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What Major World Cities Look Like at Night, Minus the Light Pollution

blogs.smithsonianmag.com

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Re: What Major World Cities Look Like at Night, Minus the Light Pollution

#31

Post by jedberg »

Retric wrote: post #28
_delirium wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An interesting difference between your photos and the renditions linked here is that the buildings in yours are black silhouettes, while the ones here are fairly well lit up. That's the first thing that stuck out at me: if there is no light pollution, what is lighting the foreground buildings? If you look at the Hong Kong photo, for example, it looks like there is a ton of light pollution: all the buildings, plus the…

On a clear night without light pollution stars provide decent illumination. However, those photo's where clearly Photoshopped.

> However, those photo's where clearly Photoshopped.

That's pretty much what the entire article was about. :)

Re: What Major World Cities Look Like at Night, Minus the Light Pollution

#33

Post by joeyh »

danso wrote: post #14

If you were in New York City during Hurricane Sandy, in the lower half, at least, you got a taste of this first hand. I had to walk home into the unpowered section of Manhattan every night from work. I took some photos during that time. Unfortunately, as it was still overcast, we never did get a chance to see the stars from downtown Manhattan: http://tumblr.eyeheartnewyork.com/post/37636219209/i-finally...

I live 30+ miles from any town of any size and there's still sufficient light pollution seeping over the horizon to make the hills stand out black against the sky. I'm lucky I can see the milky way at all, although somewhat washed out.

Being in the lower side of Manhatten, there would still be sufficient light pollution from all the areas nearby that still had power, that I'd doubt you'd see more than a few stars. You can see the sky glow in your pictures; compare the sky, with its visible clouds with the full-black buildings.

It's basically impossible to get a proper sky anywhere east of the Missisippi.

Re: What Major World Cities Look Like at Night, Minus the Light Pollution

#34

Post by quasque »

I find it rather an epiphany to realise that our distant ancestors must have seen the sky like this all the time, rather than the vague haze most of us experience. No wonder then that the movement of the stars and planets played such a cultural and religious impact on their lives.

Re: What Major World Cities Look Like at Night, Minus the Light Pollution

#35

Post by Camillo »

They would look nothing like those photos.

The city would look much, much darker. You can really tell that those are day shots of the cities with the brightness and saturation reduced.

The sky would look much, much less impressive. Photographers like to perpetuate a fantastic idea of the night sky by taking overexposed pictures, and this one is no exception. I have been in the middle of the savannah in Africa, with no light around for miles, and I don't remember the sky looking anything like that.

Re: What Major World Cities Look Like at Night, Minus the Light Pollution

#36

Post by grayrest »

hobb0001 wrote: post #6
duck wrote: post #5

After living in Alaska for several years, I don't really think that is how cities would look at all. With just stars and even the aurora borealis, it is incredible how pure darknesss looks. I really didn't know how much light pollution effected the sky until living there, but even in small towns and other less populated areas the light from various sources changes the skyline.

Whew. I was wondering if I was the only one who has been out in the mountains and other rural areas, but have never seen a night sky like these.

The stars look like this in the fall, in the western US, 60+ miles from the nearest city, and above 5000 ft. I've spent a lot more nights camping on the east coast and while you can see the milky way if you're remote enough, the altitude or the humidity or something makes the stars dimmer.

Re: What Major World Cities Look Like at Night, Minus the Light Pollution

#37

Post by learc83 »

joeyh wrote: post #33
danso wrote: post #14

If you were in New York City during Hurricane Sandy, in the lower half, at least, you got a taste of this first hand. I had to walk home into the unpowered section of Manhattan every night from work. I took some photos during that time. Unfortunately, as it was still overcast, we never did get a chance to see the stars from downtown Manhattan: http://tumblr.eyeheartnewyork.com/post/37636219209/i-finally...

I live 30+ miles from any town of any size and there's still sufficient light pollution seeping over the horizon to make the hills stand out black against the sky. I'm lucky I can see the milky way at all, although somewhat washed out. Being in the lower side of Manhatten, there would still be sufficient light pollution from all the areas nearby that still had power, that I'd doubt you'd see more than a few stars. Yo…

I went camping on an island just off the coast of florida a few years ago. There was a bit of a glow looking back at the coast, but looking out over the ocean the view was pretty amazing.

Re: What Major World Cities Look Like at Night, Minus the Light Pollution

#38

Post by learc83 »

Camillo wrote: post #35

They would look nothing like those photos. The city would look much, much darker. You can really tell that those are day shots of the cities with the brightness and saturation reduced. The sky would look much, much less impressive. Photographers like to perpetuate a fantastic idea of the night sky by taking overexposed pictures, and this one is no exception. I have been in the middle of the savannah in Africa, with n…

I've seen sky that looked pretty close to that--about like this video. (Probably a bit less bright, but still more impressive actually being there.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=p...!

I remember that it was different enough that I was blown away by the contrast.

Re: What Major World Cities Look Like at Night, Minus the Light Pollution

#39

Post by cpeterso »

danso wrote: post #14

If you were in New York City during Hurricane Sandy, in the lower half, at least, you got a taste of this first hand. I had to walk home into the unpowered section of Manhattan every night from work. I took some photos during that time. Unfortunately, as it was still overcast, we never did get a chance to see the stars from downtown Manhattan: http://tumblr.eyeheartnewyork.com/post/37636219209/i-finally...

Amazing photos! What is the streak of light in the sky of the Central Park (?) photo? An airplane or meteor?
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