It just doesn't get dark like it used to.

Growing up in a rural area, I remember a blanket of stars and if it was an overcast night it would be so dark that you could barely see to walk. Living now in suburbs, only a handful of objects sign in the night skies and half of those are aircraft or satellites. And even on a cloudy night it's still light enough to see pretty well.

Even going back to my rural childhood home the light pollution has really blotted out a lot stars and brightened the night. Seems the whole of the east coast in the US is under a perpetual blanket of purplish gray lighting smog.

Sometimes I really miss the black night used to hold, and the beautiful cast of brilliant points that contrasted against the near pitch dark.

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ArishMell · 70-79, M

There are many who would love to be able to see the stars.

A curious effect of the suburban area in which I live, is that it is darker on clear but moonless nights, than under overcast. That is due to the overcast reflecting diffused light from the main road lamps.

A lot of those lamps have been changed from yellow sodium-vapour to white l.e.d- matrix types, and these do reduce the light-pollution (and I think electricity consumption) though at cost of less effective street-lighting.

This change is noticeable on overcast nights, with the glow changing from a yellowish haze to something like weak moonlight.

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It's not only urban lighting that's ruining the night sky too. It's also entrepeneurs like Elon Musk being allowed to litter Space close to the Earth with thousands of satellites they think necessary to their telecommunications businesses. These might not be visible to the naked eye but are creating clutter interfering with serious astronomical work.

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Six of the UK's National Parks have been designated as "International Dark Sky Reserves / Parks"; but there are many other places outside those, deep in the countryside or on un-spoilt areas of the coast well away from towns, offering similarly clear night skies.

I ought explain that a "National Park" in the UK is not a remote wilderness empty of settlements and roads, and possibly with tightly controlled access. They are regions of particularly significant landscape and wildlife importance, [i]but[/i] many people live and work in them, and they are open to visiting from elsewhere. The national parks and other designated lands like "Areas of Outstanding National Beauty" are all mainly farmland. They contain villages, many of which along with some farms host tourist and other, small, non-farming businesses; they are criss-crossed by roads and here and there, railway lines. The designations exist to protect them from unsympathetic housing and industrial developments.

Rickichickie · 56-60, F

@ArishMell places in Germany with perfect sight of the night sky are called Sternenparks - star parks here in Germany. They are four in number and the International Dark Sky AssociationDesignated them. I never visited one although I’m a stargazer. Too far away from here to go by public transport and nobody who would join me and drive there with me. I simply walk uphill if a celestial event attracts me. Our small town doesn’t have heavy light pollution.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@Rickichickie I'm pleased you have reasonable views of the sky from your town. The nearest designated equivalent of a Sternenpark to me is a long way away, but I'm lucky that I don't need go too far to be away from the worst light pollution, too.

ViciDraco · 36-40, M

@Rickichickie @ArishMell https://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html#3/33.10/-76.85

Light pollution map. East Coast US and Western Europe even the "dark zones" still suffer from everything around them.

TheOneyouwerewarnedabout · 41-45, MVIP

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

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