
What Major World Cities Look Like at Night, Minus the Light Pollution - bcn
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/artscience/2013/03/darkened-cities
======
danso
If you were in New York City during Hurricane Sandy, in the lower half, at
least, you got a taste of this first hand.

I had to walk home into the unpowered section of Manhattan every night from
work. I took some photos during that time. Unfortunately, as it was still
overcast, we never did get a chance to see the stars from downtown Manhattan:

[http://tumblr.eyeheartnewyork.com/post/37636219209/i-finally...](http://tumblr.eyeheartnewyork.com/post/37636219209/i-finally-
got-around-to-organizing-some-of-the)

~~~
_delirium
An interesting difference between your photos and the renditions linked here
is that the buildings in yours are black silhouettes, while the ones here are
fairly well lit up. That's the first thing that stuck out at me: if there is
no light pollution, what is lighting the foreground buildings? If you look at
the Hong Kong photo, for example, it looks like there is a _ton_ of light
pollution: all the buildings, plus the surface of the water in the harbor, are
lit by a diffuse glow. The only exception is the sky, which is inexplicably
not affected by the same glow, clearly giving away the Photoshopping.

Perhaps there's some combination of moon-lit conditions that would produce
that effect, but it sure doesn't look right to me.

~~~
Retric
On a clear night without light pollution stars provide decent illumination.
However, those photo's where clearly Photoshopped.

~~~
jedberg
> However, those photo's where clearly Photoshopped.

That's pretty much what the entire article was about. :)

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Camillo
They would look nothing like those photos.

The city would look much, much darker. You can really tell that those are day
shots of the cities with the brightness and saturation reduced.

The sky would look much, much less impressive. Photographers like to
perpetuate a fantastic idea of the night sky by taking overexposed pictures,
and this one is no exception. I have been in the middle of the savannah in
Africa, with no light around for miles, and I don't remember the sky looking
anything like that.

~~~
learc83
I've seen sky that looked pretty close to that--about like this video.
(Probably a bit less bright, but still more impressive actually being there.)

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=p...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pe4dpprVBGs#)!

I remember that it was different enough that I was blown away by the contrast.

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jcr
I doubt I'm the only one who read the article with the hope of finding some
new technique to remove light pollution from images to show off the stars...
and was mildly disappointed to find out the beautiful images were just cut-n-
paste jobs (albeit outstanding ones).

I'm wondering what kinds of techniques exist for removing light pollution?

Spectrum sensitivity? Spectrum filtering on exposure? Post processing?

~~~
SoftwareMaven
Tucson, Arizona uses sodium vapor lighting for all its street lighting
specifically to allow the nearby observatories easily filter the light
pollution.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
I attended a conference in Tucson last fall and...being jetlagged, did a nice
walk at 4AM in the desert behind our resort. It was really amazing, I hadn't
seen shooting stars in decades.

~~~
snowwrestler
It's only a couple hours from Tucson to the Kitt Peak Observatory, where they
have astronomy programs for the public. I talked my wife into doing it when we
were there visiting friends last year.

I highly recommend it. The astronomy is fairly basic, but the experience is
incredible: You're up on a big mountain, surrounded by gigantic telescopes, in
the middle of a vast desert wilderness. It's freezing cold outside after dark.
When the program is over, you have to drive down the upper half of the
mountain without headlights to protect the observations that are happening.

~~~
SoftwareMaven
I went to scout camp in the Chiricahua mountains in SE Arizona and experienced
the same thing. I'd sneak out if my tent at night to look at the night sky
(until my scoutmaster chased a bear out of our camp...the guy was psycho!).

------
duck
After living in Alaska for several years, I don't really think that is how
cities would look at all. With just stars and even the aurora borealis, it is
incredible how pure _darknesss_ looks. I really didn't know how much light
pollution effected the sky until living there, but even in small towns and
other less populated areas the light from various sources changes the skyline.

~~~
hobb0001
Whew. I was wondering if I was the only one who has been out in the mountains
and other rural areas, but have never seen a night sky like these.

~~~
officemonkey
I grew up in rural New York and once, when camping, we stayed up very late
with all the lights off. You would be amazed at how much your eyes eventually
see after a couple hours in darkness. We could see Satellites, the Milky Way,
and even the "Horse and Rider"
(<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_and_Rider>).

Nowadays, with phones and ipod, it's nearly impossible to let your eyes adjust
that long without light. But it's worth it.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
There's probably an app (that has probably been done) in there for making the
screen show in hues of red. Or, if not an app then a screen protector that's a
gel (<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_gel>).

~~~
Zak
There's an app for that: <http://stereopsis.com/flux/>

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quasque
I find it rather an epiphany to realise that our distant ancestors must have
seen the sky like this _all the time_ , rather than the vague haze most of us
experience. No wonder then that the movement of the stars and planets played
such a cultural and religious impact on their lives.

------
jt2190
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the International Dark Sky association [1]:

    
    
      > Once a source of wonder--and one half of the entire
      > planet's natural  environment—the star-filled nights of
      > just a few years ago are vanishing in a yellow haze.
      > Human-produced light pollution not only mars our view of
      > the stars; poor lighting threatens astronomy, disrupts
      > ecosystems, affects human circadian rhythms, and wastes
      > energy to the tune of $2.2 billion per year 
      > in the U.S. alone.
    

You may want to check out their Practical Guide [2] for homeowners who want to
reduce their light pollution.

[1] <http://darksky.org/> [2] (PDF)
[http://www.darksky.org/assets/documents/PG3-residential-
ligh...](http://www.darksky.org/assets/documents/PG3-residential-lighting.pdf)

------
zobzu
"minus the atmosphere and with eyes that will absorb stars luminosity for 20s
straight" let's not confuse it.

------
zwegner
This is somewhat of a repost: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5205058>

Kinda surprised nobody else said that yet...

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auctiontheory
While the US is relatively good at keeping the air and water clean (relative
to some places I've been), both light and noise pollution are a big problem -
almost unregulated.

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johnohara
I've seen the night sky (moonless) from out in the Arizona desert and watched
the Aurora Borealis from a stone outcropping on Sarah Lake in Quetico National
Park.

It is a wonder to behold. I wish it looked like these photos. It doesn't.

You can clearly see the band of the Milky Way in both places. At first you
think it's cloudy. But as your eyes adjust it becomes apparent the sky is
clear and that's when the wonder of it all occurs to you.

Cool photos tho'. I'd buy one for my workspace.

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JumpCrisscross
" _“It is impossible not to read these pictures the way the artist wants them
read: cold, cold cities below, cut off from the seemingly infinite energies
above._ ”

I see unity: humanity's improbable citadels cradled by the beckoning infinity
of the universe. Not everything has to be framed in conflict.

~~~
drexel
I had a feeling of coziness and was reminded of human cohesion looking at what
I presumed to be millions of people coming together to sleep at the same time
preparing for the next day. It seemed so peaceful.

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ryan-allen
Is that what the sky literally looks like with no light pollution, or are they
time lapsed at all?

~~~
stephth
Those must be long exposures with post processing. A clear sky without light
pollution doesn't look anything like that, but it's beautiful. Go see one!

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superkarn
I've always wondered what it would be like if there is a total black out in a
big city. Now I can see it in these pictures. If the blackout isn't exactly
simultaneous, would the stars slowly emerge one by one? How cool would that
be!

~~~
biot
Yes, they would. If you're in the middle of a remote desert during the day,
you would be able to look up and see only blue sky. As the sun sets and the
night becomes darker, you'll gradually see more and more stars until you see
as many as you'll be able to when the sun is on the opposite side of the earth
from you.

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hudell
What surprises me is the difference in nature between brazilian cities and the
others. I would like to see one of those pictures of Porto Alegre, where
there's almost one tree per person.

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wladimir
Even though they look a bit fake, I like these photos. The atmosphere reminds
me of Alan Weisman's book "the world without us". The cities appear as ghost
cities, everything dark, allowing natural light to be visible again. It's like
the early stages after humans deserted it, before the forces of nature
(combined with lack of maintenance) break through and crumble the buildings.

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Kiro
This is how it would look through a special lense on a camera. Anyone who has
been in true wilderness knows it looks nothing like this.

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victorhn
Reminds me of the dialogue in Kurosawa's Dreams movie in the part where there
is a conversation with an old man in a treadmill village (I wouldn't like
night so bright you could not see the stars)
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1FIps--PGg>

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nakedrobot2
from the article: “It is impossible not to read these pictures the way the
artist wants them read: cold, cold cities below, cut off from the seemingly
infinite energies above. It’s a powerful reversal, and one very much in tune
with a wave of environmental thinking of the moment.”

NOOOOO! What a load of bollocks. This is the _opposite_ of what I felt about
these photos, until this bonehead art critic stepped in and told me what to
feel. To hell with all commentators of art. Art does not tell you what to
feel, and I resent anyone saying that any reaction is "impossible". Bah!!!

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jneal
These are beautiful. I would love to have one of these framed in my house.

~~~
biot
If we didn't have light pollution, a window frame would be sufficient to have
this kind of view on every clear night.

------
D-Train
Wow, these are neat pictures. Interesting way of showing the night sky sans
artificial light.

