Light Pollution

[BmillsSkier]

Huh, so all it takes to beat a ninja is a flashlight? Who knew.

[Tippster]

I find this interesting, especially that huge haze through the Plains States. I wonder how much of that noise pollution is due to insects.

[Ski to Be]

I find this interesting, especially that huge haze through the Plains States. I wonder how much of that noise pollution is due to insects.

All of those farmers have those 1000 watt lights that beam in all directions. When I lived in the midwest I would have to drive a 100 miles from the city to find reasonably dark skies when galaxy hunting with my dob. The hardest part was avoiding those lights by farm houses. I also don't get why most headlamps aren't red. You preserve your night vision too see beyond the beam

[Tippster]

All of those farmers have those 1000 watt lights that beam in all directions. When I lived in the midwest I would have to drive a 100 miles from the city to find reasonably dark skies when galaxy hunting with my dob. The hardest part was avoiding those lights by farm houses. I also don't get why most headlamps aren't red. You preserve your night vision too see beyond the beam

That map isn't light pollution, it's sound.

[Ski to Be]

That's weird . I glanced at it and it looked just like a dark sky map.


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[summit]

I remember about 10 years ago or so, driving back from Silverton with Raps and Franz.
We were on US50 between Montrose and Gunny and pulled over so they could pee.
"HOLY! GET OUT HERE! COME SEE THIS NOW!"

I thought to myself... perhaps there is a bear or a moose?

"YOU CAN SEE THE STARS!"

It is really dark there.

[Benny Profane]

Sad that the night sky is extremely polluted in the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas.

[skifishbum]

headed up to gbnp on the way home from tahoe
pretty amazing it only takes 250 miles/4 hours from slc to ditch the light pollution .
they claim it's one of the darkest ski np's
and 95% of the us cant view the milky way due to light polution

[guroo270]

Move to Tucson. The goddamn astronomy department at U of A has full control of light pollution meaning only two or so streets have lights and criminals hopping the border have an easy ticket to their first pay day. Theft is fucking rampant, but at least people can look at the tiny flicky lights.

On the flip side I really enjoy stargazing in Arnold, CA at my grandpa's house.

[LightRanger]

If you want to see the definitive example of this check out Hilton Head Island. Ever since the island started being developed in the 60s there were bans put in place on all kinds of lights. You won't find many streetlights (the few allowed have to be shaded down), back-lit signs are illegal, as are neon signs or billboards, no reflective street signs apart from the main W.H. Parkway and roads. Have to petition a board to take down a tree... It gets so dark there at night its really easy to get lost on the winding plantation roads.

I love it and I know visitors love it. Things I always hear from first timers is "it's so dark at night there - you can see so many stars" and "I got lost because you can't see a fucking thing."

It does make for one annoying pain in the ass any time you want to change a light fixture on your house or dock though. You have to get it approved by a local board of pointy headed busybodies with nothing better to do, but that's another thread.

We went when I was a kid and stayed at a family friend's treehouse (check out his story and art, interesting guy). I wouldn't have remembered unless you had mentioned it, but I do seem to remember being able to see a good amount of stars. Not sure if they had the same ordinances in place in 1990-1991.

Seriously tho, people are brainwashed into thinking that flashlights are necessary at all times when it's "dark." Walk away from the camp fire, wait a moment, and realize you see better than you would with on bright spot 3ft across surrounded by black.

Try it sometime. I've watched people point their light at the ground and walk into a tree... and I'm astigmatic.

At summer camp as a kid (kind of a hippy dippy Episcopal camp in the mountains near San Diego) we learned get comfortable hiking at night without lights. Definitely more fun, peaceful, see more of your surroundings, etc. My wife freaks out about it.

That's weird . I glanced at it and it looked just like a dark sky map.

Definitely should be pretty similar in terms of light and noise pollution often going together. But different too. There are tons of awesome areas around the West with low levels of light pollution (e.g. Great Basin NP like SFB mentions), but you still have planes (commercial and military) flying over. A couple years back I was on a weeklong trip in the Sierra backcountry. There were times when we felt like the only people in the world... then an airliner flew over. Was climbing in Tuolumne 7-8 years ago right after the park service had an early season road opening in May. Midweek. Not many people around. Quiet. Until two F-18s out of Edwards, China Lake, Fallon, wherever flew over. I'm pretty sure they were lower than regulation altitude over the park. It was simultaneously super cool, and loud as fuck/annoying.

[Buster Highmen]

Red Mountain Pass by Ironton on a clear night is pretty darn spectacular.

[Rico in Flag]

I'm proud to call Flagstaff, AZ home, for a multitude of reasons, our dark skies one of them. Flag was the first Dark Sky city, and home to Lowell Observatory, the Discovery Channel Telescope, and the Naval Observatory, all of which are major research facilities. You may have heard of Pluto, the planet has been in the news lately for the New Horizon fly by. Pluto was discovered here as well as its moon Charon. And the amount of research done here has contributed substantially to the body of fundamental knowledge of astronomy.

I went to the celebration of Pluto and the fly by up at Lowell observatory last night. Among all the cool sciencey stuff going on was a lecture about light pollution. The lecturer showed our night sky, you see the Milky Way and a shit load of stars and planets and nebulae. Then the night sky of Phoenix, only the brightest stars. Then the night sky of Hong Kong. The only thing visible is Venus without any moonlight. Lame.

As you can tell, I love dark skies, and glad I live in the southwest with clear dry atmosphere and distant cities. I'm glad Flagstaff strictly regulates lighting.

[Benny Profane]

But you have Las Vegas to the northwest.

[KQ]

But you have Las Vegas to the northwest.

Isn't everywhere 6 degrees of LV?

[Bromontana]

There's an observatory in the Springs above Vegas. I sawrr it. Bet that fucker sees Milky Ways.