Where did the stars go?

[beige_alert]

I just went outside and looked up, and the stars are missing. At my mother’s home in Green Valley, Arizona, 35 km from Tucson and 20 km from (and 1400 meters below) the observatory on Mt. Hopkins, the sky is black, the Milky Way is clearly visible, and there are zillions of stars in the sky. Here in Milwaukee, on a typically hazy night, the sky is light, the bright stars are visible, and detecting the Milky Way with the unaided eye is unthinkable. And this is a dark sky compared to Cook County, Illinois.

You can see the extra stars in the Milky Way with binoculars in Chicago or Milwaukee, but the first time I actually saw that band of light in the sky was at age 26 or so, camping away from the cities by the Wisconsin River.

I spent a lot of time looking at the sky during my time in Arizona.

Comments

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

The stars were taken from us by people who are afraid of the dark. Like most stupid things, we did it to ourselves. And when there is a massive blackout that might allow us to see the stars, it's always at a time when it is so hot and humid that the skies are too hazy to see anything anyway.

There's a whole light pollution soapbox to stand on and rant, with websites and everything, not that I have the gumption to say much more.