The Milkyway is Missing

[Veeger]

Last night, I was near the place I grew up in a medium sized city in Ohio. I recall walking home one night (it would have been the mid 1960's) and looking at the Milkyway. Today, it is impossible to see from the same location due to light pollution. I believe the push to surburia and the creation of large, well-lit, mall parking lots and public areas eventully led to the demise of the Milkyway.

Presently, I live in a more remote location in N.E. Ohio with darker skies but still can not see the Milkyway. It occurs to me that my 18 year old daughter has NEVER seen the Milkyway in her entire life! A few years back in upstate New York, we were retiurning from a wedding and the Milkyway was brilliant and beautiful. Unfortunately, she had fallen fast asleep and missed the display.

Isn't it sad that, perhaps, several generations of young people are growing up having never experienced its awe inspiring beauty?

[Romanus]

I totally agree...I've only seen the Milky Way a handful of times myself. The best was at summer camp on the Gulf Coast...the summer Milky Way was so astoundingly bright that I could see it without my glasses, and my vision is terrible. I've seen it a few times since then, but that experience remains singular in its numinousness.

Heck, losing the night sky *period* is a tragedy.

[KaiYeves]

You can see it fairly clearly from certain spots on Long Island if you let your eyes adjust, but forget about NYC.

[redshifter]

IIRC there was a power outage in Los Angeles a couple decades ago and there were many UFO calls during that time. The culprit: the Milky Way.

It's a pity that so few have seen it.

[Rhaedas]

Reminiscent of Asimov's Nightfall.

I vaguely remember being able to make out the Milky Way where I grew up, and while there's not a lot of light pollution directly nearby, it obviously doesn't take a lot, since I can't see it there any more.

[mike alexander]

At the Oregon Star Party the remoteness, altitude and dryness make the Milky Way amazing. Two years ago there was enough light from the stars and Milky Way to see your way around (helpful with all that sagebrush ready to trip you.

Horizon to horizon. It would be nice to have everyone see it at least once.

[Tucson_Tim]

Horizon to horizon. It would be nice to have everyone see it at least once.

Agreed. Here where I live it is still visible from close to each horizon but the city of Tucson is slowly moving out this way. Some nights I sleep outside and fall asleep staring at it.

[Hornblower]

I can sum up the gist of the light pollution issue in two words. Sloppy lighting.

[matthewota]

IIRC there was a power outage in Los Angeles a couple decades ago and there were many UFO calls during that time. The culprit: the Milky Way.

It's a pity that so few have seen it.

When the Northridge earthquake hit on January 17, 1994 and power was out, there were accounts of children who were terrified of seeing the night sky without the light pollution.

[Tucson_Tim]

When the Northridge earthquake hit on January 17, 1994 and power was out, there were accounts of children who were terrified of seeing the night sky without the light pollution.

A la Caves of Steel.

[Veeger]

I can sum up the gist of the light pollution issue in two words. Sloppy lighting.

Agreed. That is a big part of it. Way too much uplight and wasted lumens. Not only does it wash out the night sky, it is a waste of energy.

[redshifter]

At the Oregon Star Party the remoteness, altitude and dryness make the Milky Way amazing. Two years ago there was enough light from the stars and Milky Way to see your way around (helpful with all that sagebrush ready to trip you.

Horizon to horizon. It would be nice to have everyone see it at least once.

The Table Mountain Star Party is much the same, though light pollution from Ellensburg (Central Washington area) is starting to get more noticeable.

I intend to check out the OSP one day.

[The Mangler]

I'm 28, and I have never seen it. Never.

[KaiYeves]

The clearest Southern Milky Way I ever saw was in the Australian bush, the best Northern at Long Island's Custer Observatory.

[novaderrik]

i've never lived anywhere that it wasn't visible.

[roverich]

Agreed. Here where I live it is still visible from close to each horizon but the city of Tucson is slowly moving out this way. Some nights I sleep outside and fall asleep staring at it.

As kids in the early 70s , i can remember camping at the grand canyon and other national parks and sleeping outside and in tents and we were just in awe at the beauty of the milky-way ... Now i live on the outskirts of DC and have no view of the milky-way ...I cant remember if we can see it from shenandoah or not ...

[sarongsong]

The Milkyway is Missing

1st thought: Did they get the Mars Bar, too

The Milky Way from "Up in the High Sierra..." (Yosemite - elevation, 8150 feet) :

In the absence of moonlight, the night sky becomes even more dramatic -- the lower portion is NOT a sunset but light pollution from cities 100mi away...
flickr/sharpshutter

[Veeger]

For me the disappearance of the milkyway occurred over a relatively short period of time between the 60's and 70's and I was completely unaware of it. One night while driving across eastern Ontario in the mid-70's, I stopped the car, stepped out and looked up. I was so dazzled by the brilliance of the stars and milkyway I could barely recognize the constellations as I had never seen them so brilliantly. I was confused by the many stars I had never seen before. I nearly dropped to my knees.

[mugaliens]

Agreed. Here where I live it is still visible from close to each horizon but the city of Tucson is slowly moving out this way. Some nights I sleep outside and fall asleep staring at it.

Same here in Colorado. It's visible any evening when there's a quarter moon or less and the clouds are gone.

[mahesh]

... Some nights I sleep outside and fall asleep staring at it.

hmmm...lucky you!
...and mugs...

[Tucson_Tim]

I'm 28, and I have never seen it. Never.

Son, this is an order that you MUST obey. Get in your car and drive out away from the cities. At this time of the year the Milky Way is pretty much up in the eastern sky in the early evening. Find Cygnus in the NE sky and the tail of Scorpio in the SE sky - the MW runs through both.

[Swift]

The Milky Way from "Up in the High Sierra..." (Yosemite - elevation, 8150 feet) :

My last really good Milky Way spotting was in Yosemite, two years ago. Didn't get any good views on our recent trip to Newfoundland - too cloudy at night.

[Tucson_Tim]

One night while driving across eastern Ontario in the mid-70's, I stopped the car, stepped out and looked up. I was so dazzled by the brilliance of the stars and milkyway I could barely recognize the constellations as I had never seen them so brilliantly. I was confused by the many stars I had never seen before.

I can relate to this. When I first became interested in astronomy and bought my first scope (a 6 inch Newtonian reflector) I was living on the outskirts of a large city. I had learned the constellations, as viewed from the washed out sky where I lived. But this one time I was way out in the country and when I looked up, the night sky was so clear (and moonless) that I was lost for a moment--I couldn't find the constellations right off. There were so many stars that I had never seen that I was confused for a few moments. It was a wonder I will never forget.

[eric_marsh]

I remember my father taking me out in the front yard when I was probably only about three years old and pointing out the Milky Way. The sky was pitch black and this was just outside of what was then the city limits of Seattle (which was then at 85th street). That would have been in the mid-1950s. The world has changed a lot since then and in many ways not for the better.

[Atraveller]

I believe the push to surburia and the creation of large, well-lit, mall parking lots and public areas eventully led to the demise of the Milkyway.

A few years ago I was sailing between the Marquessa Islands and the Galapagos - I was 2000 miles from the nearest land... You have never seen a sky that big - or the milky way so clear... I loved those night watches...


Thankfully we now have Google Sky - Highly recomended to anyone who hasn't already tried it...

[Tobin Dax]

My last good look at a dark sky was five years ago at SDSU's Mt. Laguna Observatory, about an hour inland from San Diego. The grad student training me on the 40" telescope took me outside of the dome. It was absolutely beautiful. I don't think that I'd seen anything like that since going to a Boy Scout camp as a child. (Seeing a thin cloud layer over the ocean was also neat at the time, but this harbinger is part of another story.)

I'm about an hour from a recreation area, and I think that there's a decent dark site out there. I really need to go check it out.

[SeanF]

I bemoan the loss of truly dark skies, as well. I don't even live in a "big city," and I'd have to go quite a distance to be able to see the Milky Way.

Isn't it sad that, perhaps, several generations of young people are growing up having never experienced its awe inspiring beauty?

If you truly think it's that sad, and that beautiful, oughtn't you to have woken her up?

[Fazor]

I never realized just how much light pollution can ruin things. I grew up "in the country" (Among the farms, but not on a farm), but within about 20 miles of Columbus. I always thought we had decent skies.

Now I live in a small city, but 40 miles away from Columbus. The skies are actually better here than there were out in the fields. They're still not great, but I'm close enough to "middle-of-nowhere" that I could take a short drive out to sky watch, if so inclined. I'm not much of a sky watcher, beyond staring up at the moon and the stars and loosing myself in thought. The skies here are adequate for that.

[Nick Theodorakis]

I have worse skies in suburban Indianapolis that when I lived within the city limits of Rochester, NY. One thing I noticed is that basically my south-western view is nearly useless for viewing. Then one night I happened to be driving around that area, and came upon a major intersection that had two or three car dealerships on it. Their lots were lit up so bright that made my eyes cringe and activated my photic sneeze response. Sloppy lighting indeed!

Nick

[Veeger]

I bemoan the loss of truly dark skies, as well. I don't even live in a "big city," and I'd have to go quite a distance to be able to see the Milky Way.


If you truly think it's that sad, and that beautiful, oughtn't you to have woken her up?

Yeah, well she may have opened her eyes, but she would have been incoherent and disturbed because she was exhausted. It wouldn't have been a profound moment for her. It means much more to me than her because I value it having seen it then lost it.