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Some knuckleheads on my street have lights on either side of their front door and garage door (four lights) and leave them on all night. Our next-door neighbor has a back porch light that is on 24/7. When they are out of town, we joke about unscrewing their light and enjoying the dark. I like it very dark at night.
The beacon is on to help pilots find the airport when weather conditions are poor... i.e. below Visual Flight Rules of 3 miles visibility and 1000 foot ceilings. You aren't missing any great views of the milky way when the beacon is on... and I think pilots appreciate it.
Actually, the beacon is on at night regardless. The beacon is on during the day if the day if the weather is below VFR minimums.
We live out in the country and when we moved here, any cloudless night we could see the Milky Way. (First thing we did when we moved out was turn off the "security lights" over the garage and barn, and we haven't regretted it in the last 20 years.) Gradually people moved out to the country who were afraid of the dark, apparently, and then the nearby tiny (population 800) town decided it needed a subdivision which grew and grew, and a truck stop that put up HUGE bright lights that stay on all night, and put an end to that. Some of you would think you were seeing lots of stars if you came out here, but we know what we've lost.
I'm a follower of International Dark-Sky Association and think that light pollution is something we CAN do something about. Now that research is showing the damage that light pollution does not just to wildlife but to our own health, maybe we can start doing something about it.
From that map link with the different colors I grew up in the white light zone which is the worst for seeing stars, then I moved to a grey zone, which is the next worse and now I'm in a red zone which is one better than the last.
Some knuckleheads on my street have lights on either side of their front door and garage door (four lights) and leave them on all night. Our next-door neighbor has a back porch light that is on 24/7. When they are out of town, we joke about unscrewing their light and enjoying the dark. I like it very dark at night.
We have a very similar situation. We live in the country, but have multiple neighbors who moved in and then proceeded to light their place up like a high security compound. I don't get it. But we also like the dark, and enjoy sitting on our deck and watching the stars.
It's very hard to get a clear sky, too many cities have light and air pollution. You can't really see but smog is always around urban areas depending on which way the wind is pushing smog.
Some objects on the sky is difficult to see unless there is favorable light and air condition.
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