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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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 In 1986, drove out to Joshua Tree with some Techers to gaze at Comet Halley. I was the first to spot it, but somehow I didn't get a bottle of Scotch for it. That was pretty cool.
But the biggest perspective changer was when I slept outdoors on a friend's deck under a clear sky, in the coastal mountains near Santa Cruz, and the all-night party indoors kept waking me up every few minutes and I'd glance at the sky and go back to sleep. So the night turned into a time-lapse movie of the stars sliding across the heavens. I've never looked at the sky the same way since then.
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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.
@inthehands @sundogplanets hale bopp made Halley look like a loser
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RE: https://social.treehouse.systems/@ariadne/117063592703392163
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.
@sundogplanets Wouldn't be so bad if it was restricted to the country the company is based in but it affects everyone worldwide.
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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
Decades ago, in the Hungarian plain during a trip. Just a huge grassland with nothing to block the horizon, no light in sight... I woke up in the night, and wow. Just wow. The Milky Way was gorgeous, the stars were soooo numerous, the sky so immense in all directions... How small and lucky I felt
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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 The middle of the mojave desert, around 2010 or so, not too far from death valley.
2nd place ... I don't remember exactly where it was, it was on the drive over the mountians on a trip from New York to New Hampshire, around 2002-2003 - we stopped on some sketchy one-car-wide mountain road in the middle of the night.
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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 on an island in southeast Alaska, the whole sky suddenly lit up a really intense red from the northern lights
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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 It's cloudy most of the year, but when it isn't, this is my view outside my home. Seeing this regularly reminds me why people felt the urge to come up with theories to explain it far before we had the tools to investigate.
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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 in Utah in the middle of nowhere. I don’t remember it being like that anywhere else I had been. It was in 2007.
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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@mastodon.social capitol reef national park. We could see the Milky Way with the naked eye out there.
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@sundogplanets
Decades ago, in the Hungarian plain during a trip. Just a huge grassland with nothing to block the horizon, no light in sight... I woke up in the night, and wow. Just wow. The Milky Way was gorgeous, the stars were soooo numerous, the sky so immense in all directions... How small and lucky I felt@sundogplanets
also, I've gone to the French Alps every summer for a few years now, and there the sky is always gorgeous at night. Even in the village, find a dark spot and just look up and bamThis year we did a bit of stargazing at night, in a valley away from the village, and seeing the glorious night sky with the dark voids of the mountains looming on each side is also quite an experience. Like the sky is being swallowed by something gigantic...
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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.
@inthehands @sundogplanets
Oh, this reminds me of where I was for Hale-Bopp! It was a small town in eastern Hungary, and I remember looking out of an office window across the jumble of central European rooftops each evening as it gradually traversed the sky. -
@spacelizard @sundogplanets The night I was there, as the sun went down the whole hillside exploded with the laughs of dozens, maybe hundreds, of kookaburras. Just to make it even better.
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RE: https://social.treehouse.systems/@ariadne/117063592703392163
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.
@sundogplanets there’s an irony that city-dwelling is inherently better for nature – people clustered together in smaller dwellings need less land per person, less energy, etc. – but also disconnects people from nature
i like to think that we’ll figure out how to square that circle in future, with cities that are much more integrated into the natural world. i agree fighting back against light pollution is one important battle
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RE: https://social.treehouse.systems/@ariadne/117063592703392163
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.
@sundogplanets It is the same with rest of the electromagnetic spectrum. We the radio amateurs operating in the HF bands have been affected by cheap LED lighting (LED is not the problem, the cheap PWM based power supply without proper filtering is). Even though the rules/law exists, no one is interested to enforce it. At around 6pm, the HF noise floor jumps by a few db and no signals are heard, especially in the lower HF bands. It is getting worse and worse every day to the point where city dwellers cannot operate and enjoy this hobby anymore. People have invented new ways like "parts/summits on the air" to combine other outdoor activities with radio. But no everyone can do that..
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When I visited last century, camping was at the base of Uluru. We arrived at night, and I was staggered to see it blotted out a lot of stars!
But yes, the stars out there were truly awe inspiring.
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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 Also the Mojave for me, specifically Fort Irwin, in April 1985. My battalion was on our rotation to the National Training Center which translated to a month in the desert.
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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.
"Infinity's doorstep"... This is where I'd love to be.
I need to find one, but in the south east of a crowded England, I think is going to be difficult.
I'll need to travel. Maybe up to the dark sky reserve in Northumberland
(it's not flat though.) -
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 there are many! But a beach in the Sinai rates highly in my memory (it was nearly fifty years ago).
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@sundogplanets I remember, as a child, lying down on the ground at night, looking up and it changing my perception of gravity. The sensation stopped being looking "up" and became looking out. Felt like you could fall into the sky forever.
Even during daytime I can still get that sensation a bit if I lie like that. Once you've felt it, it stays with you. Feels important that people still get to have that.
I totally get this! You've reminded me of a moment I had as a child, looking up at the night sky. I was stood on an old log and, as I looked, I suddenly felt as though I was going to fall into it and had to hold onto my mum next to me. It was an amazing moment. (And thank you for reminding me of it!
)
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The world would be a much better place if everyone had easy access to infinity's doorstep, to realize how small we are, how unique and fragile our pale blue dot is.
You don't need a trip on a billionaire's rocket to get the "overview effect." You can do it by finding dark sky access, which is becoming harder and harder to get, partially due to billionaires' rockets.
@sundogplanets another thought experiment should be, how can people who are blind have an “overview effect" experience? A real question, since all of the “overview effect” experiences I've read about are visual.
