Lunacy

[altivo]

The moon was almost swallowed by [something] early this morning. We heard it was going to happen, but the peak drama was to be around 3 am local time. An hour before we normally go to bed, it was clear and the full moon was bright, which is unusual for us these days. At bedtime there was heavy cloud cover and not a star to be seen, so I figured that just like all the recent astronomical events, it would be invisible here.

Wrong. Gary got up to let the dog out at 3 am, and the sky was spectacularly clear. He came back in to tell me and I went out to look (despite the temperature of 20°F and wind chills even lower.) It was indeed clear. About three quarters of the moon was darkened but still visible, and the rest of it was bright. I haven't seen a real lunar eclipse since, oh, maybe 40 years ago or something. But I was more taken by the stars. Orion was riding high and majestic, just brilliant down even to the dimmer stars in his sword. The light pollution from the recently overdeveloped area around Huntley just barely missed his feet. My head was too muzzy and my feet too cold to stay out there for long, but it was a spectacular view as well as the lesson about light pollution. The sky was really clear, but the big glow from Huntley to the southeast and Rockford to the west still overcame the stars in those directions. I imagine a lot of people these days have never even seen a real starry sky.

As recently as 20 years ago, we could see the Milky Way easily here in a clear sky like that. Now it isn't even perceivable. That's really sad.

Comments

[hrrunka]

I grew up in Kenya when street lighting was a rarity even on the outskirts of the larger towns and cities. The glory of a dark sky on a clear night, especially if you're at a few thousand feet above sea level, is something to remember. These days street lighting is far more widespread, and the glory a lot harder to find.

Here in the UK there are very few truly dark sites, and in residential areas we have the added curse of (usually passive-IR controlled) floodlights on paths, driveways and gardens that are often installed so that half the light they produce goes straight into the sky. Back when 500W halogen fittings were common, folk at least sometimes made sure they weren't on for long, but with the modern breed of LEDs which chew only a few watts people aren't so concerned about their electricity bills.

[hrrunka]

So often the outdoor floodlights are mounted with the flat glass almost vertical. If you want the ground lit up then the lights need to be high up with the glass horizontal. You'd think lighting professionals would know this and mount the things accordingly, but most of the ones down our road shine straight out. There's one a couple of hundred yards away that illuminates our bedroom ceiling when it comes on, as it does every time a fox, badger, cat or deer wanders past. I must figure out a way to shield my meteor camera from it, as I've noticed it sometimes triggers the meteor detection algorithm.

[deffox]

I briefly woke up during the night, and seen the moon. Though I was still mostly asleep and only looked from the window instead of going outside.