It’s true light pollution is a real killer. I live 30 miles west of New York City. However I have been to Flagstaff, the dark sky capital, and I have seen breathtaking skies.

I agree we need to make more people aware of the sky. What they CAN see, and what they’re missing. All of us can do this. I do a little backyard astronomy and I tell every to just look up when you go out of the house (my thanks to the Star Hustler for the phrase). Mars is high in the sky just now I point it out to people. I tell them to notice its red color. Invariably I get a “Hey yeah, cool!”

It’s a start. This time of year, with Orion in the sky, it’s a simple task to point out this easily recognized constellation, remark that it’s a winter constellation and in a few months there will be different starts in the same area of the sky. Then I explain how to use the stars in Orion to find your way around the sky. Just a few easy examples, I don’t want to preach or overwhelm. I point out the Dog star-the brightest star in the sky, Taurus the bull with its “Red Eye” and of course the Pleiades. Making the night sky accessible helps people appreciate what’s there and raises awareness to what we’re losing with each street light. A little reminder that by using the proper technology when lighting buildings and parking lots we could see a lot more also helps our cause.

One “Hey, yeah, cool,” at a time.

Hopefully Sydney’s “Earth Hour” will be a success and some other large cities around the globe will try the same.

I did have to download the greatest (4k x4k) resolution image to really see most of the background galaxies…

Tell your friend it is an excellent image and the clean up was nice.

Bob

I know this has little to do with the basic thrust of the blog regarding the “Cosmic Dust”, but in a secondary fashion, if the seeing is as good as can be expected here on Earth, it should result in more people being aware of the night sky, and thereby enticing more to be involved in the hobby at least, and providing a bigger base for all that depends on astronomy, ie- sales of ‘scopes, magazines and, one can hope, more people following astrophysics etc., professionally.

So Thorin, thanks for asking the question, but it wasn’t until I woke up this morning that I realised my mistake, and rushing out to see if anybody had noticed yet, I of course found I had been sprung.

Now that I have cleared the air, so to speak, and the dust has settled, I shall leave it at that for the moment, I have a back yard to tidy-up before the promised storm this evening.

Ivan.

Did you mean Feb 28? Or are days in Sydney just REALLY long?

Hmmm you posted on the 23rd so 8 days is really March 3rd…..is that what you meant?

I wonder if other cities around the world have a “Dark Hour” periodically? We in Sydney will have one on the 31st of March, that’s in 8 days time. Hope it is fine and cloudless at least for that hour.(We very much need the rain too). If it works, check out the URL below for more information.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/12/lights_out_in_s.php

I also hope we can have a less hazy sky to see the stars.

Ivan.

So I understand, (if I assume correctly), that that event probably was an incentive for more than one person to make astronomy a favorite pastime if not a Life’s work.

I for one, am grateful.

By the way I downloaded the 4kx4k pix. Truly magnificent, but I felt I needed to wear sun-glasses, when I scrolled across and down to the center! It seemed so bright. (Should that have required “Galaxy-glasses?).

Just an aside, and going off topic a bit, Melusine, I know how you feel with those annoying typos, and I wish I could blame my ten-toes typing technique for my efforts. Even though I check it, sometimes they slip through the cracks.

Ivan.