
Preserving the Sublime at One of the Darkest Places in America - sergeant3
http://www.vqronline.org/essays-articles/2016/07/night-moves
======
Feneric
As a society we really need to start reducing light pollution. It doesn't take
much to shield the tops of streetlights and advertisements to at least make
the majority of their light point downward.

~~~
keithpeter
And such a strategy could be sold as more cost effective - focus the light on
the ground and reduce glare.

UK: The led based street lights that I have seen locally do have shields and
diffusers. Still very blue though.

~~~
slavik81
News articles on Calgary's transition have touched on those points [1]. The
City's infographic really highlights the costs, too [2].

[1] [http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/12/02/calgary-from-
space_n...](http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/12/02/calgary-from-
space_n_8692092.html)

[2]
[http://www.calgary.ca/_layouts/cocis/DirectDownload.aspx?tar...](http://www.calgary.ca/_layouts/cocis/DirectDownload.aspx?target=http%3a%2f%2fwww.calgary.ca%2fTransportation%2fRoads%2fDocuments%2fTraffic%2fTraffic-
signals-and-streetlights%2fStreetlighting-Program-
Infographic.pdf&noredirect=1&sf=1)

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sxcurry
I just got back from a week observing at a very dark site - Pine Mountain
Observatory in Central Oregon. SQM readings over 22, for those with sky
quality meters. The Milky Way was literally staggering - I had to sit down to
take it in. If you've never seen the night sky from a truly dark place, please
try to do so.

~~~
teh_klev
Back in 2005 I took a trip to New Zealand for a couple months. Once of the
places I stayed many times during the trip was Stewart Island [0]. The house I
stayed at was on the shore of Horseshoe Bay, I don't know where on the scale
of "darkness quality" it fell, but the sky was ablaze with stellar objects the
like of which I'd not seen for many years.

At night we'd sit on the beach at around midnight looking up at a sky that was
truly mind bending to behold. Also because this was my first ever trip to the
southern hemisphere the sky looked totally alien. I'll never forget those
nights.

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart_Island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart_Island)

~~~
zyxley
To a lot of people in big cities, seeing the stars _at all_ is totally alien.

[http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/04/local/la-me-light-
po...](http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/04/local/la-me-light-
pollution-20110104/2) (see the bit near the bottom)

~~~
teh_klev
> "We finally realized what we were dealing with," Krupp said. "The quake had
> knocked out most of the power, and people ran outside and they saw the
> stars. The stars were in fact so unfamiliar; they called us wondering what
> happened."

Wow.

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mud_dauber
I highly recommend the observatory near Fort Davis, Texas for their star
parties. Another one of the darkest places in the country, and ~7 hours from
Austin.

