That's an incredible part of the world I'd love to visit.

I was just looking at the distance between Elqui Valley and Cerro Paranal, and it's an 8 hour drive.

Seems like the ocean would cause some problems with reflective light.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

From my limited experience on the ocean, the Atlantic off the coast of Florida, you only have to be a few miles off shore to get a fantastic view of the stars when the sky is clear.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

I'd really like to visit it someday... ;)

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non-profit org. Play4Life in Zagreb, Croatia, EU

Light pollution indeed spoils a lot from people. I once used to live in an outlying suburb, and sometimes late in the night, when they had shut off street lights, it was magnificent to walk home right under the Milky Way.

And how much wasted energy there must be in all that illumination going where nobody needs it?

Edit: the concept of light pollution surely is generally known, but just one insight: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/11/light-pollution/klinkenborg-text/1.

That was a nice article, but

In the south Atlantic the glow from a single fishing fleet—squid fishermen luring their prey with metal halide lamps—can be seen from space, burning brighter, in fact, than Buenos Aires or Rio de Janeiro.

- I find that hard to believe.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Best dark sky I've seen in England is around Keilder Forest.

And as others have said, seeing the sky from the edge of civilization (or even beyond) takes some beating.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

As it seems to me, the very large city centres are... well, larger..., but the maximum radiance pollution level of the fishing fleets is within same scale. Which makes me also wonder, if I ever realised before how large-scale the squid or other fishing actually is.

I guess the concentration of the light in the middle of nowhere on the ocean is what causes them to stand out.

And, can you see the Milky Way from your location?

No, I've never seen it at all, anywhere, but the best I can see in Louisville is the Big and Little Dippers and the Belt of Orion.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Interesting. Scroll that map over between Australia and Antarctica for some interesting activity.

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The closest thing to a transcendent religious experience I ever had was at night one August, while on a rowboat in a lake in Canada. I could see the Milky Way from horizon to horizon. The stars looked 3D instead of 2D (yeah, yeah, I know it was an optical illusion, but still...).
HOWEVER there was an edging of light on part of the horizon where Toronto (IIRC) was located, and a bubble of light where Kingston was.
Light pollution travels far.

This all makes me want to go to the planetarium again, soon. That's the darkest "sky" I've ever seen. ;~)

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place