Do You Miss Not Seeing Stars in the Night Sky?

Paladin1950

Paladin1950

Still love 50's & 60's music!
Location
Mohawk Valley, NY
When I was a child in the 50's & 60's, I loved looking up at the night sky at all of the stars. Now were told because of light pollution, we can't see the stars anymore. In my small town years ago, you could see thousands of stars. Now, we're lucky if we can see even a few. When I was living in New York City, I couldn't see many at all. I didn't think much of it, since it was the city, But when I came back to my hometown, I was very disappointed that I couldn't many there either.

https://www.vox.com/2016/6/10/11905390/light-pollution-night-sky
https://phys.org/news/2023-01-visibility-stars-night-sky-declines.html
 

Do you live near Woodstock, @Paladin1950? I used to have a pied a terre there and the sky at night was ablaze with stars, didn't need street lights to stumble home. All my childhood was able to see the dippers and orion's belt from my windows in NYC. I look out those windows now and nothing. Occasionally I see some planets, and of course the moon, but no stars anymore.
 
Pepper said:
Do you live near Woodstock, @Paladin1950? I used to have a pied a terre there and the sky at night was ablaze with stars, didn't need street lights to stumble home. All my childhood was able to see the dippers and orion's belt from my windows in NYC. I look out those windows now and nothing. Occasionally I see some planets, and of course the moon, but no stars anymore.
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I live a couple of hours away, around 100 miles.
 
Paladin1950 said:
Do You Miss Not Seeing Stars in the Night Sky?
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Yes I do. I live in the very northern end of the Salt Lake Valley, even though it is fairly rural here the whole valley has a light pollution problem, not as bad here as close to town. I can see the major stars and constellations from here, but not the Milky Way.

Short drive over the mountains its very different.
 
Capt Lightning said:
Scotland and the north of England have several 'dark sky' areas with virtually no light pollution.

Kirroughtree Forest in S.W. Scotland..

View attachment 297411

It's not completely dark in my village, but I can see most of the major constellations from my garden.
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That's how the sky looked at my daughters' home near the top of a mountain in Southern Spain. So full of stars, because of no light pollution.. you felt you could almost shower in them.

Here where I live altho' it's not as rural as some places and we do have a little light pollution.... we still get to see a lot of stars at night, unless it's cloudy.
 
I remember those days of star gazing while laying on my back in the yard in Chicago. It's not the same anymore, but there are still places where it's as good as it was back then, or it seems like it. I wonder what the "good places" were like when I was looking at the stars in a Chicago suburb.
 
I flew a few nights during the late fall months. On a few nights, I was able to see the Northern Lights, especially if I was flying north towards Seattle, Minnesota or Michigan. We saw hundreds of meteors or shooting stars. Fascinating to watch as they speed through the galaxy and burn themselves out. Every now and then, we would see two meteors collide. It looked like fireworks going off. I flew with a first officer once who was into astrology. He pointed out different constellations. I never knew there were so many. I got an education that night. He told me the exact heading we were traveling based on the position of the Big Dipper. I was amazed. Of course, back in the day, Captains on ships guided their ships by following the stars.
 
When you look at any ancient civilization, there was always an intimate knowledge of stars, planets, and their cycles. Today, with light pollution, you can't even see any stars. I live in the sticks. It was hard not to notice the sky at night- stars forever. But then came a Walmart, a huge 24 hour gas station, stores, strip malls, etc. What was an uncountable array of stars is a foggy, pale blue haze. I thank Paladin1950 for this thread. I used to be able to see the night sky. I live in the flight path of planes going from the west to NYC and Eastern US cities. It was plane after plane. I can't even see the planes , anymore.
 
As seniors, we know how the night sky once was and the comparison is obvious, but to those born much later, it's always been how it is now, to them anyway.

I tried to get interested in astronomy and bought a few telescopes, but once you get past the moon and brighter planets, that's it.
 
On a clear night, we can see a moderate amount. Definitely nothing like when camping in the wilderness. When on the hillside looking down into town, there are some large businesses that are lit with very bright lights. If they were in those lots, I wouldn’t be seeing any.
 
During my married years we had lights all around the outside of the house, big security lights on the barn and driveway markers, lots of light pollution and I missed seeing all the stars. Once divorced I removed or disconnected all of them, my yard is pitch black at night now, and I love it. I think nearly every time I walk outside at night I stop and look up, sometimes I simply lay and the front stoop and stare at the stars. I hope to never lose my view.
 
The upside of living in the San Francisco Bay Area, in the coastal fogbelt, is that the temp is 70 degrees where I live, as opposed to 90+ degrees in Central CA. But that also means the downside is, at night your chances of seeing stars instead of fog is 50-50!
 

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