Over the Hedge by T Lewis and Michael Fry for October 12, 2024

I Need one of those in my backyard.

It’s times like these I miss living in rural Illinois. Although the best view of the night sky I ever had was in the mountains in Hawaii a few years ago.

I will never forget the first time I saw the night sky out in the desert, staggering in its beauty!

I want one of those levers!

I remember seeing tons of stars back in summer camp. No street lamps to block them out.

I see the moon and venus and that’s about it. Saw the space station once. Gonna look for the comet tonight, but have little hope of seeing it.

Aurora Boralis much Hammy ?

Living in a National Forest I see all the stars at night, most night’s I can see the Milky Way, Orion Nebula and far off Galaxies with the naked eye, but I also have a great Telescope to use as back up.

A woman I dated was raised in SoCAl. We took a camping trip and stopped in Yosemite for a night. 2 am, she wakes me up, drags me out of bed and point up at the sky, “Is that the Milky Way?” Yes, it was. 34 yo and had never seen it.

Dark Sky FTW!

One night many years ago, I was on my first and only LSD trip – in a rural area. The sky & number of stars was amazing, and everything was connected with green lines!

So; does the lever shut off the electricity or turn the stars to extra-bright?

Does it have a northern lights notch?

Congratulations, you miscreant racoon! You probably just killed a bunch of people reliant on respirators or ventilators back in the city.

I want one [f those!

There are probably still stars too far away to see.

OH how I wish!

More than 20 years ago, my daughter had an teen aged female exchange student from Shenzen, China. She had taken the nick name Fiona, and lived her whole life in that super urbanized city and had never seen the stars, other than a few of the brightest a late night. I have a house on a lake in northern Wisconsin. My daughter also had two daughters. She brought them, Fiona, to the lake house along with with my other teeny granddaughters. One clear and calm night,I loaded them all into our boat and took them out, onto water.There was no lights from town or city.They now could look up into the glory of the summer Milky Way. From the tree topped horizon to horizon, no clouds nothing to obscure the view.The girls remember the night clearly and love the memory.Fiona is married now and living in London. She seldom sees any stars now.

My sister and I were visiting a working farm B&B on the coast of Cornwall and had our first truly DARK sky experience. We felt as if we were falling! It was so achingly, overwhelmingly BEAUTIFUL.

Want one! :D

We need that lever in our backyard so that my hubby the astronomer can get better deep space pix. (Even with all the light pollution he’s getting some incredible shots of Andromeda.)

If only.