Given the harmful effects of light pollution, a pair of astronomers has coined a new term to help focus efforts to combat it. Their term, as reported in a brief paper in the preprint database arXiv and a letter to the journal Science, is “noctalgia.” In general, it means “sky grief,” and it captures the collective pain we are experiencing as we continue to lose access to the night sky.
Don’t think I’ve ever seen a legit night sky in person.
I saw the Milky Way for the first time when I visited Cooperstown New York 5 or so years back. My neck was sore by the time I stopped looking. It’s a shame most people don’t know what they’re missing out on.
When I lived out in the country I could see it almost every clear night. I could also watch satellites drift overhead, and there were so many fireflies I could walk through the woods at night without a flashlight.
Suburbs fucking suck.
I used to live in Michigan. My family had a farm, nearest city was like 30 miles away, and it wasnt even a large city. I could see the stars and occasional nebula. I remember one winter, my family even saw the Northern Lights. It was magical.
Now I live in Tennessee, in a suburb. I’m lucky if I see a few stars at night. I hate it. I miss the night sky.
Living in a tiny town has its drawbacks and everyone knows everyone’s business, but if you get the urge to just be alone you can head off in any compass direction and find peace out in nature. Sure the takeout options are more varied in the city but constant traffic noise fucking hurts my head and I can’t see any constellations anymore
That’s the best part, I didn’t live in town. They could have their petty bullshit, I just wanted the stars
I like living near people but the dark night sky would be a welcome change.
The lack of fireflies aren’t a rural/urban thing, I don’t think. I’ve always lived in suburbs of a mid-size city and definitely remember fireflies swarming around as a kid, too.
I only moved about three years ago, so it’s definitely a rural/suburban thing. However, the suburbs have waaaaay less fireflies than a decade ago.
Check out Cherry Spring state park. It’s a dedicated star park in mid north PA classes as Bortle 2 light pollution (cities are 8+, uninhabited it 1)
Edit: don’t forgot to avoid the moon
The Milky Way may be closer than you think. I had never really seen it until a few years ago. I was in my usual darker spot and took a picture of it with my phone’s astro mode. I looked back up and suddenly, there it was. I just never knew what to look for or, more importantly, just how big the visible structure was.
I recommend taking a look at lightpollutionmap.info and seeing what’s around you. I’m in a major city metro but dark-enough skies are less than 2 hours away. The Milky way revelation was in a “Bortle 5” zone (red on the map). Cities are class 8+, oceans/uninhabited is class 1. Constellations help you find the core (namely the tea pot/milk dipper asterism) and knowing what time of year/night to look is important. August is the usual ~10pm month but you can go out later at night earlier in the year and vice versa from about April (close to sunrise) to October (near sunset).
Be aware you need to adapt your eyes. Pupils dilate in seconds but the 20 minute thing comes from replenishing rhodopsin in your eyes. White/blue/purple light bleaches that compound but red doesn’t. With enough commitment and knowledge at that same place, Andromeda becomes a naked eye object for me. Extremely faint and just a smudge, but unmistakable.
I live in that gigantic red and purple blob in Northern Europe and I’m lucky if I can see 3 stars in the sky at night.
I’ve never ever seen a totally star-filled sky and it’s something I’m very sad about. One day I’ll head out to somewhere like the Australian Outback and just gaze up in awe.
The irony is that most of us live in a red/purple blob. A light pollution map pretty accurately matches population heat maps. The only outlier tends to be some resource mines, especially petroleum/gas fields with constant waste fires
I live in Italy. The map doesn’t show a single spot below yellow in my entire country.
I’ve never seen a clear sky in my life.
As someone living in a purple/white zone, the red zone really is magnificent by comparison. It’s clear enough when avoiding street lights that when I step out of the car, despite the dash and headlights affecting my adaptation, I immediately see the Milky way. Yellow is a step clearer, so don’t be discouraged
Come to the UK. We’ve got official Dark Skies status in Bannau Brecheiniog (formerly the Brecon Beacons). Probably a lot easier for you to get to :)
Wow! I’m closer than I thought! Thanks so much. This may change where I camp this weekend.
Sounds like you might have some binoculars. 7x35 or 8x42 or 10x50 binos are great for scanning the night sky. Outer lens diameter divided by zoom = inner lens diameter which you want to be 5mm or greater. 35/7=5 and 42/8=5.2 etc. Some larger “deep sky objects” such as Andromeda galaxy, Lagoon Nebula, Orion Nebula, and Hercules cluster pop right out in my nikon ae 10x50s. Again, they’re just smudges, but they’re such stationary smudges you’ll swear the sky is a painted dome.
Neat map, thanks. I’m not terribly far away from clearer night skies, but I’m down in the red-purple and not particularly mobile.
Yeah, I just saw the Andromeda galaxy for the first time in Saturday night. Naked eye viewing, but had to use my sky map app to locate it. Holy shit! Was amazing. Luckily we brought binoculars so I could really see it.
As far as unaided viewing goes, it doesn’t get any more other-worldly than that!
Look up a light pollution map for your area, it will show you the darkest parts around you to go see the sky for what it really is. Usually within an hour or 2 of anywhere there is a place dark enough to see the milky way with your own eyes.
Thank you! I’ve been wanting to take a long exposure night sky. And your advice is perfect!
Dslr? You can (and should) practice more locally. Theres enough stars to figure out what lens/shutter speed combos work in addition to looking up the rule of thumb equation. But none of us ever take that advice anyway
I haven’t seen the Milky Way for maybe 15-years. Even at my camp in the boondocks, nada. You have to really get out there, can’t imagine where I would go from NW FL.
Drive up to West Virginia? Seriously, I’m looking at a light pollution map and it’s crazy. I’m gonna drive out west of Kerrville, TX and take a gander.
The dark spot in WV might be one of the uninhabited regions featuring a radio telescope facility. Get close enough and they’ll start hunting you down for cell phone noise!
it always seemed a bit like something in cartoons. it must’ve been so much more vibrant in ancient times, it makes sense why they were so into star tracking. like a big soap opera
I saw one in the great sand dunes
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I was ready to see the Milkyway in Colorado a few years back but there was wildfire smoke covering the sky the entire time I was there.
I did get to see it just a bit in Arkansas last year(it really wasn’t as dark as I’d have liked it). I was doing some long exposures with a camera and my mom says “Wow it’s a pretty clear night except for that one cloud…”
A few years ago, I moved from Chicago to a medium sized city in Colorado. Even with the light pollution we have in my city, the stars are still great. In Chicago I was lucky to see fifteen stars on a clear night.
Ok I’m probably just being stupid, but can someone tell me why everybody’s talking about seeing the milky way? Aren’t we part of the milky way? Do you just mean the other stars and stuff?
When you get away from light pollution you can see a lot more stars and a bright line called milky way. We are part of the milky way and you can see the rest of it.
It looks [https://hr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datoteka:Milky_Way_Night_Sky_Black_Rock_Desert_Nevada.jpg](like this).
In the summer, at night, we’re facing the galactic center. You can see the cloud of uncountable stars held close to the supermassive black hole at the center, and you can see the band of light spanning the sky that it the rest of the disk and arms.
It’s the reason the galaxy is called the Milky Way, because those billions of stars looks kinds like somebody spilled milk all across the night sky.
If you are in the darkest parts of the world I think you can still see it a bit in winter but you’re looking outward into intergalactic space, so it’s much fainter, only showing the stars in our arm that are even further out.
Well, it’s possible to find places even under fscking Moscow to watch stars. Far from residential areas and any street/road lighting and traffic, naturally, somewhere in the forest.
Last time I saw one, I was a Boy Scout at Camp Barnhardt. I think that was in South Carolina.
I didn’t see the milky way until I was in my 30s
I have, but only when I visit my uncle’s cottage which is way out in the boonies of Northern Ontario