Sunday, March 1, 2020

The Night

Screen capture from Netflix series Night on Earth
I started watching an interesting series on Netflix last night, Night on Earth. Using special low light and infrared cameras, the makers of the series look at life in the wild after dark. As a human who has evolved to stay hunkered down and near the campfire after sundown, it's a very interesting series. Especially the scenes on the African savanna.

Large herds of grazers, here and there a pride of lions or a pack of cheetahs. Off in the distance can be seen the lights of Masai villages, humans like me staying well away from the dance of life and death "out there."

I've always had a fascination with the night, especially growing up in a very small town far away from the light pollution of the larger cities. I remember being able to see the Milky Way in the night sky. The last time I saw that was twenty years ago, returning to my parents after a trip out to Indiana for a job interview.

I was on the last flight into Bradley International in the first week of August, 1999. I had driven there from New Hampshire the day before. The company I was interviewing with had provided me with a hotel and a rental car, I would spend one night, interview in the morning and fly back that second day. I remember that the outbound flight almost didn't occur. The weather was horrible, lots of rain, lots of lightning, but it cleared sufficiently to get me to Fort Wayne.

Coming back to an airport in the process of shutting down was somewhat unnerving. No place to get coffee, no place to grab a soda at the airport before getting my car from long term parking and making the hundred-plus mile drive back to Mom and Dad's place. One thing I noticed was that for early August, it was pretty chilly.

I did find a 7-11 open near the airport and got a beverage for the long drive up I-91. Off into the darkness I went. The drive was somewhat uneventful, I say somewhat because I had to make a stop at a rest area inside Vermont, which I suspected might be a haven for ne'er-do-wells, druggies, and sexual perverts, which was a bit nerve-wracking. Fortunately there was a State Trooper there, also answering a call of some kind. (Mine was a call of nature, I know, I know, TMI.)

Anyhoo, I got back into the car and headed back up the road, arriving at my parents' around 0230 in the morning as I recall. Good Lord was it cold! I had on nothing but a coat and tie and the air was bone chilling. (I later learned that it was around 31°! Remember, this was August.) Before bustling into the house and a warm bed, I looked up at the sky.

There it was, stark and awe-inspiring, the Milky Way...

Something like this, but nowhere near as bright.
(Source)
I lingered for a few moments before retiring for the night.

Oddly enough I used to spend a lot more time outside at night when I was a smoker. Rather than stink up the house I was exiled to the deck outside of the kitchen. From there I would survey the night sky and look for the stars and constellations I know. I would also listen to the sounds of the night, the chirping of the tree frogs in summer, the various nocturnal birds, sometimes I would see the flicker of a bat against the night sky.

One night I went outside and the neighbors were out and informed me that there was an owl perched upon our lamp post next to the driveway. Sure enough there was, a very young owl who didn't appreciate the attention he or she was attracting from the local humans.

Foxes, skunks, and the occasional deer were companions on my nightly smoke breaks. While I don't miss the habit, I do miss having the excuse to go outside and observe the night. I will do it on occasion, but it's not the same for some reason.

I still remember the night I was traveling across northern New Mexico in January, making my way from northern Colorado down to San Antonio (which I always hear in my head as "San Antone"). Having to stop to answer a call of nature (hey, what else should I call it, even if it is TMI), I pulled off to the side of the road. (Route 87 as I recall.)

When I switched the headlights off I was overwhelmed by the night sky, stars, as Carl Sagan would have said, "billions and billions of them." I had never been so far from civilization in the dead of winter with such a clear sky overhead. It struck me that that was the vision our distant ancestors had before we became town and city dwellers for the most part.

No sky awash with the lights of a nearby town, heck, wasn't even a house within ten miles of me, but a clear sky, no moon, with all the stars of God's Heaven laid out before me. Spectacular and not a little humbling, I can tell you.

Though I lingered only a few minutes to behold that sky, the image of that has stayed with me all the years since. There is a reason so many legends and stories came from what our ancestors saw in the night sky. With such a show before one every night, and not really being equipped to wander around the plains/forest with all the toothy bastards looking for a meal, we stayed close to home and told each other stories of the sky.

Now with technology, we ape-lizards can hunt with the best of 'em at night. Still though, evolution made us creatures of the sun, we still approach the dark with a certain amount of atavistic fear. Thousands of years taught us, not really to fear the night, but respect it. Without our tech, we're deaf, dumb, and blind under the night sky.





Do watch that Netflix series, very entertaining.

44 comments:

  1. San Antone or San Antonio. My father was born in El Paso and lived there until the US Army drafted him in mid 1941.
    He always said San Antone and my mental voice always pronounces it that way.

    I remember being somewhere on the Rush, getting off watch, and stepping on deck to look up. It was simply amazing, and describing the Milky Way as looking like someone had rolled a paint roller daubed in stars across the nighttime sky wasn't much of an exaggeration.

    I read a magazine article that describe life before artificial lighting, and outdoor activity ended when the sun went down.

    Good post and I'm off to tag that series on Netflix.

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    1. I was braced for Netflix showering me with their left-leaning sensibilities, so far they've restrained themselves well, only a passing mention to "climate change" near the end of the second episode. Didn't blame it on people but didn't qualify the statement with any fact. Truth is, the climate has been changing since the Earth cooled. Why does no one mention sun spot activity? Or the lack thereof.

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    2. Back before electricity everywhere, even after gas lighting, only the rich stayed up late. The farther back in time the richer one had to be to be up after dark. Amazing how bringing tech to everyone has changed our lives.

      As to climate change, one must ask when the UN and other agencies are going to go after the maple sap harvesters and boilers. Why? Because making maple syrup and maple sugar generates huge clouds of the most deadly greenhouse gas. Also known as water vapor. So to protect the environment we should cut down all sugar maples. Well, if we were all California we would...

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    3. California desperately needs pruning.

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    4. Sarge, regarding California, if you're talking about the back country (for fire suppression), you are correct. If you mean something more political you're so right. Unfortunately it keeps getting worse, and I don't think there are large enough shears to take care of it. Not sure how it'll happen, but it seems to be unsustainable- the constantly increasing taxes, the homeless population growth, the ever increasing state salaries and benefits.

      Sorry. Super-Tuesday is coming up and my ballot had more new taxes on it so I'm a little sensitive!

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    5. In the back country AND Sacramento.

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  2. We naval persons know this feeling well. Night watches at sea with a darkened ship. Silent except the sound of the sea. We also (at least used to) navigate using those stars.

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    1. Something my sea-faring progeny have told me about. I had hoped to see that on our cruise to Bermuda some years ago, no one told me that cruise ships are lit up like a small city. Heck, I could see more stars from downtown Providence.

      I still want to experience that some day...

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    2. Heard rumors that celestial navigation classes are back on for Big Navy as they have begun to realize that idiots can't use GPS when the system is hacked by a certain large country currently undergoing an epidemic but I won't name them.

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    3. I've heard that as well. Over-reliance on tech is stupid.

      Self-driving cars, bah humbug.

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  3. You've touched on two of the three places I remember the spectacular night sky - driving from Dallas to San Antonio to visit my mom's uncle, we usually went at night to avoid traffic. This was pre-I35, so we went on US Highways, and I was small enough at that point to lie up on the package shelf behind the back seat and stare up at the night sky. Boy did my mind wonder at all those stars! The second was much like another of yours - northern New Mexico out in the four corners area. My girlfriend and I were camping in Chaco Canyon, and there was absolutely no artificial light, the fire had died down, and we were all snuggled up in a sleeping bag. We just lay there in awe of the Milky Way, the shooting stars, and the rest of the splendor. The third place is on the Big Island in Hawaii, either at Volcano National Park or just a bit downslope from there. Again, very little ambient light to mess up the view. One time, had to pull over to let the boys 'answer a call of nature', and when we turned off the lights and got out of the car, the Milky Way and other assorted billions of stars were right in our face - looked touchable, in fact. And the only glow was of the Pu'u 'O'o vent just out of direct line of sight. So looking at light from billions of years ago while the earth was making new surface material close by. Just awesome! We occasionally have some spectacular moon rises at the beach, but there is too much ambient light to see the stars so magnificently.

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  4. So... earlier I wrote a rather lengthy (for me) comment about viewing stars from signal bridges on tin cans and the tops of dormant volcanoes.
    But I had failed to notice that I had not snuck in through the back door via koobecaf.
    it’s weird that I can’t log into blogger on the iPad, but can get in this way.

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    1. I'll have to see if The Missus Herself will let me attempt a logon from her iPad. As much as I don't like iPads, I'll do it because not everyone does Windows/Android/etc.

      The stars from aloft, without any light pollution, must be spectacular.

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  5. The most memorable night I experienced was in Crete. I had ridden in a C-130 for 8 hours from Frankfurt, and we landed at a NATO Air Base. I walked around a bit and the sky was so full of stars that I had a feeling of awe.

    As far as the Savannah, that is when the lions come alive. We'd see them the next morning, swollen bellies and relaxing. The tourists wanted to take pictures of them.

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  6. I've always loved the night sky and that's one of the advantages of living out here in the country. Our nearest town is Holden which is twelve miles away. Even out here away from all the light pollution, we don't get to see as many stars as are showing in your pictures but still the night sky is beautiful!. The Katy Trail passes about a hundred yards from us and on the nights that I can't sleep (which seems to happen more and more now that I'm an old fart) I go out for long walks with our GSD and enjoy the view and all the night sounds. Lady really loves the night walks and she always sings with the coyotes.

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    1. A walk at night can be thrilling. (In more ways than one, DAMHIK.)

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  7. Watching the sky in Vandenberg AFB in the late '60s was spectacular, as there wasn't a lot of alway-on-base-lighting. Then we moved to Kwajalein. Wow. Tropical night skies. Very rarely was the sky so dark you couldn't see to walk just from the starlight (or so it seemed).

    Night fishing in the Gulf Stream out of Sebastian Inlet in Florida. The only lights seen were the commercial fishermen and probably a few drug smugglers. Beautiful skies.

    As to missing the evening dark, you and your lady could always begin to take evening tea or coffee on the veranda and enjoy a quiet time of talking and just sucking in the darkness (and the lights in the parking lot behind your house.)

    Used to do that back in the day at the house. Go out on the back screened deck and just sit and decompress and listen to the world.

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    1. Ah, evenings on the veranda, have I ever mentioned that The Missus Herself, besides being irresistible to me, is also a favorite of the mosquitoes?

      There is that...

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    2. They make this stuff, shhhh, don't tell anyone else, called screening. People in the south have been using it for years to ward off the blood suckers with 6 legs.

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    3. Doesn't work on her, like I said, she's irresistible. We've tried everything.

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  8. Yep, stopping to pee by the highway in the high desert, with nobody around for miles... stars.

    But, night watch on the deck of a ship, from a couple hundred miles away from the nearest light source... STARS.

    This ship: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corwith_Cramer_(ship) Lucky enough to do a high-school program onboard...

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    1. Nice! The wind in the sails, the water hissing against the hull, and the stars at night (er, I mean STARS) - paradise.

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    2. Worked with a guy who saw stars when he peed. Doc said it was caused by kidney stones...

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    3. Been there, done that. Didn't see individual stars, just one supernova.

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  9. Mars through a periscope while snorkeling ... Old Guns

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    1. Now that would be interesting.

      For those who don't get it, diesel submarines would snorkel to recharge their batteries.

      There is also no truth to the rumor that Old Guns was pierside when Bushnell's Turtle was launched...

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    2. Nah! Flying at 45000' 200NM SW of Okinawa, clear, moonless night, single ship (#2 had aborted) nothing to do, but look around, above 75% of the Earth's atmosphere. No other indications of human life within visual range other than me and my jet. Bored to death, but had a program on my home PC which displayed heading and elevation to celestial bodies that I'd printed out. Turn to a heading, pitch the nose up to the elevation and see the Rings of Saturn through the naked eye.

      Now, that is cool!

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    3. Beyond cool. (Yes, that was my jealous face...)

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  10. One of the attractions of the Prescott area is they take light pollution seriously. I've lived too long on the California coast, I'd like to see the stars again.

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    1. Prescott, what a lovely area!

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    2. Rick T. Wait just a few more years. California's leaders are attempting to out-dark North Korea.

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  11. I recommend an occasional glass of port and a nice cigar...just to enjoy the night life you know.

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    1. Port is good, cigars, not so much. Being a recovering nicotine addict, I have to avoid those.

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    2. Scotch is better. Less sugar. (but similar carbs)

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    3. Can't do Scotch, long story there. Well, it's a short one provided I ever tell it.

      A tale from my rather stupid youth.

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  12. I learned young that I'm the scariest thing hidden by the night. Which changes the equation entirely.

    I looked up and beheld Comet Hyakutake one winter night and nearly froze to death without realizing it. I was this close to being transported to Barsoom.

    As Gus McCrae said, "It ain't dyin' I'm talkin' about. It's livin'!"

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    1. With our tech we're the scariest living thing on the planet. Without it we aren't quite as scary, even with that big brain.

      (Note - I count spears and clubs as tech, caveman-tech, but it's better than harsh words and a nasty look.)

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  13. (Don McCollor)...I used to enjoy spending most of the night just sitting outside on my (vacant) farm (no artificial lights visible inside the grove [well a flashlight in my pocket]). As the sun set and dusk came on, the birds stopped singing and rabbits and perhaps a woodchuck or deer would appear in the yard. Then at almost dark bats would start circling half seen against the lighter sky and start making strafing passes just above me (I quickly realized they were hunting mosquitoes and I was attracting most of them) as the stars came out. Then watching the moon rise over the trees starting to illuminate the yard. Watching the slow movement of the stars and moon and listening to the night sounds (there was a stentorian owl) until finally retiring for a few short hours before watching night turn back into day. As the stars imperceptibly faded, there would be a few chirps, then the birds would start singing. I would sit watching until the sun rose again at dawn. The next day I was tired, but relaxed and at peace...

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    1. Paradise, right there.

      Reminds me of nights at my grandmother's farm, listening to the whippoorwills at dusk. Wow.

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    2. (Don McCollor)...later there were nights in a tent in Montana and Wyoming drifting off to sleep with the coyotes singing a lullaby...

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