Hilarious! I remember being in places where you could not begin to count the stars.

This is funny, because it’s so true — and yet sad, too.

Light pollution is the bane of astronomers, professional and amateur alike. I first became interested in astronomy at age 7, through a sticker book on the stars and planets. I also worked at a planetarium in college. I know the constellations fairly well. It is so sad to look up at the night sky in a major metro area and not be able to see even 3rd magnitude stars that make up so many of the star patterns. Forget about seeing the fainter stars.

I remember once on a family vacation in the Black Hills, my dad and I went about 100 yards away from our motel and, to borrow a line from “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “My gosh, it’s full of stars!” There were so many stars visible that I had trouble even finding the BIG DIPPER (an asterism in the constellation Ursa Major)!

What wonderful and beautiful creatures are the planets, stars, nebulae, galaxies, and so forth, which declare the glory and might of God, and show forth His handiwork! Too many have never really enjoyed the sight, that they might fully appreciate these works of His hand.

If you have a spare $30 or so, consider joining the International Dark-Sky Association.

http://www.darksky.org/about-ida