'Noctalgia' is a feature of the modern age.

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.

  • negativeyoda@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    1 year ago

    I’ve always lived in cities and didn’t see the milky way until I was in my 30s.

    Anyhow, I took my kid camping last weekend and she couldn’t believe how many stars there were. We were both enjoying it but then the string of SpaceX satellites went by and kind of ruined the moment

    • havokdj@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      I laughed at that last part. I am sorry that happened to you but it is pretty funny.

    • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.eeEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      We were just up in the mountains last weekend, it was by far the best stargazing I have ever experienced in my 40 years. I could see the Andromeda galaxy with the naked eye.

      Anyway, I counted over 15 satellites during the 2 hours we were outside, as well as 2 very bright meteors. Plus we saw the international space station and an iridium flare.