[Magdalen] Wow! Watch sandstorm reshape dunes | Earth | EarthSky

[Sibyl Smirl]

On 6/25/16 10:56 AM, M J _Mike_ Logsdon wrote:
>>>> I am fascinated by desert.  And look at the Milky Way!  Now that our
> night skies are virtually empty to us in much of our land, we have
> largely lost that sense of awe and wonder about the universe that used
> to be triggered by merely looking up at night.<<<
>
> Indeed.  Many years ago in So Cal I knew a fellow who'd taken his family to Arizona or somesuch for a vacation, and during the first night there his little girl started crying and shaking.  "What's wrong, honey?"  She pointed up ... at the stars.  She'd never seen them before.

Cradle Californians are envied by many, but they do miss out on a lot. 
When my husband was eleven, his mother moved him from here to Long 
Beach.  He was out playing with a bunch of other kids around his age, 
when it thundered.  The Kansas kid wasn't bothered.  The kids he was 
with panicked, thought they were hearing an A-bomb.  They'd never heard 
thunder before.  I understand that California doesn't have lightning 
bugs, either.

Have you ever read the SF classic "Nightfall"?  I think it's by Asimov. 
  It's about a world where the stars are only visible one night in a 
thousand years.




-- 
Sibyl Smirl
I will take no bull from your house!  Psalms 50:9a
mailto:polycarpa3 at ckt.net