melannen | somewhere, the tea is getting cold.

Just spent two hours laying flat on the roof, listening to a Doctor Who audio and watching the stars come out.

...Sometimes it's good to be an earth-dwelling monkey.

And you know, while I was sitting up there watching the sky and listening to the Master try to destroy the universe, I realized that I don't think I'd *ever* watched the stars come out before. Part of that's down on my having grown up under the Great Eastern Forest, so there hasn't generally been a lot of sky to see, but, when it comes down to it --

I've stargazed a few times, but we always made sure it was right dark by the time we've gone out; I've noticed the stars coming out, but we were always doing other things at the same time; most of my memories of the night sky have been through car windows. I've never simply laid out from sunset until full dark and done nothing but see the sky change.

And that's not right.

How many of you have watched the stars come out? ... I don't know that I know anybody in RL who'd have been willing to lie out there with me in the quiet for two hours. And that's almost as sad.

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I would! I don't do it here, because we get like five stars, but. . .

We get maybe a dozen here (I'm not only under the Great Eastern Forest, but also right smack in the middle of The Sprawl) which is why there's very little actual stargazing. But watching them come out it doesn't ruin it as much! The bright ones still show up first, and when you finally stop and go inside, you pretend the sky is that weird purple-grey dead television color because the twilight's not quite over, not because there's human effluvia all over the dark.

... I know I've done that at least once, but you're probably going to say I don't count again. d-:

See, I'd bet you've done it, but somehow when I try to visualize saying to you "Hey, let's go sit on the roof and watch the stars come out!", most of the time the little sister-voice in my head just whines at me instead.

...possibly my little sister-voice is out of date.

... anyway, I also made the Doctor and Rose do it in the fic that you're supposed to be beta-ing!

I have! While backpacking, too, so there was Proper Dark involved. Although I prefer stargazing when I'm out and about, and I can't do both without making myself deeply miserable, so.

The weirdest thing about living in Evanston is that when it gets dark the light pollution from Chicago makes this dull reddish haze in the south. It's kind of disturbing.

Yay! Whenever I've been out camping/backpacking, it's been in wooded areas, so any stargazing involved hiking to the nearest meadow, and we never made it before full dark.

You think that's creepy: inside the Washington DC beltway the *whole sky* is that color. ...and there's a fair amount of green space in the beltway, so if it's just a bit cloudy, you can be camping/backpacking at a national park and look up at three in the morning and see nothing but post-apocalypse pink through the trees. *CREEPY*

(I'm far enough out now that it's just a couple of smears on the horizon - one for Baltimore, one for downtown Annapolis, one for Washington - and the rest of the sky goes purple-gray. But yeah. So much for you can't take the sky from me!)

The best place to watch the stars come out is in the desert, because 1) few artificial light sources and 2) it stays relatively warm. It's a losing proposition on our mountain backpacks because of how cold it rapidly gets, although when I get up in the middle of the night to pee, all sleep-warm, I always put my glasses on so I can look at the stars for a few minutes.

We used to watch sunsets a lot when we were on the boat, and then watch the stars come out. Pretty.

I always loved the Asimov story "Nightfall," but made the mistake of renting the movie "based on" which is actually nothing like the book, and is so GODAWFUL that we quit halfway through.

I've always wanted to really desperately get to the deserts out west, just because of what I've heard about the stargazing there! Yes. I've seen the Milky Way once in my whole life, and it was so *beautiful*, I can't believe we've let ourselves wash it away for so many people.

I haven't actually read that story - I know somewhere I have the novel based on it, but the novel version was co-written by somebody whose writing I don't enjoy, so I haven't picked it up. I should see if we have the short story anthologized somewhere.

I've seen the Milky Way once in my whole life

Good GOD, that is criminal.

Out here in the west they've started a program at some of the national parks, where "Dark Rangers" give programs on astronomy and light pollution and then take visitors out to stargaze. Many of the isolated parks have splendid night skies. When we were at Bryce Canyon they had four telescopes, three belonging to the Park Service and one that a retired volunteer owned.

I never read the novel (never knew there was one) but if it's anything like that horrid movie... *shudders* On the other hand, it's a lovely short story.

It's the sort of thing I would claim that I'd enjoy doing -- but I don't ever specifically remember /doing/ it. I should fix that!

By the way,

niquerio and I are in Maryland tomorrow & Thursday, so give me a call if you want to hang out!

-Aaron

somewhere, the tea is getting cold.

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