Growing up in the continental United States I never really had a good view of the sky. I lived at the bottom of a valley in upstate New York with far too much light pollution from surrounding towns and cities. Living in Denver isn't much better since it's a pretty large metropolitan area and light pollution extends pretty far.
It wasn't until I moved to Australia for a few years and had the chance to look at the night sky in Bundaberg that I first saw why they named it the "Milky Way." It's a shame that we're denied beautiful images like this in our daily lives, but it's the price of progress. Installing covers on street lights and other measures to reduce light pollution costs too much money for too little perceived benefit.
I live in Upstate, NY and have found it almost impossible to find a dark sky site. I have to travel to Pennsylvania about an hour or 2 away to a state forest to get no light pollution.
My family used to go camping in the Adirondacks around the Finger Lakes when I was young, but I still don't remember seeing the Milky Way as clearly as I did in Bundaberg. I can't imagine it's any better forty years later.
Growing up in the continental United States I never really had a good view of the sky. I lived at the bottom of a valley in upstate New York with far too much light pollution from surrounding towns and cities. Living in Denver isn't much better since it's a pretty large metropolitan area and light pollution extends pretty far.
It wasn't until I moved to Australia for a few years and had the chance to look at the night sky in Bundaberg that I first saw why they named it the "Milky Way." It's a shame that we're denied beautiful images like this in our daily lives, but it's the price of progress. Installing covers on street lights and other measures to reduce light pollution costs too much money for too little perceived benefit.
I live in Upstate, NY and have found it almost impossible to find a dark sky site. I have to travel to Pennsylvania about an hour or 2 away to a state forest to get no light pollution.
My family used to go camping in the Adirondacks around the Finger Lakes when I was young, but I still don't remember seeing the Milky Way as clearly as I did in Bundaberg. I can't imagine it's any better forty years later.
I've heard glorious tales of Australia and the seeing over there. This is the place that I go when I need dark skies. http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/findapark/cherrysprings/