I grew up in a rural place where we could see the texture of the milky way just stepping outside at night—it’s been fun taking friends who grew up in cities on wilderness backpacking trips and sitting out to watch the stars. There’s an awe to a true night sky that I think has real psychological impact.
I did also have a cool experience, deep in the backcountry at a high elevation camp some years ago: we went to sleep in a gale, the tent flapping all around, with a cloudy sky. I thought we’d get a big storm, but I woke up hot at 3am, the air totally still. I slid out of the tent and the sky was completely crystal clear. An incredible spread of stars. I watched for a while and noticed a reddish glow on the horizon. We were so far out and it wrapped around in all directions, so I knew it couldn’t possibly have been a town, but I was puzzled. I learned about airglow when we got out of the woods: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airglow" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airglow
Outside of a few places like the Himalayas or Australia isn't not possible to see the darkness everyone lived in until street lighting.
This is the most accurate map and it still under reports light pollution under 21.5sqm <a href="https://www.darkskysites.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.darkskysites.com/
Worse satellite constilations may make it impossible to have a dark sky anywhere: <a href="https://arxiv.org/html/2604.09427v1" rel="nofollow">https://arxiv.org/html/2604.09427v1
Led lights have caused such a massive increase in light pollution, let alone the effects on humans due to the blue spike, that they should be banned outright.
there are tons of places in the US where it's dark enough you can see the milky way shining brilliantly, just not in the heavily populated areas. Washington, Oregon, Idaho Montana, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Maine, Vermont. even more places in Canada, Alaska, Norway...
Being able to see it and being blown away by it are different.
I can see the milky way but I wouldn't describe it as "a new moon just smeared all across the sky" like one of the other commenters. It's more like just a vaguely higher-density strip of stars.
My location is 21 SQM according to the DarkSkySites map.
I see the milky way every clear night (other than full moons) and after a decade or more of this I'm still blown away by it. I'm never going to get tired of seeing our beautiful galaxy stretched across the sky.
I once wanted our then still young daughter to see a real night sky (as I experienced more often as a kid). We were on a darker part of an island (the map says 21.7 sqm). It was a bit tricky walking through the dunes in such pitch dark (no full moon), but also stunningly beautiful. It’s worth doing every now and then to experience our smallness in the vastness of the universe.
macNchz · · focus · HN ↗
I did also have a cool experience, deep in the backcountry at a high elevation camp some years ago: we went to sleep in a gale, the tent flapping all around, with a cloudy sky. I thought we’d get a big storm, but I woke up hot at 3am, the air totally still. I slid out of the tent and the sky was completely crystal clear. An incredible spread of stars. I watched for a while and noticed a reddish glow on the horizon. We were so far out and it wrapped around in all directions, so I knew it couldn’t possibly have been a town, but I was puzzled. I learned about airglow when we got out of the woods: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airglow" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airglow
noosphr · · focus · HN ↗
This is the most accurate map and it still under reports light pollution under 21.5sqm <a href="https://www.darkskysites.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.darkskysites.com/
Worse satellite constilations may make it impossible to have a dark sky anywhere: <a href="https://arxiv.org/html/2604.09427v1" rel="nofollow">https://arxiv.org/html/2604.09427v1
Led lights have caused such a massive increase in light pollution, let alone the effects on humans due to the blue spike, that they should be banned outright.
fsckboy · · focus · HN ↗
noosphr · · focus · HN ↗
jstanley · · focus · HN ↗
I can see the milky way but I wouldn't describe it as "a new moon just smeared all across the sky" like one of the other commenters. It's more like just a vaguely higher-density strip of stars.
My location is 21 SQM according to the DarkSkySites map.
epihelix · · focus · HN ↗
microtonal · · focus · HN ↗