The worst form of pollution isn't smoke or water contamination or any other mildly destructive invasion of nature. Those may scar our world, but they're all fixable with enough initiative. The worst pollution is light pollution.

Every night the stars shine brightly, but try as they might, they can't make themselves seen past the city lights and street lamps. Currently, Venus can be seen when the sun goes down. It's almost due West. Saturn is also out, but it's a little harder to find and it's not as bright. Venus is probably the only "star" you'll see in the night sky, unless you're in the middle of nowhere. Last night I tried to look at the sky... I could make out Venus, Saturn, the top of the Gemini constellation, and the Big Dipper. I think I saw the North star, but since I couldn't see the rest of the Little Dipper, I wasn't sure. The point is, I couldn't find an area dark enough to see any but the brighter stars in the sky.

Sometimes it's possible to see the actual band of the Milky Way in the sky... Or so I've heard. The Earth is in one of the galaxy's arms, so when we're facing the right way, we've got a pretty good view. The problem is, there's no place to go to see it all. There are lights everywhere, polluting the darkness.

posted by Rick at 7:23 PM

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