Most city dwellers don't know how much of the night sky has already been stolen by billionaires, because poorly planned, wasteful city lights have already drowned out the stars for them.
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Northwestern Nebraska (Sand Hills country) in the mid-90s for one of the first annual Nebraska Star Party outings. Skies so dark you had a hard time identifying the traditional constellations, and the Milky Way was so bright it cast shadows.
I got some estimates of the brightness of the faintest stars I could see there, and the site handily beat some other outstandingly dark skies I’d been to before, even including a location at the edge of the Atacama Desert I went to for a total solar eclipse the year before.
@sundogplanets Specific example: I’d been doing amateur astronomy actively as a hobby for about a decade by then, and was quite comfortable finding my way around the sky without a reference, even in ultra dark skies with too many stars to count.
One night at that particular star party, I found myself looking at a bright star that I couldn’t quite identify. It took me a minute or so to realize that I was looking at Polaris.
The sky was *so* dark that the stars of the Little Dipper (Ursa Minor) were almost completely swamped by dozens of other stars nearby that are completely invisible from the city and even not readily visible from “ordinary” dark sites. You’d think the stars of the Little Dipper (though kind of dim by overall star brightness standards) would be bright enough to be clear under such a dark sky. From a kind of, sort of, dark sky, sure, that’s what you experience—but from there, they were literally swamped almost beyond recognition.
The kind of sky where you almost feel you need to hold onto something because you feel like you’ll float off and drown in the stars if you’re not careful.
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"At night this reassuring curtain of blue is pulled away and you realize where you really are: at infinity’s doorstep. A plain is what a mountain aims to be: the closest you can come to being in outer space while yet having your feet on this planet."
I really hope to get out to Grasslands Nat'l Park this week and appreciate infinity's doorstep, despite smoke and satellites trying to take that away.
@sundogplanets I'm a flyover country dweller who has been madly in love with the plains as long as I've been alive and this is maybe the best poetry I've read that explains exactly what is so awe inspiring about living in a place where the land is as close to flat as it can get. it's the one place where you can tell how big this entire thing really is. a few of the times I've cried the hardest it was looking up at the milky way where there were no lights for miles, and no hills or mountains to take away any section of the firmament. it was just me and the sky, it was just the finite and infinity. There are people who have never seen a sky with more than a few dozen stars. There are people who think that everything that's here is big.
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Where is the best, most incredible, most perspective-shattering night sky that you've ever seen?
For me, it was the Tekapo dark sky reserve in New Zealand a few months ago (I got up at 1am both nights I was there specifically so I could get some mostly satellite-free skies to enjoy).
Second place: Mojave desert many years ago (before megaconstellations) or winter skies about an hour outside Regina, when the nights are long and there are no sunlit satellites due to geometry.
@sundogplanets I was sleeping under the stars on the Deschutes River, in eastern Oregon, in a horseshoe canyon, summer of '98. I woke up in the middle of the night with the Milky Way overhead and more stars than I had thought possible.
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@cafuego I am COMPLETELY jealous of the Milky Way view you get in the southern hemisphere!
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Where is the best, most incredible, most perspective-shattering night sky that you've ever seen?
For me, it was the Tekapo dark sky reserve in New Zealand a few months ago (I got up at 1am both nights I was there specifically so I could get some mostly satellite-free skies to enjoy).
Second place: Mojave desert many years ago (before megaconstellations) or winter skies about an hour outside Regina, when the nights are long and there are no sunlit satellites due to geometry.
@sundogplanets Mine was Tonga, circa 2013.
At the time, there was NOTHING in the sky. Minimal development across the nation's ~170 islands. You'd see local light pollution on Tongatapu but on the half dozen other small islands I visited the stars were bright enough to forget about the tiny little refuge you were clinging to, against the miles and miles and miles of water stretching in every direction, and that just a paltry simulacrum of the endless expanse above you.
You'd hold your hand up to the sky and let it drop because it eclipsed so many stars.
And you'd look towards the sea and see that light mirrored endlessly in the crests of ten thousand waves racing every which way. You'd grow accustomed to noise of the water during the day - and then you'd actually *see* the source of that noise at night. And you'd smoke a cigarette, and yell into the night, and then go back inside, defeated.
I love the cold and the thin mountain air, but one of my fondest nature memories was built in the heart of the ocean.
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Where is the best, most incredible, most perspective-shattering night sky that you've ever seen?
For me, it was the Tekapo dark sky reserve in New Zealand a few months ago (I got up at 1am both nights I was there specifically so I could get some mostly satellite-free skies to enjoy).
Second place: Mojave desert many years ago (before megaconstellations) or winter skies about an hour outside Regina, when the nights are long and there are no sunlit satellites due to geometry.
@sundogplanets Germany, Wendland region, very remote from any major city, on a very clear winter night. It was magic.
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@otte_homan I definitely don't speak Cree! I listen to the Cree knowledge keepers who are generous enough to share, and I try to respectfully share what I have learned.
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Where is the best, most incredible, most perspective-shattering night sky that you've ever seen?
For me, it was the Tekapo dark sky reserve in New Zealand a few months ago (I got up at 1am both nights I was there specifically so I could get some mostly satellite-free skies to enjoy).
Second place: Mojave desert many years ago (before megaconstellations) or winter skies about an hour outside Regina, when the nights are long and there are no sunlit satellites due to geometry.
Middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The captain stopped the ship, turned off all of the exterior lights and allowed time for our eyes to adjust. Zero light pollution. I desperately want to do that again.
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Where is the best, most incredible, most perspective-shattering night sky that you've ever seen?
For me, it was the Tekapo dark sky reserve in New Zealand a few months ago (I got up at 1am both nights I was there specifically so I could get some mostly satellite-free skies to enjoy).
Second place: Mojave desert many years ago (before megaconstellations) or winter skies about an hour outside Regina, when the nights are long and there are no sunlit satellites due to geometry.
@sundogplanets your second place, Mojave, is my first place.
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Where is the best, most incredible, most perspective-shattering night sky that you've ever seen?
For me, it was the Tekapo dark sky reserve in New Zealand a few months ago (I got up at 1am both nights I was there specifically so I could get some mostly satellite-free skies to enjoy).
Second place: Mojave desert many years ago (before megaconstellations) or winter skies about an hour outside Regina, when the nights are long and there are no sunlit satellites due to geometry.
Lying in the middle of a remote road with a friend, just gazing up and chatting, on a hill well inland from the NSW North Coast, early 1990s.
We both went WHOOOOA! as a huge object ripped across the full view of the sky, lighting up the night. Never seen anything like it: I often think of it.
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Where is the best, most incredible, most perspective-shattering night sky that you've ever seen?
For me, it was the Tekapo dark sky reserve in New Zealand a few months ago (I got up at 1am both nights I was there specifically so I could get some mostly satellite-free skies to enjoy).
Second place: Mojave desert many years ago (before megaconstellations) or winter skies about an hour outside Regina, when the nights are long and there are no sunlit satellites due to geometry.
@sundogplanets I was on a hiking trip on an island in Lake Michigan. There had been a strong thunderstorm late evening and I got up after it blew through, 1 or 2am. The storm had really cleared the air and the stars were like bright jewels in the sky, so clear it felt like I could reach up and touch them. It was magical.
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Where is the best, most incredible, most perspective-shattering night sky that you've ever seen?
For me, it was the Tekapo dark sky reserve in New Zealand a few months ago (I got up at 1am both nights I was there specifically so I could get some mostly satellite-free skies to enjoy).
Second place: Mojave desert many years ago (before megaconstellations) or winter skies about an hour outside Regina, when the nights are long and there are no sunlit satellites due to geometry.
@sundogplanets I did a uni gap year in British Columbia, and some friends and I drove from Vancouver up through BC and the Yukon into Alaska, then down the Kenai Peninsular and back - camping along the way. Somewhere on the Alaska side on that trip we were in the middle of nowhere and treated to an amazing Aurora
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Oh I should add to my own personal list: the multiple aurora shows over the past couple of years that I've been able to see from my own house! May 2024 and especially November 2025 were completely mind-blowing.
I found myself joyously whooping and yelling at the sky. I kept thinking of the Cree name for a really active aurora show, cı̂payak kâ-nı̂mihitocik, which translates to "the ancestors are dancing". It was truly an emotionally powerful event to bear witness to.
I am TOTALLY enjoying reading all these stories of awe and wonder as we get to gaze over "infinity's doorstep" with our own eyes.
This is what I am fighting for! This is what I want everyone to be able to do! It often feels like nobody cares about losing the sky, so reading how much it means to lots of people is incredibly energizing. Thank you, keep the stories coming.
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Where is the best, most incredible, most perspective-shattering night sky that you've ever seen?
For me, it was the Tekapo dark sky reserve in New Zealand a few months ago (I got up at 1am both nights I was there specifically so I could get some mostly satellite-free skies to enjoy).
Second place: Mojave desert many years ago (before megaconstellations) or winter skies about an hour outside Regina, when the nights are long and there are no sunlit satellites due to geometry.
Cayonlands, UT, spring 1997. Backpacked about 2 days in. No moon.
Comet Hale-Bopp.
The comet’s tail, not just visible to the naked eye but •vivid•, spanned at least 1/3 the width of the visible sky.
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@sundogplanets Specific example: I’d been doing amateur astronomy actively as a hobby for about a decade by then, and was quite comfortable finding my way around the sky without a reference, even in ultra dark skies with too many stars to count.
One night at that particular star party, I found myself looking at a bright star that I couldn’t quite identify. It took me a minute or so to realize that I was looking at Polaris.
The sky was *so* dark that the stars of the Little Dipper (Ursa Minor) were almost completely swamped by dozens of other stars nearby that are completely invisible from the city and even not readily visible from “ordinary” dark sites. You’d think the stars of the Little Dipper (though kind of dim by overall star brightness standards) would be bright enough to be clear under such a dark sky. From a kind of, sort of, dark sky, sure, that’s what you experience—but from there, they were literally swamped almost beyond recognition.
The kind of sky where you almost feel you need to hold onto something because you feel like you’ll float off and drown in the stars if you’re not careful.
@dpnash @sundogplanets I had the same experience at a dark sky site in Indiana! I couldn't easily navigate because there were so many stars I couldn't find my reference points.
My favorite part was the dust clouds in the Milky Way. They were so clear they looked 3D! Like, it looked like there was a freaking giant cloud of dust in front of the stars!!! -
Where is the best, most incredible, most perspective-shattering night sky that you've ever seen?
For me, it was the Tekapo dark sky reserve in New Zealand a few months ago (I got up at 1am both nights I was there specifically so I could get some mostly satellite-free skies to enjoy).
Second place: Mojave desert many years ago (before megaconstellations) or winter skies about an hour outside Regina, when the nights are long and there are no sunlit satellites due to geometry.
@sundogplanets overnight dive boat at the great barrier reef. Not just the total lack of light, but combined with the unfamiliar southern sky is a view I'll never forget.
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I am TOTALLY enjoying reading all these stories of awe and wonder as we get to gaze over "infinity's doorstep" with our own eyes.
This is what I am fighting for! This is what I want everyone to be able to do! It often feels like nobody cares about losing the sky, so reading how much it means to lots of people is incredibly energizing. Thank you, keep the stories coming.
@sundogplanets
Best night sky I remember was when I was young, falling asleep with the curtains open, while living up in the Rockies of BC . We lived far from cities back in the very early 1960s -
Where is the best, most incredible, most perspective-shattering night sky that you've ever seen?
For me, it was the Tekapo dark sky reserve in New Zealand a few months ago (I got up at 1am both nights I was there specifically so I could get some mostly satellite-free skies to enjoy).
Second place: Mojave desert many years ago (before megaconstellations) or winter skies about an hour outside Regina, when the nights are long and there are no sunlit satellites due to geometry.
@sundogplanets looking at the Milky Way from the Maunakea observatory parking lot with the local amateur telescope club.
Funny story, someone got altitude sickness from the ascent and barfed in the rental car. -
Oh I should add to my own personal list: the multiple aurora shows over the past couple of years that I've been able to see from my own house! May 2024 and especially November 2025 were completely mind-blowing.
I found myself joyously whooping and yelling at the sky. I kept thinking of the Cree name for a really active aurora show, cı̂payak kâ-nı̂mihitocik, which translates to "the ancestors are dancing". It was truly an emotionally powerful event to bear witness to.
@sundogplanets I posted in a different comment about seeing the clouds in the Milky Way from a dark sky site in Indiana, but my second favorite would absolutely be when we got engaged under the Perseids on Natural Bridge.
We were camping and had trouble finding a place with visible sky thriugh the canopy. Finally decided to go to Natural Bridge to watch. Unfortunately thick fog rolled in around evening. We hiked anyway, and the bridge got us just above the cloud cover into the clear. -
Where is the best, most incredible, most perspective-shattering night sky that you've ever seen?
For me, it was the Tekapo dark sky reserve in New Zealand a few months ago (I got up at 1am both nights I was there specifically so I could get some mostly satellite-free skies to enjoy).
Second place: Mojave desert many years ago (before megaconstellations) or winter skies about an hour outside Regina, when the nights are long and there are no sunlit satellites due to geometry.
@sundogplanets I went to university in the middle of nowhere, USA. I want to avoid a little doxxing heh, but trust and believe, it was remote. One benefit was if you got far enough away from even our small college town, you could see absolutely everything. And one night, during a Pride club retreat that some lovely older lesbians hosted at their cabin, we all climbed a very small mountain, and I got to see the Milky Way for the first time with my own eyes. I'll never forget that moment.
