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Thanks for pointing out the issue of stores keeping all their lights on at night.

For all the talks of major plans to tackle climate change, some obviously stupid things like these are just completely ignored. Not just one but every single shop on the high streets of UK do this. I do not understand why. I also do not understand why this is never ever mentioned in the media.

It seems like the developed world is totally reluctant to change its ways fundamentally. I was schocked to read this story - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6957328.stm

So, basically the west will try to bail out of cleaning up their act until the next big disaster? There seems to be no basic sense of judicious use of resources.

I remember visiting the London Planetarium as a lad, when they had the old mechanical star projector that looked like some kind of strange black insect-like robot. We were shown a comparitive view of the night sky as it is in contemporary times, and as it would have appeared before industrialisation, abundant streetlighting, or indeed coal fires. It was incredible how much of the sky we blot out, and something I later witnessed when visiting places in Thailand and Mexico, away from the madding crowds in places where the electricity was generated on the spot, and promptly switched off at 9pm. It's amazing how much time can pass while lying on your back on a beach star gazing.

A few years ago I went to San Francisco and some friends spirited me away to a hilltop somewhere in deepest Marin. We kept winding up and up and through the woods to emerge, finally, in a parking lot filled with amateur astronomers and their gear. It was a new moon, and I immediately established my bona fides by pointing at the sky and asking "Wow, what's the deal with that cool vertical cloud?"

How the hell am I supposed to know what the Milky Way looks like when I live in Los Angeles?

In other news, I got to enjoy last night's total lunar eclipse, even from my light-polluted porch. It’s very interesting to see the eclipse through the 20mm lens, though the viewfinder, and with the naked eye. Very different experiences all.

Through the regular lens the Moon reminded me of a Frazetta drawing, through the viewfinder it appeared like a bright orange Star Trek planet, but with the naked eye the moon looked like it’s a slowly glowing piece of coal. No wonder the ancient civilizations went crazy with the eclipses. It’s very impressive stuff!

Carpe Noctem! I'm on board. If you need a black-on-black logo let me know. Carpe Varnish!

Check out Google Sky:

http://earth.google.com/sky/

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