bound we could only see about 6 stars, and I think I fell in love with camping because we went to areas we could see the wonderful heavens.

Mary C.