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Took my telescope to a state park in Utah and the sky was a different kind of dark
I drove out to Goblin Valley State Park last month, which is a certified Dark Sky Park. I set up my 8 inch Dobsonian to look at the Orion Nebula, and the view was so clear it felt like I was looking at a photo. I could see the faint green glow of the gas clouds without even using a filter, which I can never see from my house in the city. The whole trip made me realize how much light pollution washes out the details. Has anyone else had a moment where a dark sky location completely changed what you could see in a familiar object?
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wendy1312mo agoMost Upvoted
Seriously, a good dark sky map is the first step. I use one that shows light pollution levels, and it helps me find those little pockets of decent sky within an hour's drive. It beats just guessing and hoping for the best.
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Wow, that sounds amazing and also kind of depressing. I finally drove to a dark site last year and saw the Milky Way for the first time, and my first thought was "oh, so this is what we're all missing." It's like finding out your favorite song has a whole extra verse you never heard because your speakers were broken. Makes you want to throw rocks at every streetlight on the way home.
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ruby_jones1mo ago
Oh man, I read somewhere that before electricity was everywhere, people used to see the Milky Way so clearly from their own backyards. It's wild to think how much we've lost just from putting up a bunch of lights.
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reese_bennett252mo ago
My uncle's farm in Nebraska was the first place I ever saw it clearly... I must have been about twelve. That feeling @piperbailey described, of missing out, hit me hard a few years later when I tried to show my little cousin the stars from my apartment balcony and we could only see, like, three of them. It's crazy how something that big and constant just gets erased by all the little lights we put up. Makes the whole world feel smaller.
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