i love everything u write, I've always loved books and writing but the you made tje linguistics of everything so interested, I'm buying the book as soon as i can afford to xoxo
Fascinating and much needed. I’m glad more people are talking about light pollution and the effect a lack of exposure to seeing the stars is having on us. Some people have even mistaken stars and planets for drones and UFOs in recent years! Our ancestors would be laughing at us…
Not only this but we see more stars online in the form of photos from space, like Hubble and JWST, the irony being that the more advanced and detailed our space images get, the fewer of them we see with the naked eye.
There are some books about this, I have yet to read them but they go into this a lot, as in, the cultural side of stargazing and how it’s decreased because of light pollution: The Human Cosmos by Jo Marchant and Starborn by Roberto Trotta.
And I’m also thinking about the recent rise in astrology. How it’s become so popular in the last decades or so and people are taking it seriously, not just the pop ‘oh what’s your sign?’ stuff but some really go deep into the classical forms of astrology. Whatever one thinks of it, as a bit of fun, or as pseudoscience, or as a spiritual practice which people find helps them in a way, perhaps it shows that people still feel a pull deep inside, a desire (ha!) to find meaning in the stars… (regardless of what one might think of astrology and its validity, I’m mentioning it as a cultural phenomenon purely here)
I grew up on the Colorado plateau in flagstaff az where Pluto was discovered; sleeping under stars 7 months out of year as a Grand Canyon river guide encouraging our river guests to sleep out under the stars not in a tent. It’s rare now I return to the rivers shore. Two years ago I returned and one night looking up at the vast universe my heart dropped and a sadness, an awareness of loss descended upon me as I witnessed for the first time in my lifetime the chain of starlink crossing the canyon sky. What loss from what gain ? With all the tech in The world war starvation and an eroding civility and stewardship. Still I have hope from the knowledge the stars and vast cosmos remains weaving our complex stories into the web of lanekala - we are all interconnected.
I am a astrophotography and we all hate starlink. It's completely screwed up our skies. Sure there software that can remove it in post production but its such a aggravating and nonconsentual interruption.
I also love photographing the moon knowing that in the not too distant future, human colonization will forever change the face of the moon...which has been unchanged constant for all of known humanity. How will that hit us at a deep level?
I love looking at and pondering indigenous star maps - the ancient sea navigators and those ancient sites where a niche in a rock aligned w a ray of light- an astroarchaeology is a book on this shelf!
My parents both worked for USGS and my dad helped making training movies for the astronauts first landing ! I was a toddler climbing around on the practice moon rover !
I truly hope “colonization” of planets as we know won’t happen until we as a species evolve consciously. There’s a poem by Simon Ortiz about Gene Shoemaker’s ashes on the moon as a desecration to the Spirituality of Crsstion.
If only we can bridge the division caused by the lens of progress to use natural resources instead of stewardship of our interconnectedness.
Indigenous and Ancient peoples saw and were aware of these cosmic truths and navigated and drew conclusions beyond our current perceptions with all the tech. Their star maps still not understood by “modern” ways -
I advocate to listen to our Indigenous peoples all around the globe - just as the Hawaiians don’t want that telescope on their Sacred mountain - they know their relationship to the Cosmos.
The African Dogan and the Zuni share similar cosmic origin creation stories ; these mysteries keep me hopeful humanity will evolve m.
The greed and destruction of current times is not sustainable. our relationship to the cosmos is still a mystery unfolding. We got to remember we are also stardust ;)
Here’s incredible song remade by kids inspired by their teacher. If we fall I. Love with nature we may save one another because we came to know and share the love. Keep looking to the stars!!! 🙌🏾💫🙌
I recently got a Seestar, which does all the “love labor” of creating images for you, But the ugly truth about stacking is simply this - the scope take “fake it” and make the sky accessible to suburban folks, but at the cost of direct observation. I want my eyeballs to get the photons from the stars directly. And the only way to do that is to observe, meaning I have to go somewhere dark at night and look up. When I stand outside my home, I can barely make out the constellations, let alone all the deep sky blossoms I long to see…
The part I spiral on, not looking at the stars has changed our eyes. Staring so far away uses different muscles in your eyes. But staring at a screen filled with stars damages them. I spent so much of my childhood in the dark staring in awe at the sky, to think this is a dream now for people because of light encroachment.
Oh this is so interesting! A few years ago I went to a drive-in movie for the first time, and I realized that movie stars were probably called stars because they were projected onto large screens like stars in the night sky. For thousands of years humans looked up at the stars and projected their own stories onto them. As above, so below.
Also interesting is that cosmos, meaning order, is in cosmology (study of the universe) and cosmetology (study of beauty treatments).
George Washington famously wore false teeth and perhaps others wear them too. They are similar to the stars for one reason. They come out at night. I like stars and astrophotography and Gemini's. ...and cats.
Sorry I'm trollish sounding. My defense this that my mouth is almost broke, almost wired shut. I hope to find the energy to follow/ subscribe as this is tremendous work you're doing with and about words and as usual they make for good thoughts. Thanks.
We are lucky in New Zealand to have a number of Dark Sky zones where light pollution is actively discouraged. It helps to have a population of only 5 million.
Fascinating to think that people could see the Milky Way naked with their eyes back in the day. A few brief moments of watching the stars feels like, I would imagine, looking at the earth from the moon.
We can still see the Milky Way with our own eyes. There are places where the stars are so bright you can walk in the starlight, no sunlight or moonlight needed.
Even those places are dwindling. I went to Glacier NP as a kid and remembered seeing the Milky way so vividly and brightly at the KOA, it stuck with me my whole life. I went back a couple years ago and its no longer that visible there...because of the light pollution from nearby, growing Kalispell and Whitefish.
Fellow etymology nerd here! I love your writing, I can't help but add onto the influence/influencer bit... influenza. The whole "flowing into" meaning went viral, literally, in Medieval times, and now influencers go viral online. It's funny how things flow back around.
The coincidence is uncanny - Just when I release my article today, I find this one. And I'm in agreement. Our understanding of stars will change as people continue to flood online and into our cities, just as distance changed from a geographical standpoint to nodes and spokes.
Suzy is pretty funny and enjoyable to read! She's not a blood relative of Nellie but she has the knack. Unfortunately, most of the other TFP pretenders do not have the same sense of humor and therefore exhibit trying to hard rather than the knack. If Nellie or Suzy can't write for a certain week, which is understandable, PLEEEESE don't gum up TGIF or The Big Read with a stand in.
Starry skies are magnificent and awe inspiring. However, I object to the term “light pollution”. It carries a negative connotation as if somehow light is evil and therefore harmful. Does light obstruct the visibility of a starry sky? Of course, but not in all places, that is until the sun brings the light of the day.
i love everything u write, I've always loved books and writing but the you made tje linguistics of everything so interested, I'm buying the book as soon as i can afford to xoxo
Fascinating and much needed. I’m glad more people are talking about light pollution and the effect a lack of exposure to seeing the stars is having on us. Some people have even mistaken stars and planets for drones and UFOs in recent years! Our ancestors would be laughing at us…
Not only this but we see more stars online in the form of photos from space, like Hubble and JWST, the irony being that the more advanced and detailed our space images get, the fewer of them we see with the naked eye.
There are some books about this, I have yet to read them but they go into this a lot, as in, the cultural side of stargazing and how it’s decreased because of light pollution: The Human Cosmos by Jo Marchant and Starborn by Roberto Trotta.
And I’m also thinking about the recent rise in astrology. How it’s become so popular in the last decades or so and people are taking it seriously, not just the pop ‘oh what’s your sign?’ stuff but some really go deep into the classical forms of astrology. Whatever one thinks of it, as a bit of fun, or as pseudoscience, or as a spiritual practice which people find helps them in a way, perhaps it shows that people still feel a pull deep inside, a desire (ha!) to find meaning in the stars… (regardless of what one might think of astrology and its validity, I’m mentioning it as a cultural phenomenon purely here)
I grew up on the Colorado plateau in flagstaff az where Pluto was discovered; sleeping under stars 7 months out of year as a Grand Canyon river guide encouraging our river guests to sleep out under the stars not in a tent. It’s rare now I return to the rivers shore. Two years ago I returned and one night looking up at the vast universe my heart dropped and a sadness, an awareness of loss descended upon me as I witnessed for the first time in my lifetime the chain of starlink crossing the canyon sky. What loss from what gain ? With all the tech in The world war starvation and an eroding civility and stewardship. Still I have hope from the knowledge the stars and vast cosmos remains weaving our complex stories into the web of lanekala - we are all interconnected.
Keep wishing upon a star dear humans.
To
I am a astrophotography and we all hate starlink. It's completely screwed up our skies. Sure there software that can remove it in post production but its such a aggravating and nonconsentual interruption.
I also love photographing the moon knowing that in the not too distant future, human colonization will forever change the face of the moon...which has been unchanged constant for all of known humanity. How will that hit us at a deep level?
I love looking at and pondering indigenous star maps - the ancient sea navigators and those ancient sites where a niche in a rock aligned w a ray of light- an astroarchaeology is a book on this shelf!
My parents both worked for USGS and my dad helped making training movies for the astronauts first landing ! I was a toddler climbing around on the practice moon rover !
I truly hope “colonization” of planets as we know won’t happen until we as a species evolve consciously. There’s a poem by Simon Ortiz about Gene Shoemaker’s ashes on the moon as a desecration to the Spirituality of Crsstion.
If only we can bridge the division caused by the lens of progress to use natural resources instead of stewardship of our interconnectedness.
Indigenous and Ancient peoples saw and were aware of these cosmic truths and navigated and drew conclusions beyond our current perceptions with all the tech. Their star maps still not understood by “modern” ways -
I advocate to listen to our Indigenous peoples all around the globe - just as the Hawaiians don’t want that telescope on their Sacred mountain - they know their relationship to the Cosmos.
The African Dogan and the Zuni share similar cosmic origin creation stories ; these mysteries keep me hopeful humanity will evolve m.
The greed and destruction of current times is not sustainable. our relationship to the cosmos is still a mystery unfolding. We got to remember we are also stardust ;)
Here’s incredible song remade by kids inspired by their teacher. If we fall I. Love with nature we may save one another because we came to know and share the love. Keep looking to the stars!!! 🙌🏾💫🙌
https://youtu.be/YWjTbB4ONeM?si=w36Iqqvt7AeCUMq5
I recently got a Seestar, which does all the “love labor” of creating images for you, But the ugly truth about stacking is simply this - the scope take “fake it” and make the sky accessible to suburban folks, but at the cost of direct observation. I want my eyeballs to get the photons from the stars directly. And the only way to do that is to observe, meaning I have to go somewhere dark at night and look up. When I stand outside my home, I can barely make out the constellations, let alone all the deep sky blossoms I long to see…
The part I spiral on, not looking at the stars has changed our eyes. Staring so far away uses different muscles in your eyes. But staring at a screen filled with stars damages them. I spent so much of my childhood in the dark staring in awe at the sky, to think this is a dream now for people because of light encroachment.
Oh this is so interesting! A few years ago I went to a drive-in movie for the first time, and I realized that movie stars were probably called stars because they were projected onto large screens like stars in the night sky. For thousands of years humans looked up at the stars and projected their own stories onto them. As above, so below.
Also interesting is that cosmos, meaning order, is in cosmology (study of the universe) and cosmetology (study of beauty treatments).
Cant wait to go to the mountains in august and see the galaxy again
George Washington famously wore false teeth and perhaps others wear them too. They are similar to the stars for one reason. They come out at night. I like stars and astrophotography and Gemini's. ...and cats.
fascinating analogy!! modern orthodontics has completely changed our relationships with our own mouths
Sorry I'm trollish sounding. My defense this that my mouth is almost broke, almost wired shut. I hope to find the energy to follow/ subscribe as this is tremendous work you're doing with and about words and as usual they make for good thoughts. Thanks.
You may have inspired me to write a piece about influencers, thank you (will tag you if it arrives)
And influencers are looking to become stars, often by leveraging desire (buy this, be like me, etc).
love love love this!!! ❤️ the amount of times i have heard you say "interpretative framework" is definitely much more than the average person loll
We are lucky in New Zealand to have a number of Dark Sky zones where light pollution is actively discouraged. It helps to have a population of only 5 million.
Fascinating to think that people could see the Milky Way naked with their eyes back in the day. A few brief moments of watching the stars feels like, I would imagine, looking at the earth from the moon.
We can still see the Milky Way with our own eyes. There are places where the stars are so bright you can walk in the starlight, no sunlight or moonlight needed.
Even those places are dwindling. I went to Glacier NP as a kid and remembered seeing the Milky way so vividly and brightly at the KOA, it stuck with me my whole life. I went back a couple years ago and its no longer that visible there...because of the light pollution from nearby, growing Kalispell and Whitefish.
I imagine very remote locations?
Yes
Fellow etymology nerd here! I love your writing, I can't help but add onto the influence/influencer bit... influenza. The whole "flowing into" meaning went viral, literally, in Medieval times, and now influencers go viral online. It's funny how things flow back around.
The coincidence is uncanny - Just when I release my article today, I find this one. And I'm in agreement. Our understanding of stars will change as people continue to flood online and into our cities, just as distance changed from a geographical standpoint to nodes and spokes.
Suzy is pretty funny and enjoyable to read! She's not a blood relative of Nellie but she has the knack. Unfortunately, most of the other TFP pretenders do not have the same sense of humor and therefore exhibit trying to hard rather than the knack. If Nellie or Suzy can't write for a certain week, which is understandable, PLEEEESE don't gum up TGIF or The Big Read with a stand in.
Starry skies are magnificent and awe inspiring. However, I object to the term “light pollution”. It carries a negative connotation as if somehow light is evil and therefore harmful. Does light obstruct the visibility of a starry sky? Of course, but not in all places, that is until the sun brings the light of the day.
Bright lights make it more difficult for migrating birds to find their way.
Light pollution is harmful, without malicious intent.