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Comment by dmbche | Hacker News Reader

It seems incredibly clever - and I realise that I assumed they weren't aware of most planets since they're hard to see today, but I'm sure they were very noteworthy event in the pristine sky they were looking at.

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Those planets are much easier to see without light pollution.

All but Neptune* can be seen by the naked eye.

(Shamelessly abusing the classification of Pluto as a dwarf planet here to exclude it from the conversation).

Uranus: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/nov/07/starwatch-op...

I wish you luck seeing Uranus with the naked eye. It might have appeared on some ancient charts misclassified as a star, perhaps. But we credit Herschel with the identifcation as a planet in 1781, over 150 years after the invention of the telescope.

Source: Years of observations from bortle 1 skies when I knew exactly where to look.

Not in today's skies, not with my eyes. But in the time before cell phones, internet, tv, radio, electric lights, or bound books, with nothing better to do at night but look at the sky and listen to your neighbor pleasuring their spouse ... I think the odds improve greatly.

You remind me that I wanted to book an airBnB in one of the parks near me, they have an observatory and as such the sky is legally required to be untainted - I haven't seen the milky way in almost 10 years, I can't imagine seeing the stars every night.

Before the light pollution got really bad where I live due to development, provided it wasn’t cloudy, I could see the Milky Way every night for about 15 years. Now, it’s gone due to lax rules and regulations due to commercial security light fixtures which throw light in all direction at night to deter thieves. It’s pretty upsetting, but even worse, most people I talk to don’t even notice it’s gone. That’s almost more disturbing that the light pollution. We’ve lost something that most people aren’t aware they lost in the first place.

Well, I've never seen the milky way in the sky with my own eyes.

I highly recommend looking for a protected night sky zone near you and going to see it at least once - it really is nothing that pictures can translate!

https://www.darksky.org/our-work/conservation/idsp/finder/

Interesting website.

The closest dark sky place I can find on their map is about 2,630km (or 63h drive according to Google Maps) away from me.

I'm realising that they are open to people reporting dark skies near them, and even offer a way to so a dark sky census.

The last time I saw the milky way, I was in a cheap campsite near the ocean in Ireland, which (of course) isn't recorded on the site.

Hopefully you have good dark sky closer than 63h drive away!

I'm in Singapore. We boast an impressive 100% urbanisation rate. Combine that with commonly overcast skies, and you hardly see any stars at all here. (I'm here by choice, I grew up in small town Germany.)

There's probably a space somewhere in Malaysia that's dark, or I could take a cruise ship out to the ocean, if you go by absolute distance.

By convenience, it's probably easiest to take a plane somewhere.

Not sure what their criteria is, they don't have any marked in my state (Queensland, Australia) even though there would probably (seriously) be an area bigger than the whole of France here out west where you can see the milky way with your bare eyes.

That sounds like a good idea. I didnt even know they existed in areas where there are cities.

Damn, nothing in Vancouver eh

You can look around or call local park services, I'm seeing that Mont-Megantic, an observatory with federally peotected sky, isn't on their map. I'll look for a canadian ressource (for myself too!)

Edit: I'm wrong, Mont-Megantic is the first International Dark Sky Reserve - they worked to get it protected federally because they research telescope design. Dang - I think they are quite rare.

Maybe you can send an email to your local university's Astronomy department? I'm sure they'll be able to direct you to a good spot!

https://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html

I just found this, shows light pollution. Crazy how the East is much worse. Also Alberta?!?

With oil drilling they often burn off the excess gas, which creates a lot of light pollution.

Is that it? TIL! Assume that creates a lot of CO2 as well?

Yes. It's supposed to be burning up methane, which is a worse greenhouse gas, but the efficacy is in question. It's called "gas flaring" if you want to know more.

That's nuts!!

It's one of the highlights of my life, and it's been about fifteen years since.

If you stare up long enough, you notice the rotation of the Earth with the cosmos seemingly revolving around you. And fuck me, you'll stare up long enough.

Unfortunately, you are among many. I read a statistic that 90+% of people have never seen the Milky Way.

I grew up out in the country, and the night sky instilled a love of astronomy from an early age. If all you can see is a handful of stars, it's easy to forget what's above your head.

I grew up in Montana and saw the Milky Way every non-cloudy night

Imagine that before the industrial revolution, on clear moonless nights the Milky Way would cast a shadow.

Uranus is not visible to the eye in any meaningful sense.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/nov/07/starwatch-op... has some background.

I would mostly agree with you.

That link was already in the comment I responded to. And it doesn't even say that you should expect to be able to see it.

it's like if we had the same TV show every night for our whole life, i think we would start to notice some patterns

TV show that rained fireballs at your ancestors at random intervals...

It's funny and terrifying at the same time imagining our tv throwing fireballs randomly while watching it.

Thanks for the chuckle.

The kind of show that really makes you pay attention!

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