Originally Posted By Mr X Just thought I'd share this. I just stepped out onto my balcony, and looked up at the stars. Directly above me, and all the way to my left, I could see quite a few stars (pretty). Directly above me and to the right...NOTHING. I then realized that the greater Tokyo area is, to my right (facing out from my balcony). Freaky, huh? I love living near Tokyo, but the lack of stars at night is a real bummer...I'm sure many LPers who live in L.A. or NYC or other "mega-cities" probably feel the same way.
Originally Posted By friendofdd One of the most awesome things about going to the desert or mountains is the ability to see the stars. We city dwellers tend to forget what it is like.
Originally Posted By tiki tiki tiki tiki That´s one of the things I have always appreciated about living half an hour from the city. To be able to lay out on the patio on a clear night and actually see stars, unlike in L.A. where all I could see on a "clear" night was a thick orange haze. It´s actually very sad.
Originally Posted By x Pirate_Princess x I live in the middle of nowhere, but in a small town (we have a school and a couple of gas stations and even a Super 8) Anywho...I can't see many stars in my back yard. More than I can if I were, say, in San Diego, but not as much as if I drive 3 miles in any direction. It was nice for the meteor shower we had a few weeks ago. Although, right now, we've got a fire burning right out of town, and the smoke is dangerously thick and I can't see anything.
Originally Posted By Grumpy Pete During Labor Day weekend I was in SW Wyoming for a mountain man rendezvous. The stars were absolutely bright and beautiful. I mentioned how beautiful the Milky Way was. A young man said "Wow, I've never seen it before!" It suprised me. It hadn't occured to me just how much light pollution from the city causes us to miss things that are so beautiful and special
Originally Posted By fkurucz I have read that the only way to really see the stars these days (other than a stint at the international space station) is to go out in the middle of the ocean somewhere (on a ship). It the only way you can be thousands of miles from any source of light pollution.
Originally Posted By SuperDry Here's an interesting article on this very subject: <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/20/070820fa_fact_owen?printable=true" target="_blank">http://www.newyorker.com/repor ting/2007/08/20/070820fa_fact_owen?printable=true</a>
Originally Posted By Mrs ElderP I was reading someone's remebrence of a big earthquake, and what I remeber from the article is that the moment the shaking stoped, he moved outside (in the middle of the night of course) and his first random thought was, "Wow, where did all those stars come from!?" Of course new stars hadn't appears, the ALL lights were just out because the earthquake had knocked out the power. Another thing we moderns don't understand, after total darknes, is total silence. We have light and noise everywhere!
Originally Posted By smedley Love looking at the stars from our back garden (yard) we were doing this just Saturday night past. Such are the bonuses of living in a small village withoutmuch lighting, especially in the early hours of the morning when most people were in bed asleep
Originally Posted By Mr X >>Another thing we moderns don't understand, after total darknes, is total silence. We have light and noise everywhere!<< I think it was a Michael Crighton book?, about travelling back in time to the middle ages... and the first thing the time travellers noticed when they arrived, was the utter lack of noise. Between cars, refrigerators, computers, airplanes, you name it...we are constantly barraged by a gigantic noise "hum" that we just tune out over time (but if you pay attention, the quietest house will speak to you). True lack of backround noise must be very nice (and OH so refreshing!)...maybe in a log cabin far in the wilderness of Canada or something? (still, the planes fly overhead)
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< Between cars, refrigerators, computers, airplanes, you name it...we are constantly barraged by a gigantic noise "hum" that we just tune out over time (but if you pay attention, the quietest house will speak to you). >>> This is amazing, isn't it? I know at my home, the AC is almost always running, and it's pretty loud (I need to do something about that). But even when it's off, there's always something else, even if it's just my PC, which is always on. During the rare time when I have my PC unplugged for some reason and the AC turns off, it is amazing to me how quiet it sounds. And it's actually a bit uncomfortable, as I'm so used to having those sounds around. One time I was in TL at DL, and the power went out suddenly: it was at night, and everything went out all at once: suddenly, it was both dark and silent (not dark so I could see the skies, as the power outage only affected a couple of blocks). There weren't that may people there, but everyone seemed to do the same thing: I stopped walking and stopped talking, not knowing what to do. A few seconds later, the power came back on, and with it the lights. But the area music didn't come back on. Because of this, I could hear the various other sounds come on one by one. There were all sorts of fans and motors here and there. What was most interesting to me is that I "remembered" these other sounds even though I didn't consciously hear them before. That is, if you had asked me what I heard before the power went out, I would have said "just the music loop." But with the momentary silence, followed by the power coming back on without the music, I realized that I had been hearing all of these other sounds all along, but just wasn't conscious of it.
Originally Posted By beamerdog I got a kick years ago when my friends from NYC remarked about how quiet it was where I lived. (Near 2 major highways, a mall, and the landing pattern for the Philadelphia Airport, lol) Now I live near, well, not a whole lot even though I'm only about 15 minutes from a fairly large city. I'm always amazed at how many stars I can see at night and how quiet it can be. But I was raised near a big city and very often miss the familiar background noises. Not the light pollution, though. Good topic, Mr. X!
Originally Posted By Mr X >>And it's actually a bit uncomfortable, as I'm so used to having those sounds around.<< Isn't that amazing, how actual peace and quiet can be disquieting.. really funny since the dictionary definition of "disquieting" includes, in part, "to deprive of peace or rest". Bet it would be the oposite once you got used to it. If you moved to a nice cabin out in mid-permafrost Alaska or somewhere (or a deserted tropical island if you want a more pleasant scenario, but then the ocean would factor in..so, back to the tundra!), and stayed there for a month or so...I would imagine returning to the "real world" would seem so noisy!
Originally Posted By Mr X **This is amazing, isn't it? I know at my home, the AC is almost always running, and it's pretty loud (I need to do something about that). But even when it's off, there's always something else, even if it's just my PC, which is always on. During the rare time when I have my PC unplugged for some reason and the AC turns off, it is amazing to me how quiet it sounds. And it's actually a bit uncomfortable, as I'm so used to having those sounds around.** And you still hadn't unplugged the fridge, either! I think power outages are the only way to REALLY shut off just about all the sounds (still there's background noise outside as well).
Originally Posted By smedley On the noise pollution front, I know when we came back from Orlando in 2004, having spent a fortnight in an offsite hotel, the first night back in our own bedroom without air con running was so quiet we couldn't sleep lol!
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< On the noise pollution front, I know when we came back from Orlando in 2004, having spent a fortnight in an offsite hotel, the first night back in our own bedroom without air con running was so quiet we couldn't sleep lol! >>> When I was a baby, after my first summer, I suddenly was unable to sleep at night and just cried and cried. We didn't have central AC in that house, so there was a window unit in my room. My parents finally figured out that it was the lack of the AC noise which was making me cry. It had gotten cool enough as the season changed that it had no longer been necessary to run it. So, they just turned it to fan mode and I once again was sleeping like a baby (quite literally!) When I first moved to my current home, I was struck as to how loud it was at night. I'm close to a major freeway, and can hear the traffic all night. Well, not the cars themselves, but that low hum of all those tires. My previous apartment was remarkably quiet, with no road noise or much of any other noise at all. I thought it would cause me problems sleeping, but it seemed loud only because it was different. Now, I don't even hear it, and it seems "quiet" at night.
