Atacama's Cloudy NightExplanation: Storm clouds do sometimes come to Chile's Atacama desert, known as the driest place on Earth. These washed through the night sky just last month during the winter season, captured in this panoramic view. Drifting between are cosmic clouds more welcome by the region's astronomical residents though, including dark dust clouds in silhouette against the crowded starfields and nebulae of the central Milky Way. Below and right of center lies the Large Magellanic Cloud, appropriately named for its appearance in starry southern skies. City lights about 200 kilometers distant still glow along the horizon at the right, while bright star Canopus shines above them in the cloudy sky.
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Urban light pollution appears to be a global problem. Forty years ago, it was easy to find dark places for watching comets and other celestial wonders near Tucson, AZ. Probably why they built so many telescopes on Kitt Peak. Even then, however, you could see the glow from Phoenix a hundred miles to the north. These days you have to use a black-felt-lined tube to photograph anything overhead, former dark places are now filled with brightly-lit strip malls. When you are up against those with sufficient wealth to ensure a congress-critter's election, it is difficult to get anyone in office to notice the loss of a valuable asset like dark skies. There are strip-mall inhabitants trying to get zoning ordinance waivers so they can leave their neon signs lit well into the night. Would that there were dark skies once again.
