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Drove out to Cherry Springs State Park in PA and the Milky Way looked fake, like a photo someone oversharpened | Backyard Stargazing - nhfree.com

andrew854•23d ago

Drove out to Cherry Springs State Park in PA and the Milky Way looked fake, like a photo someone oversharpened

So my wife and I drove 4 hours out to Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania about 3 weeks ago, mostly because a guy at a star party near Pittsburgh would not shut up about how dark it gets there. We got there around 10pm and I swear the Milky Way looked like someone took a photo and cranked the clarity slider way too high. I could see the dust lanes with my bare eyes, and there was this faint greenish glow low on the horizon that a guy next to me said was airglow, which I had never heard of in my life. The weird part is back home in my own yard I have been staring at maybe 30 stars on a good night and telling myself that was pretty good, so standing there under thousands of them honestly messed with my head a little. I kept pulling my eyes away because it almost felt like I was doing something wrong by looking straight at it. It took my eyes a solid 30 minutes to really adjust too, which I never have the patience for at home. Has anyone else made a trip like this and then had a hard time going back to their regular backyard sky?

2 comments

2 Comments

evant4821d ago

How many nights did it take before your own yard started feeling like a parking lot with a few ceiling lights on? Not exactly a joke, because that feeling you had about almost doing something wrong by looking straight at it is real and a lot of people get it. My first dark sky trip was the same deal, I kept looking off to the side like I was sneaking a peek at something I was not supposed to see. That green glow thing got me too, some guy told me it comes from oxygen way up in the air and I thought he was messing with me. Going back home after that is rough, no way around it. The stars you used to brag about at home will look sad for a while, and your eyes will keep waiting for the good stuff that never shows up.

hugo_jones21d ago

The parking lot thing never fully goes away once you have seen the real sky. What makes it worse is that your brain keeps the memory of how the Milky Way looked and then compares it to the washed out gray smear above your house every night. A buddy told me to just drive an hour out when I start getting that itch, and even that tiny bit of dark helps reset things for a while. The green glow is wild though, I read later that it is oxygen up high doing its thing and that is why cameras pick it up so easy when your eyes can barely catch it. @evant48 you are right that home never feels the same, but the trick is to chase that dark when you can instead of waiting for your yard to magically get better.