Starry Night

ATA Blog

Starry Night rev. 1a

“I will love the light for it shows me the way;
yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars.“

-Augustine “Og” Mandino

NASA is breathing easier as the James Webb Telescope has reached its orbital point a million miles from Earth, and is unfurling all the components that will allow astronomers to look back in space and time at the vast miracles of the universe.  This fresh view will allow us to know the universe – and ourselves – in a multitude of new ways: this immensely broadened perspective changing us as we place ourselves in the vast story of our universe, of which we are a part.

Looking up into the cosmos has that effect: expanding us, lifting our consciousness, and making us understand how very small and insignificant – and at the same time, how rare and precious – we are.

Do you ever stop to see the stars?  In the midst of crisis, plague and climate change, do you ever just stop to see the heavens above?  Do you allow yourself to stand in the darkness and gaze and wonder?

More importantly, can you even see the stars in the darkness anymore?  

We Are Losing the Night.

What happens when people stop being able to look at the night sky, as many of us did when we were children? What happens when people stop knowing that the universe is filled with vast, ancient mysteries and possibilities?  What happens when people look up and all they can see is human-made?  

Believe it or not, the loss of nighttime darkness has a multitude of negative impacts, and not just the loss of wonder. Chicago is one of the most light-polluted cities in the world at night. While nighttime illumination is something we often think of as beautiful (when done well) and helpful (creating safety and dispelling our fears of the dark), we often don't realize what it has done to our entire ecosystem – the animals, the plants, and us.  

Suddenly without a true night and day, our bodies are confused and sleep suffers. We don't know how to wind down. We treat all days as if they are the same length, no matter what the sun says.   We act as though our circadian (literally "around the day") cycle does not matter at all. 

The list of impacts is growing: migrating birds lose their landmarks. Trees have problems making their seasonal changes.  Predators that used not to be able to see their prey at night now can continue the hunt, drastically shifting the balance.  

Scientists are attempting to quantify the ill effect on our physical health.  But what about our mental health?  What about our souls?  

You may not even know that you have lost your night sky, or be aware just how bad the loss of nighttime has become.  According to David Lorenz' 2020 Light Pollution Atlas, this is Chicagoland at night: http://www.cleardarksky.com/lp/Chicagolp.html?Mn=astronomy

Take a look at the colors: brown moving toward red means that much of the Milky Way Galaxy is lost at night.  Clouds are much brighter than the night sky.  Grey means the "entire sky is grayish or brighter. Familiar constellations are missing stars. Fainter constellations are absent."  White means the entire sky is discolored and "most people don't look up."  

I wonder: what happens when we forget how small we are, and how much bigger everything else is?  Does it contribute to our delusion that we can control the world without consequences?  Does it contribute to our despair, thinking this is really all there is?   Does it make us forget that we are part of a much larger system: life, the universe and everything?  

Tonight, wherever you are, go outside and look at the sky. Can you see the wonders? Overhead are countless distant fires, stars upon stars in clusters and constellations, a natural darkness where the faintest colors and lights shine. For most of human history, wherever on the globe, this was the night we knew. This was the darkness in which all life evolved and which our body and spirit still crave. Art and science and religion all flowed from our experience of natural darkness and a starry night sky. This is where we came from, this is who we are.

–Paul Bogard, author of End of Night, 2019

Reclaim the Darkness – Without and Within

We already know that we were endowed with the amazing power of renewal when we sleep: a third of our lives is devoted to this nighttime rejuvenation. To extend the metaphor: what about the "dark places" inside of us?   Perhaps they are not to be feared, shunned – perhaps our dark places, our darker emotions have a richness to give us.  Maybe, like the deep cosmic depths, they are the birthplace of new light and new possibilities.     

Look up at the stars.  Celebrate and be healed in the dark.   Go somewhere where you can really see the Milky Way in its glory.  Let the lights in the darkness spark humility and awe, be our guiding stars, our wishing stars, the home of our highest hopes in this vast mystery we share. Turn off the artificial lights, and allow natures’ rhythm and cycle embrace us. Let’s not let our views of the stars be only through a NASA telescope a million miles away.  

Become part of the solution: Explore, support and participate with the International Dark-Sky Association https://www.darksky.org/