Due to Thai Night-Sky Loss: I am planning a move to the Gobi Desert. For the stars…

[GammaGlobulin]

Dear Folks,

 

Decades ago, I spent 18 months, just outside of Shanghai, at TongJi University, a great school, one known for IT, at that early time.  Also, known for the cats at the local dormitories where many lived with the profs. The smell of hundreds of catboxes in those dorms was incredible, and filled the Night Air.

 

TongJi, at the time, had very little outdoor lighting, and students navigated at night, as the blind, with unfailing accuracy of bats, in almost total darkness around the campus.

 

Those were the days when we still had the Night Sky.

 

These days, the Night Sky is a thing of the past, at least within 100-miles of any small city. Even in the countryside, these days, almost every house adds light bulbs, a few per year. Every year, new bulbs are added, without fail, for no logical reason, blocking out the stars, and even the moon.

 

Why? Most likely, even countryfolk soon habituate to any given level of nighttime artificial brightness, and foolishly pay to continually add more electric bulbs in some misbegotten crusade to block out the night.

 

Do they ever think that, by their foolishness, their children grow up denied ever seeing the stars and the majesty of the heavens?

 

I am not joking now.

 

I have had it with all this artificial daylight at night.

And I am moving to the Gobi desert, just as soon as I have worked out the logistics, and maybe also have found some way to get sufficient financial support from GoFundMe, but only just enough to pay for my airfare and tents. I am not asking for much.

 

I am not joking about this.

Because, I care about the night sky, and the loss of same.

 

Here where I am living, it’s impossible to see as many stars as I once saw when I was young, even not too far outside a major city.

 

The problem might be that outdoor electric lighting is now just too cheap.

50 years ago, most families in Taiwan could afford only a few dim electric light bulbs.

Now, they can easily buy enough lighting to light up any major football stadium.

 

How do the local birds sleep at night???

But, that is another Topic.

 

Here, I prefer to consider the psychological impact of neverending daytime on the human psyche.  Don’t parents care??? What is wrong with them, anyway, that they do not make a fuss about this important issue which affects their children???

 

Nobody seems to care, anymore, about the important and crucial contribution of the Natural Environment so fundamentally important for allowing children to mature to adulthood in at least a semi-unwarped way.

 

If you don’t know what I am referring to, then please just consult Piaget.

 

Where do you think all this modern aberrant human behavior originates?

Obviously, it stems from the fact that humans are now forcibly separated from the Night Sky, for years on end, unless…maybe…once in a Blue Moon, they happen to be on a boat far out to sea, or travel far into the desert.

 

As I say, I am not joking this time.
I really do plan to find a place on Earth where I can see the Night Sky, once per day.

And, the Gobi is a great place for this.

 

I have a dynamite Japanese friend who told me that the Gobi was a life changing event.

Now, I plan to act on what my friend shared with me.

I will move to The Gobi, and stay there, if only I can solve a few sticky wickets such as dental cleaning, and other health checkups, when needed.

 

According to my friend, the Gobi provides a spiritual experience that one just cannot find elsewhere.  I believe it.

 

I will depart, just as soon as I can muster the funds.

Anyone here is welcome to join me, provided you are like minded.

 

Here is what I hope to find in the Gobi, at night:

 

(Thank you, Ira.)

 

Of course, I have already considered the  possibility of a return to the good old US of A, to search for a desert there. But, even there, one might find too many lights at night from American cars and houses, and too many aircraft flying overhead, with blinking navigation lights. Not good.

 

The Gobi is not, so far, quite this light-polluted, so said my friend.

 

This is a serious post, and not a joke.

 

I miss the skies of my youth.

And, it’s never too late.

No matter how old we might seem to others.

 

Best regards,

Gamma

 

Note: Come with me, why don’t you?  Why DON’T you???

 

Note2:  Plenty of sand in the Gobi. Therefore, we might even be able to grind our own primary mirrors from local resources. Stranger things have happened in the Gobi.

 

Are you game?

Do you speak fluent Chinese?

This might be a plus.

 

 

[Nemises]

Available in Sydney, Australia. 
 

 

https://www.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au/things-to-do/recreation-area/palm-beach-headland-urban-night-sky-place

 

 

 

[freedomnow]

What strain of mushrooms are you on today ?

 

Golden Teacher or Pnis Envy ?

[GammaGlobulin]

1 hour ago, Nemises said:

Available in Sydney, Australia. 

 

Then...
Why did you leave????

 

I probably might not have left, if I were in Sydney.

 

[marin]

4 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

Here is what I hope to find in the Gobi, at night:

Go just go. The odds are great they will have crappy internet or China will firewall you off. 

[cdemundo]

Let me be among the first to wish you Bon Voyage.

[bunnydrops]

I mentioned in another post that the thing I miss most about living in Thailand is the stars. Back home in Oregon it is a 3 hr drive to the high desert where you can still see the Milky Way. I have seen some pictures of the Milky Way from Thailand.

[spidermike007]

Stars. A clear sky. Good air quality. They all seem like such foreign concepts here. 

 

I can assure you that in most desert areas of the US, the cosmos are absolutely blazing. The night sky can be such a glorious sight. I miss it too. 

[bunnydrops]

Here is an interesting fact: Most of us know that the galaxy Andromeda can be seen with the naked eye. But due to the time it takes the light to reach us, Andromeda has moved much closer. If we could see it where it is now, it would be three times the size of the moon. What a sight that would be!

[GammaGlobulin]

16 minutes ago, bunnydrops said:

Here is an interesting fact: Most of us know that the galaxy Andromeda can be seen with the naked eye. But due to the time it takes the light to reach us, Andromeda has moved much closer. If we could see it where it is now, it would be three times the size of the moon. What a sight that would be!

 

Sure, but your comment is missing one crucial piece of data:

 

If we could see Andromeda where it is now...

Then...

What might be its luminosity?

 

Only then might we know what a sight it would be.

 

[bunnydrops]

Just now, GammaGlobulin said:

 

Sure, but your comment is missing one crucial piece of data:

 

If we could see Andromeda where it is now...

Then...

What might be its luminosity?

 

Only then might we know what a sight it would be.

 

It would out shine the moon at night and would be visible during the day!

[GammaGlobulin]

9 minutes ago, bunnydrops said:

It would out shine the moon at night and would be visible during the day!

 

Thanks.

Finally learned something worth knowing here.

Thank you.

 

[Lacessit]

Gilgunnia, western New South Wales. The closest town is Nymagee, about 60 km away. It is possible to see galaxies behind the Milky Way.

 

Or there's Parkes, the site of an observatory.

 

 

[1FinickyOne]

I remember the night sky from places like New Mexico and Wyoming... there are a couple of places that I have heard mentioned nearby for night sky viewing... 

[Grumpy one]

Why go to China and annoy the locals.

simply take a leaky old boat and head out into the Andaman Sea, I'm sure you will get to see the stars.

That would be just prior to drowning and saving us mere mortals from more of your daily verbal excrement.

Or visit Trump, his followers think the sun shines out of his arse, maybe the moon and stars do as well

[GammaGlobulin]

1 hour ago, Grumpy one said:

Why go to China and annoy the locals.

simply take a leaky old boat and head out into the Andaman Sea, I'm sure you will get to see the stars.

That would be just prior to drowning and saving us mere mortals from more of your daily verbal excrement.

Or visit Trump, his followers think the sun shines out of his arse, maybe the moon and stars do as well

 

Due to problems with atmospheric water vapor, the Gobi is preferred, IMHO, for star viewing, compared to viewing the firmament from any boat in the Andaman Sea.

 

Also, one might encounter pirates on the oceans, whereas this rarely happens when one is aboard the ship of the desert.

 

 

[Flyguy330]

Check this out: https://darksky.org/category/news/international-dark-sky-places/

 

 

[cjinchiangrai]

5 hours ago, marin said:

Go just go. The odds are great they will have crappy internet or China will firewall you off. 

Very cold and very nothing out there. He will not like it, especially after Shanghai and Bangkok.

[richard_smith237]

5 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Stars. A clear sky. Good air quality. They all seem like such foreign concepts here. 

 

I can assure you that in most desert areas of the US, the cosmos are absolutely blazing. The night sky can be such a glorious sight. I miss it too. 

 

The lack of stellar clarity in the tropics has more to do with the humidity than anything else. 

 

The clearest skies I have ever seen have been in the central step of Kazakhstan and also on the south Island of New Zealand.

[GammaGlobulin]

33 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

The lack of stellar clarity in the tropics has more to do with the humidity than anything else. 

 

Yes.

I mentioned the problem of atmospheric water vapor in reply to the member who suggested I row far out in a leaking boat, far out into the Andaman Sea, in order to see the stars.

 

 

[Ralf001]

When are you moving ?

Are you going to board up the windows there too ?

[GammaGlobulin]

8 minutes ago, Ralf001 said:

When are you moving ?

Are you going to board up the windows there too ?

 

In a tent?

 

[Gandtee]

Promises, promises. Just bugger off and give us a rest.😉

[PomPolo]

11 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

This is a serious post, and not a joke.

You are having a larf right, I stopped reading it at the camel photos, surprised I made it that far

[richard_smith237]

36 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

1 hour ago, richard_smith237 said:

The lack of stellar clarity in the tropics has more to do with the humidity than anything else. 

 

Yes.

I mentioned the problem of atmospheric water vapor in reply to the member who suggested I row far out in a leaking boat, far out into the Andaman Sea, in order to see the stars.

 

Its also too dangerous to avert our eyes from the ground whenever out and about in Bangkok... So I've no idea what the Bangkok sky looks like... 

 

...  the only time I look skywards is when on the ground floor in Baccarra !!! 

[Purdey]

Poor GammaGlobin. Gets slagged off for discussing the night sky. 

[Lacessit]

12 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

Here is what I hope to find in the Gobi, at night:

 

 

 

Bactrian camels are a critically endangered species, please don't put them at risk with your corpulence.

[GammaGlobulin]

23 minutes ago, Purdey said:

Poor GammaGlobin. Gets slagged off for discussing the night sky. 

 

Astronomy is a lonely business.

Most astronomers have very few friends (true friends).

 

One must just suck it up...because....

It goes with the territory.

 

Galileo Galilei, another alum of mine, was nearly put to death, and for nothing more than peering at the Night Sky.

 

 

 

[richard_smith237]

4 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

Galileo Galilei, another alum of mine

 

 

  You do write some bo!!ox Gamma....     you studied at the University of Pisa ??? 

[scottiejohn]

24 minutes ago, Purdey said:

Poor GammaGlobin. Gets slagged off for discussing the night sky. 

No he just gets slagged off for posting (anything)!