I'm absolutely in agreement with you, Bob, but I have a lot longer way to go than you do. I live outside Philadelphia, in the center of the D.C.-New York corridor, the biggest concentration of light pollution in the US.BobH wrote:I long for the old days when one could see the stars even though living in the city. Nowadays even living outside the city there is enough ambient light in most places to cause pollution problems for sky observers. Combine the increased amount of particles in the air, their reflective qualities and an enormous number of lumens from unnecessary lighting, and you find that skies are pretty murky by comparison for 50 or 60 years ago.
Despite what many have been induced to believe, when it comes to night time lighting, less is more.
It's a rare night, even in clear weather, that I can see more than a half dozen stars.
One of my fonder memories is a visit we made in 2000 to the Kitt Peak National Observatory for the nighttime demonstration.
