4 ms·

You can, just go for a camp once in a while

by drekipus 5y ago

danlugo92 5y ago
People say this but I've been in like interstates and such and never seen the milky way??
- culi 5y ago
  Are you making sure to pay attention to the moon cycle? It's important to go at a new moon and definitely not during a full moon
  - iso1631 5y ago
    1) Go camp 2) Ensure clear skies 3) Ensure new moon 4) Ensure camp ground is dark 5) Ensure it's warm enough that everyone is happy enough to stay out 6) Ensure it gets dark early enough It's doable, you have to specifically aim for it though
    - gpas 5y ago
      7) leave the phone in the car/tent/pocket Even the dimmest display is far brighter than what you want to see.
    - _hcuq 5y ago
      New moon not totally necessary. Look at moon rise and set times.
  - danlugo92 5y ago
    Yeah that could be it, not particularly minding moon cycles when just traveling from one city to the other one.
- eindiran 5y ago
  Visit the desert, well off any major highway and it will be very low light pollution. The Southwest has a lot of land like this.
  - billti 5y ago
    As a 20-something I spent some time in India when backpacking from England to Australia. One of my strongest memories was a safari we did out into the desert on camels, and just laying beneath the night sky. I never would have guessed at that age you can just literally watch satellites go by. I counted about a dozen "shooting stars" before I stopped counting (which is just objects burning up in the atmosphere on entry). The vividness of the clouds of stars was just breathtaking. Never seen anything close to it since.
    - vram22 5y ago
      Great story thanks for sharing. I am from India, and having heard your story, I may try that in the future. Which specific place did you do this in? Near some town or village in Rajasthan? AFAIK that's the only Indian state that has desert (the Thar desert), except for maybe bordering Gujarat state.
- tejtm 5y ago
  Eyes have to dark adapt, No light, seriously; NO WHITE LIGHT. Takes about 45 minutes to be fully adapted one little flash and you start over. This is why there are pages out there on astronomy/star party etiquette. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=+star+party+etiquette&t=ffsb&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=+star+party+etiquette&t=ffsb&ia=we...
- jazzyjackson 5y ago
  Have to get well off the interstate. I thought I would see some good stars going across Nevada but despite a hundred miles between towns there was always a brightly lit truck stop not far off. And like my sibling comments - nothing kills your night vision like oncoming headlights. I was pulled over on a rural utah highway in the middle of the night once, leaning back on the hood of my car letting my eyes adjust, and when I finally started to see the fainter stars, I witnessed what I took to be something angelic, blinding white light flying right above me. I was stunned for a moment but once the car passed from behind me I put it together that their brights bounced off a bat flying low above me.
iso1631 5y ago
I had a couple of weeks in Cyprus a few years back, * Bortle Class 3-4 * Artifiical brightness 81.7 μcd/m2 according to https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/ https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/ It was lovely and clear every night, I could not only see the ISS pass, I saw something dimmer following it at the same speed - I later found out it was a Dragon cargo capsule Still very difficult to pick out anything milkyway ish. I live in * Bortle Class 4 * Artifiical brightness 375 μcd/m2 Can currently pick out the usual - Cassiopea, Orion, Ursa Major, etc, not the milky way. It's usually overcast. However for picking out a decent number of stars - I was pleasantly surprised one evening on Manly Beach in Sydney (1350 μcd/m2) to be able to see a fair amount of (unfamiliar) stars. I don't go south of the equator much, and when I do it tends to be for work and I'm in a city - I had some time in Sydney though, and it was clear.
- sen 5y ago
  I live in a rural Australian city and can regularly see the Milky Way from my back yard on clear cold nights. We do get light pollution from the city around me if there’s any type of moisture or even the tiniest amount of cloud but that just makes the Milky Way itself blend in and the stars themselves are still incredible. I moved here from a big city so I never get sick of it, regularly just lying on my back on the grass and staring for a bit while taking the bins out at night. Despite being a big fan of the idea of Starlink etc, I do (literally) see the concerns about their sky pollution though. It’s very jarring how many more satellites you see moving around the sky in the last few nights and they’re bright enough to cause you to require a few minutes adjustment afterwards until you can see the dimmer stars in the areas they’ve passed. Eg they basically “wash out” anywhere they’ve been for a while.
  - iso1210 5y ago
    It's that adjusting that's the problem in the UK - it's winter that the nights are dark enough at a reasonable time, which means sitting outside in the dark with no lights for an hour at near freezing temperatures.
- zimpenfish 5y ago
  * Bortle Class 8-9 * Artificical brightness 8650 μcd/m2 Ah, London, truly world class. (Although I suspect there's parts of Greenwich Park where you could get it down to a 6, maybe? Top end, near the tea hut, if anyone is familiar. Middle of Oxleas Wood as well except that's obviously full of trees blocking the sky...)

You can, just go for a camp once in a while

danlugo92 5y ago

People say this but I've been in like interstates and such and never seen the milky way??

culi 5y ago
Are you making sure to pay attention to the moon cycle? It's important to go at a new moon and definitely not during a full moon
- iso1631 5y ago
  1) Go camp 2) Ensure clear skies 3) Ensure new moon 4) Ensure camp ground is dark 5) Ensure it's warm enough that everyone is happy enough to stay out 6) Ensure it gets dark early enough It's doable, you have to specifically aim for it though
  - gpas 5y ago
    7) leave the phone in the car/tent/pocket Even the dimmest display is far brighter than what you want to see.
  - _hcuq 5y ago
    New moon not totally necessary. Look at moon rise and set times.
- danlugo92 5y ago
  Yeah that could be it, not particularly minding moon cycles when just traveling from one city to the other one.
eindiran 5y ago
Visit the desert, well off any major highway and it will be very low light pollution. The Southwest has a lot of land like this.
- billti 5y ago
  As a 20-something I spent some time in India when backpacking from England to Australia. One of my strongest memories was a safari we did out into the desert on camels, and just laying beneath the night sky. I never would have guessed at that age you can just literally watch satellites go by. I counted about a dozen "shooting stars" before I stopped counting (which is just objects burning up in the atmosphere on entry). The vividness of the clouds of stars was just breathtaking. Never seen anything close to it since.
  - vram22 5y ago
    Great story thanks for sharing. I am from India, and having heard your story, I may try that in the future. Which specific place did you do this in? Near some town or village in Rajasthan? AFAIK that's the only Indian state that has desert (the Thar desert), except for maybe bordering Gujarat state.
tejtm 5y ago
Eyes have to dark adapt, No light, seriously; NO WHITE LIGHT. Takes about 45 minutes to be fully adapted one little flash and you start over. This is why there are pages out there on astronomy/star party etiquette. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=+star+party+etiquette&t=ffsb&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=+star+party+etiquette&t=ffsb&ia=we...
jazzyjackson 5y ago
Have to get well off the interstate. I thought I would see some good stars going across Nevada but despite a hundred miles between towns there was always a brightly lit truck stop not far off. And like my sibling comments - nothing kills your night vision like oncoming headlights. I was pulled over on a rural utah highway in the middle of the night once, leaning back on the hood of my car letting my eyes adjust, and when I finally started to see the fainter stars, I witnessed what I took to be something angelic, blinding white light flying right above me. I was stunned for a moment but once the car passed from behind me I put it together that their brights bounced off a bat flying low above me.

iso1631 5y ago

I had a couple of weeks in Cyprus a few years back, * Bortle Class 3-4 * Artifiical brightness 81.7 μcd/m2 according to https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/ https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/ It was lovely and clear every night, I could not only see the ISS pass, I saw something dimmer following it at the same speed - I later found out it was a Dragon cargo capsule Still very difficult to pick out anything milkyway ish. I live in * Bortle Class 4 * Artifiical brightness 375 μcd/m2 Can currently pick out the usual - Cassiopea, Orion, Ursa Major, etc, not the milky way. It's usually overcast. However for picking out a decent number of stars - I was pleasantly surprised one evening on Manly Beach in Sydney (1350 μcd/m2) to be able to see a fair amount of (unfamiliar) stars. I don't go south of the equator much, and when I do it tends to be for work and I'm in a city - I had some time in Sydney though, and it was clear.

sen 5y ago
I live in a rural Australian city and can regularly see the Milky Way from my back yard on clear cold nights. We do get light pollution from the city around me if there’s any type of moisture or even the tiniest amount of cloud but that just makes the Milky Way itself blend in and the stars themselves are still incredible. I moved here from a big city so I never get sick of it, regularly just lying on my back on the grass and staring for a bit while taking the bins out at night. Despite being a big fan of the idea of Starlink etc, I do (literally) see the concerns about their sky pollution though. It’s very jarring how many more satellites you see moving around the sky in the last few nights and they’re bright enough to cause you to require a few minutes adjustment afterwards until you can see the dimmer stars in the areas they’ve passed. Eg they basically “wash out” anywhere they’ve been for a while.
- iso1210 5y ago
  It's that adjusting that's the problem in the UK - it's winter that the nights are dark enough at a reasonable time, which means sitting outside in the dark with no lights for an hour at near freezing temperatures.
zimpenfish 5y ago
* Bortle Class 8-9 * Artificical brightness 8650 μcd/m2 Ah, London, truly world class. (Although I suspect there's parts of Greenwich Park where you could get it down to a 6, maybe? Top end, near the tea hut, if anyone is familiar. Middle of Oxleas Wood as well except that's obviously full of trees blocking the sky...)