Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob_K
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The night sky has been a source of fascination and curiosity to man since our ancient ancestors first gazed upwards. It has figured in the religions and mythologies of cultures and civilisations across the globe.
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That is because they were pre-industrial, and had not much to do after the Sun set. With the introduction of artificial illumination, most people don't give a toss for what's in the sky.
This is a non-trivial point, as if you are trying to sell light pollution reduction, you will not suceed with appeals to the glories of the night sky. You are part of an obscure minority.
You can only appeal to cost savings from lower wattage exterior lighting.
and I don't know how you stop exterior advertising lighting.
or stop multi-millionaires who want to put lasers across the sky from their vanity towers, like the one we have in Brisbane.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob_K
Just imagine what it would be like on similar worlds to ours, stuck in close proximity to some of the vast bright nebulae we struggle to see in our scopes. Places where no night sky exists, where no inkling of being part of such a vast whole could possibly exist, where an incredibly myopic view of existence must be held by any life form advanced enough to crawl out of the swamp! Yet we are fast creating these places on earth - welcome to our megacities!
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Rob. No not actually true. Quoting from:
http://www.badastronomy.com/media/in...lienskies.html
"...Although the nebula (M42) is bright enough to be seen by the unaided eye even from 1500 light years away...from up close it would be invisible! The problem is that the gas is almost transparent, what astronomers all "optically thin". ..
To us, far away, the nebula is bright because it's small. But if we get closer, it appears bigger, of course. But the total light doesn't change! As it gets bigger, the light from every square degree of it drops. ... From Earth, the nebula covers about 3/4 of a square degree. From a light year away, the nebula would fill the sky, 20,000 square degrees. That reduces the light by a factor of about 30,000! From a light year away, the nebula is practically invisible! ..."
Same with globular clusters. I can across a simulation of the appearance of the night sky for a hypothetical planet in a globular. Lots of 1st magnitude stars, like having Orions all over the sky, but it is NOT wall to wall stars.