gaze-upon-it t1_j5281nz wrote on January 19, 2023 at 9:49 PM

Reply to comment by p0k3t0 in Ancient humans and their early depictions of the universe: “It is no exaggeration to say that astronomy has existed as an exact science for more than five millennia,” writes the late science historian John North. by clayt6

I had a similar experience in Peru at Machu Picchu, delayed train back and it was amazing. People were asking “what is that?” You can get that view out west in the high deserts Utah, Nevada etc.

p0k3t0 t1_j52cqs5 wrote on January 19, 2023 at 10:21 PM

Living in a big city, the Milky Way is just a scientific fact. Out in the middle of darkest nowhere, it's something truly amazing.

vgf89 t1_j54hdzc wrote on January 20, 2023 at 9:32 AM

I've yet to go somewhere high in altitude and low enough in light pollution, but the college town I was in was somewhat decent. One night a friend got me to go out and stare at the sky until my eyes adjusted. It was pretty faint, but damn was it cool actually seeing the milky way for the first time.

Now I live in a city where I rarely even see stars in the sky :-/

ermagerditssuperman t1_j577vu3 wrote on January 20, 2023 at 9:51 PM

It's my favorite part about going back and visiting home in Nevada. My mom's house is high on a hill over Reno (NV hill, in the US Mid-Atlantic it would be a mountain) so it's outside of the city light pollution. I can go in the yard and look up and actually map out a bunch of constellations.

When I lived in DC for a few years, I was lucky to pick out 10 stars at night.

Now in an east cost suburb, I can see stars, but still nowhere near the level of the Nevadan night sky.

gaze-upon-it t1_j57arya wrote on January 20, 2023 at 10:11 PM

Lives in both places and Nevada is a great place to see the sky.