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I do think it is kind of crazy when I am out late in the city and still see lots of lights on in office towers everywhere. I refuse to believe that many of them are actually occupied at that time and it seems like a waste of electricity and also damaging to the ability to see stars.

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The advent of LED lights being so cheap to keep on I imagine some places just decide to leave them in all night. As for the astronomers my view is they miss the convenience of having a telescope close to their homes and universities whereas the best terrestrial telescopes have been on desert mountains.

These days they can probably log into those remotely.

Personally I think seeing dark skies is important for regular folks too. I was fortunate to grow up in a place where you could easily see the Milky Way at night.

It's truly awe inspiring to lay down at night looking at the stars, and really makes your problems seem insignificant in the grand scale of the universe.

How can you see the Milky Way when we reside in the Milky Way?

Oh I don't just mean for astronomers, I definitely feel like all those lit up towers must be contributing for less visible night sky stars for the rest of us

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