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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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
Over my life, I've lived mostly in bigger cities/urban areas, AND I've been lucky enough to have spent time in areas far from the urban space.The difference in the night sky is incredible. The darker the surroundings, the more magical that skyscape is.
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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.
Over 50 years ago, you could spot a satelllite in polar orbit.
Otherwise, just stars. These days, you can not see all of the stars that were visible back then. Even if you are away from city lights.
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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 That's the one thing I really miss about my home state of Alaska, the night sky was just incredible! We're rural here in Florida, but there is still so much light pollution that pulling out my telescope just isn't the same anymore.
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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 We, the non-billionaires with our Stargazer Steve telescopes+ know. Billionaires know. They just don't give a damn.
I was 4 yrs old when I saw the Morning Star (and was told it was Venus) through my 13 year-old cousin's handmade telescope. I fell in love faded decades and decades ago.
I still have 2 pair of ancient binoculars I use to view Jupiter & some moons and Saturn & some moons. It's lovely and I'm on the edge of a city in PA.
Still trying to enjoy it while I can.
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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 I still remember the first time I was out of sight of land on a boat at night. Utterly mesmerising, laying on the deck, looking up
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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.
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.
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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 We used to live in SW Colorado at 7200 feet altitude. The night skies were incredible. You could read by the full moon and it felt like you could touch the stars, they seemed so close.
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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 was in a state park in Nevada where we were climbing. It was about 50 miles east of the California border. I can’t remember the name of it, but it was so dark that the few clouds that were there were not backlit from any surface lights and they looked like dark nebula against the star field. It was also disorienting as it was hard to find the constellations with such a rich star field. I only had a 4” scope with me, but the views were awesome.
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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 the rocks at the edge of Bonne Bay, Newfoundland (a fjord in Gros Morne National Park). A few village lights, but a night so clear that just turning away was enough. Lying on my back with the ocean lapping a cobble beach a few metres away, and it felt like I was pressed to the very thin skin of a whirling planet with my face almost in the stars. It almost felt like I could slip off.
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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 Piper's Cove in CB the night of 9/11. Remote area so dark sky but that night no planes so just stars. Beautiful!
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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
Onaping lake, about an hour from Sudbury, ontario. At a log cottage you need a boat to get to. -
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.
Okavango Delta on safari. Truly stunning
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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.
Far northern Ontario for me. There's roads now to roughly where I was but when I went it was just bush plane in and out. Stars for ages.
That, and one night when I was like 20 when the aurora went crazy and looking up made it feel like we were all in a giant turquoise dome tent together.
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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 haven't seen it personally, but I'm told the view from Centauri Epsilon VI is second to none.
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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 As a kid (many years ago now) living in a large town, I remember being sceptical about seeing the Milky Way by eye. My siblings would try to point it out but I could not discern anything significant.
It was only when camping in the countryside that I understood, and appreciated, the incredible sight they were trying to point out.
It is unsurprising if someone stuck in a slightly built up area has a lack of appreciation of this beauty.
And what we're losing with starlink.
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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 western New Mexico, the Milky Way cast shadows
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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 grew up in the 60s/70s on a farm in southern Manitoba. I just thought seeing stars at night was a normal thing that I’d have for the rest of my life. I do remember when I was around 5 my mom was taking care of my city cousins and she stopped the car on the way back to the farm so they could see the stars. Jesus, I thought, what’s the big deal! Thanks for asking, I had not thought of that in ages.
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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 Karoo and Cedarberg in South Africa are pretty special. I did a white water rafting trip once and we passed the South African Observatory on the way to the starting point.
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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 mountains near the New Mexico-Arizona border on US 60, near the VLA. I've spent quite a few nights in and around that area of western New Mexico.
When I was 18 in 2001, I did a trip down the Salt River canyon in eastern Arizona. I was driving back home late at night after the trip coming through the mountains in New Mexico west of the VLA (near Pie Town). At some point, I realized the sky in front of me was pink. It was the first time I ever saw an aurora.
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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.
Leura, NSW, Australia. Extra impressive given it's not that far from Sydney, but maybe we just lucked out on atmospheric conditions.
