The stars, the stars, oh, how bright they'll shine.

[Bluebiyou]

Aug 1977. Bahamas. I'll never forget seeing this strange bright cloud that went from horizon to horizon. It was as bright as a thin cloud with a full moon behind it. Bright white. The cloud was so bright that, although I couldn't see a moon in the sky, I cast an easily visible shadow. I brought out the Gideon's bible and was able to read pretty easily by the light. The mosquitoes were so bad, we had to come outside overcloaked in sheets. But the next night, the same bright cloud; bright from horizon to horizon was there in the same place. I realized it was the Milky Way. I've never seen stars so bright and beautiful before or since. Is this a common equatorial thing, or some unique weather phenomenon? Does anyone here know?

[12voltman59]

Seeing the Milky Way is something everyone should be able to see in most places around the world--the big problem is "light pollution" which can restrict one's view of the night sky--I would have figured that where you are-you would not have so much light pollution--but apparently you do.

There is an organizaton--the International Dark Sky Association that provides information on this subject and works to educate the average person, city planners and officials and anyone else about the subject and ways to reduce light pollution.

Here is a link to that organization's website:

http://www.darksky.org/

The organization was orginally started by a group of astronomers, academics, universities and astronomical observatories in the Southwestern US since that area has so many of our major observatory facilities---increasing light pollution was begining to hamper their work and thanks to the organization--cities like Tuscon and others in that part of the country starting putting in street lights and established regulations for private interests requring them to install light fixtures that don't send off excess light into the night sky.

Here are some other links to sites dealing with this subject:

http://www.starrynightlights.com/lpIndex.html

http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~atolea/second/page1.html

http://laps.fsl.noaa.gov/albers/slides/ast/places.html

http://www.astrosociety.org/education/publications/tnl/44/lightpoll.html

http://images.google.com/images?q=Light+Pollution&hl=en&rls=GGLJ,GGLJ:2007-41,GGLJ:en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title

Check out this link directly above-it has a number of photos of examples of light pollution.

It is amazing when you get out into an area free of much light pollution at how gorgeous the night sky is--a few places I like for this--the Arizona dessert and Cape San Blas on the Florida Gulf Coast. I can sit up all night long watching the night sky in such places---modern society does have its advantages, but also many disadvantages as well---not being able to see the natural beauty of the night sky is one of those things we lose.

Another place that is great to see the night sky---our on the ocean at night--just not on a modern cruise ship, lit up like Times Square in NYC.

[FalconAngel]

On that subject, we were at Samhain (pronounced "Sa wain" for you non-pagans out there who may not be familiar with it) this past weekend and the location for it was far removed from any intruding light sources.

I haven't seen a starry sky like that in a long time. I was able to see stars that I normally couldn't see, so I took a few minutes each night to stare off into the great cosmos and just look at the stars.

It was beautiful.

[Bluebiyou]

That's cool, but does anyone know if this was a unique weather event or is this normal around the equator? I mean I have seen beautiful dark starry nights away from light pollution also... but has anyone seen the Milky Way so bright that just by the stars alone everything was lit as brightly, actually a little more brightly than a full moon over head with a crystal clear sky?
...and I do appreciate the romantic stars reminiscing... that's pretty cool to hear too.
The stars, the stars, oh, how bright they'll shine.
And I'll build you a home in the meadow...

[12voltman59]

It had to be a time in midsummer, because in the northern hemisphere--the Milky Way is below our sightline--you might have just been experiencing some very clear, low humidty weather--something kind of rare--especially in the summer in the Bahamas---in the summer it is usually pretty hot and steamy which means that the sky is a bit hazy.

You just happened upon one of those magical nights---hardly something that you can necessarily explain--but it was great you got to see such a night and could enjoy it--one of the most gorgeous sunsets I have ever seen was one night when I was in the Coast Guard and the ship I was on was cruising the waters of the islands---the sunset made the entire sky and sea glow this special orangish gold---it was reallly something.

I also love those kind of nights you can get out there when the moon is full or nearly so and there are big, billowy cumulous clouds all around that glow up almost a neon bluish color and if you look down at the bow of the ship as it is underway--the motion of the ship causes the plankton to glow----such sights are all quite something.