The problems with light pollution (Seattle, Olympia: to rent, camping, living)

[Diana Holbrook]

I don't get that, no.

[jamies]

You want to talk light pollution. Sailing in the Carribbean you don't use the stars or even GPS to navigate anymore. Just know the rough direction and light signature of mid to large cities and hold a steady bearing.

Sailing from Miami to Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands? Just keep Miami behind you untill you pick up the Great Issac light. Then stay equidistant between the glow of Freeport and Nassau until Nassau is about 100 miles astern, then sail hard on the wind to the southeast until you see the glow from San Juan, keep that on your starboard quarter until you hit St. Thomas.

Columbus never had it so easy.

[MarciaMarshaMarcia]

^^^That sucks! But, it's the same way now far out into the desert. Just follow the city lights from hundreds of miles away....Vegas, Phoenix, Albuquerque...even El Centro.

[Ultrarunner]

Given the choice between light and darkness... I'll take light.

[pikabike]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

Given the choice between light and darkness... I'll take light.

Even in wilderness or far out to sea? Some places should be free of substantial manmade light. I hate to see a world that is all the same.

[PS90]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

Given the choice between light and darkness... I'll take light.

I could not disagree more. If I am in the middle of an urban area, then I guess I agree, but if I am on a boat in the Caribbean, or in the SoCal desert, or in rural Washington, then the last thing I want to see is some annoying light/haze emanating from tens or hundreds of miles away.

I like to get away from civilization, not be forever reminded of it. I just don't like people that much, I guess.

[Ultrarunner]

Originally Posted by pikabike

Even in wilderness or far out to sea? Some places should be free of substantial manmade light. I hate to see a world that is all the same.

In the middle of nowhere how would there be substantial man made light?

[Ultrarunner]

Originally Posted by PS90

I could not disagree more. If I am in the middle of an urban area, then I guess I agree, but if I am on a boat in the Caribbean, or in the SoCal desert, or in rural Washington, then the last thing I want to see is some annoying light/haze emanating from tens or hundreds of miles away.

I like to get away from civilization, not be forever reminded of it. I just don't like people that much, I guess.

Try Alaska...

Just because you are light adverse doesn't mean I have to be in the dark...

The SF Bay Area is increasing lighting of monuments and with public support... the Bay Bridge lighting went away and there was an outcry big enough to bring it back...

Sometimes, on a clear night or when I have company, I drive to the lookout point in the Oakland Hills to marvel the lights that ring the bay and especially San Francisco and the bridges... really breathtaking to behold and a thing of beauty.... I have never had a single person say to me they wanted the lights to go out.

[bloom]

Marty: “Talk to me, Rust.”


Rust: “There was a moment, I know, when I was under in the dark, that something… whatever I’d been reduced to, not even consciousness, just a vague awareness in the dark. I could feel my definitions fading. And beneath that darkness there was another kind—it was deeper—warm, like a substance. I could feel man, I knew, I knew my daughter waited for me, there. So clear. I could feel her. I could feel … I could feel the peace of my Pop, too. It was like I was part of everything that I have ever loved, and we were all, the three of us, just fading out. And all I had to do was let go, man. And I did. I said, ‘Darkness, yeah.’ and I disappeared. But I could still feel her love there. Even more than before. Nothing. Nothing but that love. And then I woke up.”

Rust breaks down, sobbing.

Marty: “Didn’t you tell me one time, dinner once, maybe, about how you used to ... you used to make up stories about the stars?”

Rust: “Yeah, that was in Alaska, under the night skies.”

Marty: “Yeah, you used to lay there and look up, at the stars?”

Rust: “Yeah, I think you remember how I never watched the TV until I was 17, so there wasn’t much to do up there but walk around, explore, and...”

Marty: “And look up at the stars and make up stories. Like what?”

Rust: “I tell you Marty I been up in that room looking out those windows every night here just thinking, it’s just one story. The oldest.”

Marty: “What’s that?”

Rust: “Light versus dark.”

Marty: “Well, I know we ain’t in Alaska, but it appears to me that the dark has a lot more territory.”

Rust: “Yeah, you’re right about that.”

Rust insists that Marty help him leave the hospital, and Marty agrees. As they head to the car, Rust makes one final point to his former partner.

Rust: “You’re looking at it wrong, the sky thing.”

Marty: “How’s that?”

Rust: “Well, once there was only dark. You ask me, the light’s winning.”

[pikabike]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

In the middle of nowhere how would there be substantial man made light?

Looms from big urban areas go not only far around but high up.