[SES1066]

There is so much in our night sky that we can’t see without photographic tricks or high-end electronics.

I agree but with the proviso that a lot of the reason is our modern lighting grid. Can you imagine pre-electric countryside conditions? Now days, it takes a trip to these special areas where population and pervasive lighting is low to absent. That famous composite picture of the night-time Earth shows just how much the night has changed.

On a side note, I wonder if an association can be made for the reduction in religious belief in the so-called 'first world' because we no longer see the real night sky? From the dawn of humanity, our ancestors were reminded EVERY Night of just how awesome the universe is; "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; ..." (Psalm 8.3). Just wondering ...

[cripplecreek]

I would love to spend a week on the lake Superior shore photographing the night sky. Long exposures of the waves and waterfalls are always fun as well.

[tarawa]

You know, I think you might be on to something with that theory.

[Nowhere Man]

I agree but with the proviso that a lot of the reason is our modern lighting grid. Can you imagine pre-electric countryside conditions? Now days, it takes a trip to these special areas where population and pervasive lighting is low to absent. That famous composite picture of the night-time Earth shows just how much the night has changed.

On a side note, I wonder if an association can be made for the reduction in religious belief in the so-called 'first world' because we no longer see the real night sky? From the dawn of humanity, our ancestors were reminded EVERY Night of just how awesome the universe is; "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; ..." (Psalm 8.3). Just wondering ...

One of the other amateur radio operators I've talked with served on the USS Melvin, a destroyer in World War II in the Pacific. He was an electrician's mate. He told me they had to keep all the lights off aboard the ship so the Japanese subs cannot see them and they had to use flashlights with slits to walk on deck at night. He remarked that when he was out in the middle of the Pacific, how bright and remarkable the stars and Milky Way were and they were very easily seen. He also told us of the time he lost 256 shipmates when the Japanese torpedoed his ship. My father experienced the same thing with the stars and Milky Way when he was on a U.S. Army ship bound for Korea in 1955.