SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - Light pollution: Night being lost in many countries

vienna · 11-27-17, 03:55 PM

The most spectacular nighttime sky I ever saw was in 1965 during a summer spent in Central America; we were way up in the mountains, in a village where the electrical power cut off at around 9:00 pm and the whole area went dark, except for a dim light bulb at the Guardia Nacional checkpoint at the village entrance. I had never seen a sky so filled with stars; there were even several 'shooting stars' observed; truly magnificent...

The most disturbing nighttime sky I saw was in 1994, the morning of the Northridge Earthquake; the quake struck at about 4:30 am, and it knocked out all the power in the greater Los Angeles area; t was still very, very dark and the sky was filled with stars that would ordinarily be hidden by the overwhelming canopy of city lights; it was startling and I recall trying to help one very frightened woman evacuate our building and she was almost hysterical; she looked up, saw the multitude of stars, and asked me, in a trembling voice, "Why are there so many stars? Is this the end of the world?". I assured here it wasn't, but my assurances weren't helped by the sporadic explosions of transformers on light poles, damaged by the quake, and the cacophony of all the car alarms in the area going off simultaneously...

<O>

11-27-17, 03:55 PM	#5
vienna Navy Seal Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Anywhere but the here & now... Posts: 7,507 Downloads: 85 Uploads: 0	The most spectacular nighttime sky I ever saw was in 1965 during a summer spent in Central America; we were way up in the mountains, in a village where the electrical power cut off at around 9:00 pm and the whole area went dark, except for a dim light bulb at the Guardia Nacional checkpoint at the village entrance. I had never seen a sky so filled with stars; there were even several 'shooting stars' observed; truly magnificent... The most disturbing nighttime sky I saw was in 1994, the morning of the Northridge Earthquake; the quake struck at about 4:30 am, and it knocked out all the power in the greater Los Angeles area; t was still very, very dark and the sky was filled with stars that would ordinarily be hidden by the overwhelming canopy of city lights; it was startling and I recall trying to help one very frightened woman evacuate our building and she was almost hysterical; she looked up, saw the multitude of stars, and asked me, in a trembling voice, "Why are there so many stars? Is this the end of the world?". I assured here it wasn't, but my assurances weren't helped by the sporadic explosions of transformers on light poles, damaged by the quake, and the cacophony of all the car alarms in the area going off simultaneously... <O> __________________ __________________________________________________ __ Last edited by vienna; 11-29-17 at 03:41 PM.