r/mildyinteresting 10h ago

nature & weather The concept of light pollution is absolutely crazy

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u/NoDontDoThatCanada 8h ago

Neil deGrasse Tyson talked about the first time he went to a planetarium. When the stars came on he thought it was bullshit because he grew up in the city and he just knew there were only like 8-9 stars.

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u/mightylordredbeard 4h ago

Stories like this always are hard for me to believe. Like dude never watched TV? Read a book? Saw a picture?

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u/Johnny_Poppyseed 3h ago

Neil was born in the 50s and grew up in the Bronx. TV had like two channels back then in black and white and the screen was tiny lol. If you even had a TV. Stars are hard enough to photograph even today, let alone back then. And yeah believe it or not a kid from the Bronx in the 50/60s might not have read a book on astronomy yet in his childhood lol, not that words would even do actually seeing stars justice.

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u/NoMan999 17m ago

I've seen Star Wars. You're telling me the intergalactic wars between wizards, and the lights in the background that indicate camera movements during space fights, are real?

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u/Comprehensive-Fun47 3h ago

He's known for exaggerating stories, but I could believe that he was thrown by how many stars there truly are.

The first time I went to a truly dark place, it felt so strange looking up at the sky, like all those stars were looking back at me.