Given the harmful effects of light pollution, a pair of astronomers has coined a new term to help focus efforts to combat it. Their term, as reported in a brief paper in the preprint database arXiv and a letter to the journal Science, is “noctalgia.” In general, it means “sky grief,” and it captures the collective pain we are experiencing as we continue to lose access to the night sky.

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    1 year ago

    I haven’t seen the Milky Way for maybe 15-years. Even at my camp in the boondocks, nada. You have to really get out there, can’t imagine where I would go from NW FL.

    • averagedrunk@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Drive up to West Virginia? Seriously, I’m looking at a light pollution map and it’s crazy. I’m gonna drive out west of Kerrville, TX and take a gander.

      • XeroxCool@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        The dark spot in WV might be one of the uninhabited regions featuring a radio telescope facility. Get close enough and they’ll start hunting you down for cell phone noise!