Mercury,
May/June 2004 Table of Contents
by
Steven W. White
Gray
skies and light pollution do not spell the end for your sky watching—they
make it more challenging and potentially more rewarding.
I used
to live in Tucson, Arizona, under the darkest skies in the United
States. I was so obsessed with amateur astronomy that I actually
made my living at it, teaching it at the Kitt Peak National Observatory
Visitor Center and guiding others to the wonders of the heavens.
I reveled in that perfect sky. I could see the bright crumpled silk
of the Milky Way from my back yard. My telescope sat just inside
my back door, and I only moved it fifteen feet to do my deep-sky
observing.
My
new home has some of the worst skies of the country. The total number
of cloudy and partly cloudy days per year is, on average, 294. The
United States Weather Bureau started their Seattle record in 1893.
Care to guess the first word of the first entry? "Cloudy…"
And the place hasn't changed.
Then
there's the skyglow. I mean, why not? If there's nothing to see
up there but Seattle's cloudy roof, there's no reason to struggle
against light pollution. That battle was lost long ago.
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