Starship Asterisk*

Psnarf wrote:I miss the dark skies one could easily find half a century ago when you could walk a woodland trail by starlight.

It's wonderful to see the stars clearly, but your description seems hyperbolic in its nostalgia. Unless you're referring to a night lit by the Moon's reflection of our *own* star's light (or are referring to a rather straight, wide path free of treacherous roots), attempting what you seem to be describing (i.e. navigating a woodland trail by starlight alone) would be a pretty good way to break a limb or worse. Starlight together with airglow provides only something on the order of 2x10^-3 lux, which, on its own, is too little illumination for us (narrow pupil-ed, tapetum lucidum-lacking) humans to see forest paths well. Alternatively, if by "by starlight" you didn't mean using starlight alone to see your way, but just "under the light of the stars", you can still do that.

Additionally, there are still many dark places that were dark half a century ago, and conversely, many places that are brightly lit by artificial illumination now were already brightly lit in 1963.

kopernik wrote:'This forum is not tolerant of "contrarian scientific concepts" at all.' wrote Chris Petersen.

Hi folks, he did not expressly forbid me to post messages; so here goes.

This is a mainstream science board, and it is expressly against the rules to post about alternative concepts here. So don't; thanks.

K1NS wrote:For a very interesting contrast, click on the Pudong link in the first sentence of the description on the APOD page, which is also at the beginning of this page.This will take you to the Wikipedia page for Pudong and a different sort of nighttime photograph. Not quite the same angle, but close.

Pudong skyline at night: Whoa! (the photo) ... I forgot my comments while looking for the APOD ed's last name .

Cheers.

This reminds me very much of Stargate Atlantis!