Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Daylight
- 2 Shadows
- 3 Mirages
- 4 Sunset and sunrise
- 5 Rainbows
- 6 Coronae and glories
- 7 Atmospheric halos
- 8 The night sky
- 9 The Moon
- 10 Eclipses
- 11 Planets
- 12 Stars
- 13 Comets and meteors
- APPENDIX: Technical and practical advice for skygazing
- Glossary
- Further reading
- Sources and notes
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Daylight
- 2 Shadows
- 3 Mirages
- 4 Sunset and sunrise
- 5 Rainbows
- 6 Coronae and glories
- 7 Atmospheric halos
- 8 The night sky
- 9 The Moon
- 10 Eclipses
- 11 Planets
- 12 Stars
- 13 Comets and meteors
- APPENDIX: Technical and practical advice for skygazing
- Glossary
- Further reading
- Sources and notes
- Index
Summary
It's lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened. Jim he allowed they was made, but I allowed they happened; I judged it would have took too long to MAKE so many. Jim said the Moon could a LAID them; well, that looked kind of reasonable, so I didn't say nothing against it, because I've seen a frog lay most as many, so of course it could be done. We used to watch the stars that fell, too, and see them streak down. Jim allowed they'd got spoiled and was hove out of the nest.
Mark Twain, The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, Penguin, 1994, ch.12, p. 120Light without form
The price we pay for city life is blank urban night skies, rendered almost starless by our addiction to light. Electric light is, without doubt, a ‘good thing’. But, like all good things, you can have too much of it. Many of our cities are so brightly lit that our eyes are perpetually dazzled, and we are unable to see any but the very brightest stars and planets.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Out of the BlueA 24-Hour Skywatcher's Guide, pp. 258 - 281Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002