06-03-2016, 03:18 PM
(06-03-2016, 12:10 AM)oncemoreuntothejimbreech Wrote: We did something like that last summer. They picked a state park to get away from the lights in the city. Seeing Saturn was pretty cool.
(06-03-2016, 01:03 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Most children in the US have never even seen the Milky Way.
I have camped way out in the middle of nowhere in Utah and Colorado. The night sky is unbelievalbe in places like thateven without a telescope.
I once took an 18 year old and 20 year old who had never been outside of an urban area at night to a place about 30 minutes outside of the city (edit - Omaha so it doesn't take long to "get away"). The was barely enough light to see the look on one's face right after they were told to look up. I like astronomy a bit but have never been big into it. That 18 year old became big into astronomy to the point of knowing constellations from other cultures and taking frequent camping trips to remote areas in Nebraska, the Dakotas and Colorado just to star gaze.
As I already mentioned, that program Stellarium has the ability to adjust light pollution and that is one of my favorite features. Somewhere out there on the net is a world map showing light levels around the world and it is sad that almost no place still exists to see absolute dark outdoors.
