That would be on cloudless nights. Look up in
Scotland too long and you're likely to drown.
Must be rough being an astronomer in Britain.
2009/10/24 Max Richards <[log in to unmask]>
> > [from the times online]
> >
> > "Light pollution from sodium lamps in the city “is a terrible spoiler for
> > astronomers”, he said. “On the clearest
> night in London you might be able
> > to
> > pick out only 200 stars.”
> >
> > In Galloway Forest Park about 7,000 fill the sky. Weather permitting.
> >
> > Sheltered by a stand of pines near the small town of Newton Stewart, Dr
> > Bellerby
> > and his friends feel the benefit. The observatory sits on the edge of 320
> > square
> > miles of parkland in which there are only 414
> “points of light”, or houses.
> > When
> > the Forestry Commission asked householders for their help in the dark-sky
> > campaign, all but three agreed to douse unnecessary lights. It probably
> > helps
> > that, according to legend at least, astronomy is a secret passion for many
> > locals.
> >
> > A couple of years ago, sensors that count vehicles registered a
> > surprisingly
> > high volume of traffic heading into the forest park in the darkest hours of
> > night. The local constabulary, alerted to possible foul play, descended on
> > a car
> > park by Clatteringshaws Loch. They found not drug dealers or sheep rustlers
> > but
> > a group of guys in cagoules and clutching Thermos flasks, their telescopes
> > trained on the Crab Nebula.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > This email was sent from Netspace Webmail: http://www.netspace.net.au
> >
Announcing The Whole Island: Six Decades of Cuban
Poetry (University of California Press).
Forthcoming in November 2009.
http://go.ucpress.edu/WholeIsland
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