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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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.
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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 When I was 14, 1972, in my back yard in Ibadan, Nigeria, lying on my back on the ground, with the night sounds all around and the most enormous, star-filled sky I'll ever see.
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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.
Best night sky experience for me was the Seychelles.
I was standing there, the ocean gently "breathing" against the sand and the milky way above us.
If you stared long enough, it felt like you were falling towards the stars. No planes, no satellites, nothing but stars above and gentle waves below.
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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
For me it was in Maldives, just outside the resort where the milky way showed its glorious and complete magnificence. -
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 A small freedom camping site at Haldane Bay in the middle of winter eight years ago. No pollution, no artificial light and a crescent moon, so everything in the sky was perfectly clear.
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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 A hot tub in the Norwegian mountains in early spring. So clear, so many stars, and the milky way. And I wasn't cold even though it was -18°C
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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 guess:
a) Lying on the snow on the Brunt ice-shelf at Halleys III & IV Research stations during auroras but frankly any clear evening, not having previously seen the Southern Sky. Definitely that ‘clinging on to a whirling planet in an unfathomably large galaxy feeling’.
b) Being called outside, with mum and Tigger the cat (who’d rather have stayed warm inside) when my late, architect, and ever-enquiring dad had found some wonder-a planet, a clear moon in our 3” refractor.
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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.
@fluffgar @sundogplanets I've felt something similar looking out at the ocean for as far as I could see nothing but flat blue and how small I felt in that moment.
And then later on a mountain ridge looking out towards the horizon and seeing nothing but mountains into the distance.
It doesn't quite capture the feeling of the infinite as looking at the stars but still it is truly awesome and makes one feel so incredibly small.
Like ocean:integers::sky:real numbers with size of infinities
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