always struck me that people need to be able to see the stars a more, especially in london, it grounds people.
This especially struck me when me and couple of blokes i used to share a flat went down to the park one night to check out a passing comet that was in the sky for one night only. one of them who is a proper londoner said he hadn't actually seen or looked up properly at the stars before.I thought this was terribly sad.
One of the problems is light pollution blocking out the night sky, badly designed/directed lighting blocks our vision of the night sky, they seem to have it sorted in some places like Spain but here a view at night over a town is a faint mist of orange light with very little to see above it
.
I make a proper effort when people come down to stay at my mums house in cornwall to take em on a midnight walk to this place called st clements which is a mile down a dark road to the right of my mum's estate.
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=8142 (there was a megalith to the left of the estate in a field but that has been built over with new houses now).
it takes up to an hour to adjust to the lack of light by which time your senses have changed, your eyes adjust to a more subtle play of colours and your ears become tuned into the sounds around you. you become slightly more animal like, i always feel as if i am anthropromorphisising into a fox or something, also you naturally start to see shapes in the trees and shadows etc if you let go of your concentration, its lush, got to be the origins of shadowplay that.
By the time you get to the bottom you reach the gently flowing river, it reflects what light there is, and you can hear the birds in the trees, with the night sky hanging over and its a idyllic dark treat.
a better quality of darkness. http://www.darksky.org/
This especially struck me when me and couple of blokes i used to share a flat went down to the park one night to check out a passing comet that was in the sky for one night only. one of them who is a proper londoner said he hadn't actually seen or looked up properly at the stars before.I thought this was terribly sad.
One of the problems is light pollution blocking out the night sky, badly designed/directed lighting blocks our vision of the night sky, they seem to have it sorted in some places like Spain but here a view at night over a town is a faint mist of orange light with very little to see above it
.
I make a proper effort when people come down to stay at my mums house in cornwall to take em on a midnight walk to this place called st clements which is a mile down a dark road to the right of my mum's estate.
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=8142 (there was a megalith to the left of the estate in a field but that has been built over with new houses now).
it takes up to an hour to adjust to the lack of light by which time your senses have changed, your eyes adjust to a more subtle play of colours and your ears become tuned into the sounds around you. you become slightly more animal like, i always feel as if i am anthropromorphisising into a fox or something, also you naturally start to see shapes in the trees and shadows etc if you let go of your concentration, its lush, got to be the origins of shadowplay that.
By the time you get to the bottom you reach the gently flowing river, it reflects what light there is, and you can hear the birds in the trees, with the night sky hanging over and its a idyllic dark treat.
a better quality of darkness. http://www.darksky.org/