re vandalizing the sky newsgroups sci astro sci space subject re vandalizing the sky excerpts from posting on this topic in article c t k db research canon oz au enzo research canon oz au enzo liguori writes now space marketing is working with university of colorado and livermore engineers on a plan to place a mile long inflatable billboard in low earth orbit the real purpose of the project is to help the environment the platform will carry ozone monitors i can t believe that a mile long billboard would have any significant effect on the overall sky brightness venus is visible during the day but nobody complains about that besides it s in leo so it would only be visible during twilight when the sky is already bright and even if it would have some miniscule impact it would be only for a short time as it goes zipping across the sky i ve seen satellites at midnight they re not only in twilight o from the book prodigal genius the life of nikola tesla by john j o neill this remarkable conductivity of gases including the air at low pressures led tesla to suggest in a published statement in a system of lighting on a terrestrial scale in which he proposed to treat the whole earth with its surrounding atmosphere as if it were a single lamp the whole earth would be transformed into a giant lamp with the night sky completely illuminated making the night as bright as day now my comments i d like to add that some of the protests do not come from a strictly practical consideration of what pollution levels are acceptable for research activities by professional astronomers some of what i would complain about is rooted in aesthetics many readers may never have known a time where the heavens were pristine sacred unsullied by the actions of humans the space between the stars as profoundly black as an abyss can be with full horizons and a pure sky one could look out upon half of all creation at a time none of which had any connection with the petty matters of man any lights were supplied solely by nature uncorruptable by men whole religions were based on mortal man somehow getting up there and becoming immortal as the stars whether by apotheosis or a belief in an afterlife the space age changed all that the effect of the first sputniks and echo etc on this view could only happen once to see a light crossing the night sky and know it was put there by us puny people is still impressive and the sense of size one gets by assimilating the scales involved is also awesome even if the few hundreds or thousands of miles involved is still dwarfed by the rest of the universe but there is still a hunger for the pure beauty of a virgin sky yes i know aircraft are almost always in sight i have to live in a very populated area miles from an international airport currently where light pollution on the ground is ghastly the impact of humans is so extreme here virtually no place exists that has not been shaped sculpted modified trashed or whipped into shape by the hands of man in some places the only life forms larger than bacteria are humans cockroaches and squirrels or rats i visited some friends up in the appalacian mountains one weekend getting away from it all paved roads indoor plumbing malls and it felt good for a while then i quickly noticed the hollow was directly under the main flight path into dulles miles to the east their security light didn t help matters much either but i ve heard the artic wilderness gets lots of high air traffic so i know the skies are rarely perfect but there is still this desire to see a place that man hasn t fouled in some way i mean they ve been trying this forever like concerning tesla s idea to banish night wow i don t watch commercial television but i can imagine just how disgusting beer truck or hemmorrhoid ointment advertisements would be if seen up so high if ya gotta make a buck on it displaying products in heaven at least consider the reactions from those for whom the sky is a last beautiful refuge from the baseness of modern life to be open about this though i have here my listing of the passage of hst in the evening sky for this weekend tonight friday at p m edt it will reach an altitude of degrees on the local meridian from baltimore vicinity i ll be trying to see it if i can it is my mealticket after all so i suppose i could be called an elitist for supporting this intrusion on the night sky while complaining about billboards proposed by others be that as it may i think my point about a desire for beauty is valid even if it can t ever be perfectly achieved regards wm hathaway baltimore md
