Looking for some feedback here. Earlier this evening, I was sitting out on my front porch, smoking and thinking (dangerous, I know) and I was admiring the full moon, and realized that I could only see three (3) stars in a clear night sky where I'm living. Having been in the Navy and on the surface aboard a submarine far out at sea, I know that there are literally millions of stars visible to the naked eye in the night sky, but all the light pollution from all the big cities screen out that amazing view. So, since we're all trying to be green these days, I would like to put something out there to get a law passed that would cut off power 4 days a year for about 4-6 hours in the evening during the times when the sun is down so that everyone can see the great sight that our wasteful use of energy deprives us from. The four days in question would be the two equinoxes and solstices. Obviously hospitals would be exempt, as would emergency communications and services. However, everything else would be off, since people can prepare for it in advance, it shouldn't be such a mighty inconvenience to anyone.

Any ideas on anything other than this?

Dont live in a big city ?

WTF were you smoking? LMAO

I was smoking gourmet tobacco. :)

Yeah, you need to get out to the country far far away from light pollution if you want to enjoy the night sky and all it's glory, Montana has fabulous sky if you're up for traveling, they don't call it "big sky" for nothing out there, absolutely beautiful state to visit, I've been there both in winter and summer.

I smoke similar products, live in a city, and would 100% be for this.

I think they made a movie about this kind of idea. It was called "The Purge".....

For the record I love seeing the great dark sky (also military - the Army tends to play in unpopulated areas) but dont see how most of our world would be able to survive without electricity....

I think you city slickers need to get out sometime....

Yeah. Fortunately for me I'm near enough to the poconos and have a good amount of friends in Appalachia. 2020 has been a better year for me than usual that way.

Moonshine country! I love shine!

Mmmmm apple pie shine

Here is what I suggest and do a few times a year as I like to camp and hike... Get out of the city, go camp, leave electronics off for a few days. Go hike etc.

It's a nice reset to get out in nature for a little bit. You're starting to sound like a hippy Cerb :p

Yeah I seen billions of stars each night.
Live in the country.

I am on a mountain, in the country, and back in the day could see the space shuttle and can still see the space station.

I am in the country but never seen anything, saw a lot though. :P

I dont know where its so bright you cant see the space station on a clear night lol. I mean you have just a short time to see it but it's the third brightest object in the sky after the sun and the moon so you can see it in daylight if you know where to look.

^^ This.

Also I have no issues with the night sky for me, if i look north i can see thousands of stars at night time.. but I guess I live in the country as you would all call it..

Up?

seems a very heavy handed response

why not start with things like better streetlights and just go bush for astronomy

also could frame it in terms of wildlife preservation

one big risk coming up is satellite constellations being launched specifically to light up

also theres huge medical implications for sick people at home, and even streetlights being off might cause accidents

ISWYD jerk :P <3

:P

No... No... They need to stay in their fluff hole cities. Reap what you sow. We don't need citiots out here ruining where we live too.

LOL@ citiots hahahaha

It would be fun to watch the citiots staring at their cell phones as they bump into trees, trip on rocks, and fall in ditches.

The reason I would make the proposal like this is that it is very likely that a lot of folks would just blow it off and thus the results would be fluffty. Of course Hospitals and emergency services would be powered still. Folks who need to use oxygen concentrators would be set up with a battery back up system, no one needs to suffer, we're only talking 6 hours a night for four nights a year, a grand total of 24 hours a year. I don't think it would kill anyone to do this and the surprise on the faces of the "citiots" as they are now being referred to would be priceless, don't you think. Plus most of the citiots don't have the means to get out "to the country".

Turning off the electrical grid for 6 hours would create so many issues I dont even know where to start. Many factories* and power plants** work on 18-36 month cycles and take 3-4 weeks to shut down and equally long to turn back on again.
Those plants and their essential lighting probably dont make up a percent of the total light pollution.

Suggesting to shut down streetlights and non-essential outdoor lighting, along with a recomendation to lower indoor lighting for a few days a week would be a proposal that could be worth discussing tho.

*=talking about pulp mills, paper mills, certain food and beverage industries, smelters, etc etc
**= nuclear power most notably but its not all that easy to turn on and off most coal or biomass fired power plants either plus some of them are integrated with central heating and thus essential.

My career was in power generation. You would be surprised how fast we could take off and bring a unit back on line.

Would be fun to watch citiots driving around with no traffic signals. And if you thought Covid rattled the world.....shut down the internet for 4 hours and watch the gamers and social media folks go off the deep end.

A couple weeks ago the full scope of Alphabet inc went down for about 30 mins at 6am. Talking google, gmail, even discord servers were interrupted by it. And just Google's parent company having a 30 min blip made social media go bananas. The remote learning program they supply completely shut down whole school districts.

You always realize something like that could cause havoc, but to see it in action for 30 mins over a cup of coffee was highly entertaining.

I dont know what the stats are, but I know people have been flocking to cities for about 50 years now, and only recently began to stagnate around 5% population growth per year. I'm from a little tiny largely amish community in the thumb of michigan originally. I graduated with 60 people in my class in a town with one stoplight, and 4 people from that little ass town live within 6 blocks of me in south philly. I'd be curious how many of us citiots even grew up in cities. I bet it'd be a pretty surprising number given how many people from my country youth live now in cities.

I donno the actual stats like I said, but I'd wager about a 3rd of us actually originated from the country these days and moved to cities for better paying work.

It would be cloudy those 4 days. I know some places in the north west are putting shades on the outside lights so they only shine on the ground not into the sky

Me:

from suburb to city to country to city to suburb to city, and looking forward to country the rest of the way, biggest city I lived in was L.A. smallest country area had our town few miles out coming in at a whopping population of just under 200, I have enjoyed them all, I cannot deny that. 😀

Yep. Haha. My liscence still says Gagetown, Mi. Downtown population of 363 people lol. Kids came from about a 15 mile radius to school because it was like the only school nearby haha.

I liked it there, like the city too. Everywhere kind of always has unique charms about it. Haha.

Absolutely, you can adapt to just about anything, that's why I tell people to get out when they're feeling like the world around them is collapsing, you never know what gem you could find!

Yeah. I'm unfortunately riding that vibe in philly right now. It's not even just the look of the boarded buildings. It's the smell of stagnation and death. When things sit for a long time they start to stink like an old fridge. Nothing has more reminded me of 2009 Detroit. Probably back to nashville in the fall as it is thriving and the love of my life lives there, and our state used cares act funding to balance the budget instead of helping small businesses as they were instructed and did so in 48 other states. Hopefully major is down for some suds haha

Yeah, not to go off topic here, but, Derrick have you ever gone to the Italian Market Fest in May, in Philly? You must do that this upcoming year, bring an appetite.

They've apparently canceled the Mummer's parade this year, but Channel 17 is going to stream video of the best of it from the last ten years. So at least folks who like that sort of wild celebration can still kindasorta enjoy it.

Haha I always stayed away from 2 on new years anyways. A bit too wild for me haha.

Prior to this year when I moved a bit further south, I lived on 12th and Washington, about 2 blocks from the italian market. That used to be my exact neighborhood. Went to the fest every year haha

Hong Kong. Galleri could probably count the number of toes on one foot the number of stars I would see in a full calendar year in Hong Kong.

I have never seen the ISS without trying, afaik. I think most people mistake it for an airplane lit up by the sun normally because its brighter than the stars and moves faster than anything.

You need an app like skyview or to google where ISS comes up at what specific minute for your specific location. You have like 1-10 minutes 1-4 times a day(once or twice for you).

https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/...ty=Hong_Kong#.X_mx_1X0mUk

Correct, you have to fight with a Kangaroo (LMAO)