Sky Viewing During Power Outages

[Christopher K.]

Those in the Baton Rouge area probably were not able to take advantage of slightly darker skies caused by Hurricane Isaac (not as many lights went out as during Gustav) due to both the remaining of clouds for the next forty-eight hours and the relative speed with which Entergy restored a number of outages.

Although an inconvenience, a power outage does have the possible benefit of allowing a viewer comparison of darker and brighter skies from the same location. The greatest effect from the temporarily accessible dimmer objects comes when the person already has a familiarity with the stars that can be seen in the low contrast of the "regular", brighter sky.

[Christopher K.]

I wonder how many looked at the sky due to Cristobal outages. Probably not many; by the time the clouds break up the power is restored. Capping and shielding is much more reliable!

[Christopher K.]

If there are still power outages in your area tonight courtesy of Delta, take a moment to step outside and note whether you see more stars than usual. If you are interested in keeping that higher number of stars in your view even when there is not a power outage, attend the Natural Sky Conference at the Highland Road Park Observatory on Friday 13 November.