[Aztlan] Artificial Lights and Viewing the Stars

[Susan Gilchrist]

I've counted seven Pleiades in Berkeley, on campus near the library and
campanile where there's a lot of artificial light and a smog that turns the
sky sort of purple and orange. They're interesting because they're close
together and seem to turn on and off, so it takes a minute to see that
they're all there. Small but very distinctive.--susan gilchrist

On 8/8/07, eschele at mail.utexas.edu <eschele at mail.utexas.edu> wrote:
>
> Thanks Jules,
>
> You have interesting insights into world views and perceptions of the
> night sky.
> Along those same lines, here is a website called "The night sky in the
> World:
> Satellite monitoring of the artificial night sky brightness and the
> stellar
> visibility"  National Geographic also produced a great map that displays
> the
> same information:
>
> http://www.lightpollution.it/worldatlas/pages/fig1.htm
>
> Elaine
>
> Quoting Jules Siegel <jules at cafecancun.com>:
>
> > eschele at mail.utexas.edu wrote:
> > > In response to Edward's question and his statement that these stars
> are
> > "hardly
> > > visible", it should be remembered that observation of the stars was
> much
> > easier
> > > before "electric light pollution".
> > You strike to the heart of the translator's dilemma of living in one
> > culture while attempting to reproduce the thoughts of another. This is a
> > very important point. I hope you will be patient with me while I belabor
> > it. If in a hurry, click on
> > http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast14aug_1.htm to feel directly
> > what I can only hint at here. I'm not sure if sky shot you will see is
> > enhanced and intensified, but even if it were, it hints at how the sky
> > looks on certain nights in the northern hemisphere where the air is
> > still clear. Do we go into the field mainly for knowledge, or mainly to
> > see that? Anita Brown (my beauteous bride these thirty years) and I have
> > spent our time off the power grid on the pretext of researching a book
> > called "The Real Mexico," but the truth is we are beach bums who were
> > partially domesticated by Cancun, our compromise with civilization and
> > its discontents.
> >
> > Living in Cancun for the past 24 years, Anita and I have noticed the
> > diminishing number of stars on view since we first arrived here in 1983.
> > A few weeks ago, we visited a friend's mini-hotel south of Tulum, off
> > the power grid right where the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve begins:
> > http://www.vialaktea.info . The shock of seeing all those stars was
> > truly awesome, one of the high points of our trip. We had a similar
> > experience after Hurricane Gilbert, 1988, when all power was off for a
> > few days. The first night after we returned home to Puerto Morelos the
> > stars were so bright and the night sky so blue that we woke up. I wrote
> > about that experience in "How did it go with Gilberto?"
> > http://cafecancun.com/gilbert.shtml.
> >
> > Those of us who have spent any time off the power grid can testify that
> > outside industrial civilization the night sky is an entirely different
> > and far more intense experience. On clear moonless nights, the stars
> > dominate everything, revealing the degree to which we have been
> > desensitized by our life-support system. I would also argue that the
> > ancients were considerably more sensitive than we are because they were
> > not subject to the numbing effects of environmental pollution,
> > especially carbon monoxide and other byproducts of incomplete
> > combustion, as well as the decidedly depressing effects of modern
> > child-rearing practices (which I discuss in my current work in progress,
> > "The Human Robot, Understanding the Emotional Effects of Industrialism,"
> > free download at http://www.lulu.com/content/109203.
> >
> > I think that it is difficult sometimes to appreciate the very great
> > likelihood that life before industrialism was an entirely different
> > emotional and sensory experience. By comparison, we live stunted lives.
> > As Herman Kahn put it, we suffer from the educated inability to
> > understand. Members of privileged, educated, elite classes tend toward
> > condescension in order to feel good about our position in the food
> > chain. As I have argued here and elsewhere, the presumption that
> > pre-industrial peoples were intellectually unsophisticated -- noble
> > savages, at best, superstitious brutes at worst -- is a prevailing
> > symptom of cultural imperialism that attempts to rationalize the
> > Conquest. Mel Gibson's "Apocalipto" (not even a Spanish word) is a prime
> > example of this process in our time. In "1491," Charles C. Mann
> > pointedly analyzes how the erroneous perception of native American
> > peoples in what is now the United States and Canada as always having
> > been food-gathers and hunters supports modern property rights. This
> > cultural imperialism extends to the choice of language used for
> > translation. I discuss that process in "The Origins of Gaming and
> > Operations Research in the I Ching"
> > <http://newsroom-l.net/newsroom/?p=204>, where I argue:
> >
> > "The idea of a popular song written about a power station seems
> > ludicrous when the title is translated literally as "Great Stalin
> > Hydroelectric Project Number 6." A song about some railroad train --
> > "Wabash Cannonball" or "The City of New Orleans" -- produces no such
> > laughter. It is part of your tradition. You can hear the music. It fits
> > perfectly."
> >
> > The association of the Perseid meteor shower with the hints at a
> > possible root of the origin myths. To what extent were the ancients
> > aware of the connection between meteors and meteorites? Did they know
> > that "falling stars" really did fall on Earth? If they did, would they
> > have theorized that humans (and/or life itself) fell to Earth regularly
> > from the Pleiades sky zone?
> >
> > ---Begin forwarded text---
> > http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast14aug_1.htm
> >
> > The Extraordinary Geomagnetic Perseid Meteor Shower
> >
> > /A geomagnetic storm triggered dazzling aurora during the peak of the
> > 2000 Perseid meteor shower./
> >
> > August 14, 2000 -- An interplanetary shock wave from the Sun struck
> > Earth's magnetosphere just before the peak of the Perseid meteor shower
> > on August 12, 2000, triggering a powerful geomagnetic storm. Stargazers
> > across Canada and the United States were treated to the rare spectacle
> > of a meteor shower seen against the backdrop of colorful Northern
> Lights.
> >
> > Right: Daniel Hershman captured this dazzling picture on August 12,
> > 2000, at Sunrise Point in Mt. Rainier National Park, WA. The three
> > bright lights near the right side of the image are Jupiter, Saturn and
> > the red star Aldebaran.
> >
> > --
> > JULES SIEGEL Apdo. 1764, 77501-Cancun, Q. Roo, Mexico
> > http://www.cafecancun.com/bookarts
> >
> > Newsroom-l, news and issues for journalists
> > http://www.newsroom-l.net/
> >
>
>
>
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