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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@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.
@MFennVT I remember this from camping
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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 West Texas, Big Bend National Park.
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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 were once in Banff for a full moon (totally by accident) and clear skies. The full moon lighting up the Rockies was pretty amazing.2nd place: the Dominion Radio Observatory near Penticton hosts a Perseids Meteor Shower event every year, where I shot the below photo.
3rd place: up on top of mount Lolo at the old NORAD radar site during a particularly active aurora borealis. (No photos, just memories)
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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@mastodon.social I love the starry night sky so much. I'd love to live further away from the light pollution.
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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.
@sundogplanets
The combination of such vibrant movement, and yet silence. It's so powerful. It's makes you feel so small on this planet and I love that feeling. -
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.
Seeing the Emu across the Milky Way in the bush in Western Australia.
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@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.
@KarenKeiller @sundogplanets Ditto! For 2 weeks every summer, parents would rent the Scout cabin at Delta Beach. Running through the fish flies to use the outdoor biffy was a treat. But no street lighting for miles. Every night was a free sky show. The whole damn family was on the beach to try to see Sputnik in the ‘50s. Now I must drive to the community pasture to get an approximation of a dark sky. Amazing how far the glow firm Winnipeg can be seen.
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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
South Pacific, a hundred nautical miles from anythingWe had a good viewing night in the Grand Canyon with a few good telescopes
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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.
North shore of Jamaica after a huge storm that had cleared the sky and knocked out all the power in sight.
Unbelievable Milky Way and night birds
until a resort got their generator going and turned up the speakers, anyway -
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 Prince Edward Island with three college friends. Lying with heads together watching the Perseids meteor shower. “There’s one, there’s one, ….” And, at one point, all four of us together, “There’s one!”
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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.
Outback Australian skies are always amazing.
One trip, a mate's young son (under 5)was terrified—we didn't live in the city and he'd seen stars, but never *SO MANY*!
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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 Toronto, August 14, 2003: first night of the blackout. Complete darkness and sparkling night sky
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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.
Seeing the auroras down here was amazing. I will always wonder what our ancestors thought when they saw it.
Also, the night sky down at the beach - you can see the Milky Way. For years I didn't even realize what I was seeing, I kept thinking it was really high wispy clouds, LOL. A very WHOA moment when I realized 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.
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.
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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 Dolly Sods, WV. Hard to get a clear night sky sometimes in Appalachia, but this one is well worth it. Occasional viewing of the northern lights from there, too.
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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 Savary Island, BC, a small sandbar island with no electricity. It was Perseid meteor season and I was nightswimming in the ocean with phosphorescence. Shooting stars above, glowing trails from fish below, floating in the ocean, everything very sparkly. I felt extremely small in a good way
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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 Hard for me to compare, given the temporal differences, but I'll list four: Nantucket (2000), where Maria Mitchell was born and did her early astronomical work (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Mitchell), and which can have very clear skies, despite being a small island; Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah (2001), where the night sky view from the rim is spectacular; Death Valley National Park Nevada (2026), a formal dark sky area; and, circa 1980, a rural area south of Chapel Hill, NC, where I lived for a few years when in grad school. One winter evening, I don't recall just when, there was supposed to be a good meteor shower, so several of went out to watch it. The sky was spectacular, and one didn't have to look hard to see *lots* of meteors.
(Aside: when my kids were in elementary school, there was supposed to be a good meteor shower. For assorted reasons, including timing and park operating hours, none of the nearby parks were suitable. I was living in a densely populated area of New Jersey, with lots of light pollution, so the best available spot was the local schoolyard. When we got there, we saw that at least a dozen others had the same idea. A cop stopped by, wondering why there were so many people in lawn chairs in the schoolyard at that hour of the evening. I was far back, so I didn't get to hear the conversation, but I'm sure he drove away muttering about these weird people…) -
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 with the cadets in the middle of nowhere near Lachute, Québec… I was 14 I think.
So many, many stars
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@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.
@MFennVT @sundogplanets That's where I am right now, between Bayfield and Pagosa Springs, on a ranch surrounded by the San Juan National Forest. On clear nights the Milky Way is breathtaking.
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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 outback of Australia between Mount Isa, Alice Springs, and Woomera is pretty amazing for dark sky. My experience was before mega constellations though.
The eastern flank of the Sierras and out into some parts of Nevada, Utah, and western Colorado are also good. It's less good than it used to be due to everything in the sky.
Some areas in Big Sur if you get up high above the salt air but not too high to get light spilling over from the Salinas Valley or Fresno are pretty good for California.
