Memories of Dark Skies

Jodell Ann Bradish (1949- )

Bradish-Scott family tree

home person 

What did our ancestors see when they looked up at the night sky? On clear, dark nights they were greeted by the breathtaking sight of thousands upon thousands of stars set against an inky backdrop. An even more beautiful spectacle awaited them on summer nights beginning in July – the appearance of the Milky Way at its brightest, stretching in an arc across the eastern sky from the southern to northern horizons. It was a broad band of cloudy-looking, softly glowing light that twinkled with countless stars.

Scenic View of the Night Sky by Hristo Fidanov on Pexels.com.

 

The night sky has amazed and intrigued humans for millennia. We've enjoyed its beauty, planned our lives by the movements of its celestial bodies, and used it to navigate the oceans. It's been an essential part of our very being for as long as we have been on Earth.

My fascination with the cosmos began when I was a child living on Ridge Road, located near the top of a hill that rises more than 300 feet above the village of Lakewood, New York. My family moved there in the summer of 1955. Even though our new home was just a few miles from our previous one in the small village of Celoron, it was quite a change. Celoron was a typical village with sidewalks, street lights, a nearby playground, and a fire station that was two blocks away. Ridge Road was a dead-end street less than a quarter-mile long. Woods and a couple of farmers' fields surrounded it; there were no street lights. It was rural, but not quite.

Chautauqua Lake and the surrounding area in Chautauqua County, New York. My red arrow points to the location of Ridge Road. Notice the three state forests. (Google Maps 2020)

 

Ridge Road was a little community in and of itself because seven families lived on that short road, five with children. By 1963, there were sixteen children whose ages ranged from newborn to seventeen. Ten of us were age twelve and older. It made for close-knit group of friends over the years. 

– THE MAGIC OF THE NIGHT SKY –

Despite of the lack of outdoor lighting, we all spent a great deal of time outside at night. The darkness made it better, especially when we played "Kick the Can" on summer nights or went sledding down the hills that were our backyards on winter nights. Looking up at the sky now and then was part of the night games experience for me. Some evenings when I wasn’t playing outside, I would go out in the yard to take it all in. Everything was quiet, the sky was dark, the stars were bright, and the Milky Way was glowing overhead. It was mesmerizing.

Over the years, I learned how to find many of the constellations. Orion the Hunter is still a favorite in the winter. It’s bright and easily identifiable in the southern sky because of the three stars that form Orion’s belt. Once I find them, I locate Betelgeuse, the red supergiant star that sits on Orion’s left shoulder. It’s the second brightest star in the constellation, with Rigel, a blue supergiant, being first. If I look at Betelgeuse for a few moments, I can see its slightly orange glow. 

Next, I look for Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the Big and Little Dippers, in the northern sky. After tracing up the two stars at the end of the Big Dipper’s bowl, I locate Polaris, the North Star. This is a winter routine that usually takes place after I take the trash to the curb the night before pick up. While that's not particularly glamorous, it’s a freeze-action moment where everything stops while I immerse myself in the splendor of the sky above me. Somehow my thoughts during this time are comforting. I feel the timeless rhythm and order of nature. Our ancestors felt it and depended upon it.

 

As I walk back into the house on those cold winter nights, I'm always reminded of the ancient mariners who relied on that star to find their way across the oceans as they sailed into the unknown. It makes me wonder if I would have been brave enough to take the risk.

My red arrow indicates the belt of Orion (Photo: Leafless Trees Under Starry Sky by James Wheeler at Pexels.com)

“Orion on Film” taken by Matthew Spinelli, a professional astronomer. The image was the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day on 7 Feb 2003. Spinelli provides a colorful explanation of the stars in the image, and describes how he captured it with his 35mm camera. [Note: In 2003, Betelgeuse was classified as a giant star. In 2018, it was reclassified as a supergiant star.]

"The Big Dipper" by professional astronomer, Jerry Lodriguss, was the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day on 21 April 2013. His explanation has interesting details about the stars in the image.

– NIGHT SKY MEMORIES –

When the Beatles made their U.S. debut in November 1963, a neighborhood friend and I became huge fans. In the summer of 1964, we spent many evenings slowly walking up and down Ridge Road, our transistor radios pressed against our ears while we listened to our favorite songs. On clear nights, I often looked up at the canopy of stars above me as we walked.

But the relaxed mood changed with the announcement of each new release of a Beatles song. Then we became laser-focused on WBZ out of Boston, a pop rock station that always had the newest music. The anticipation was almost more than we could stand. During this time, we often switched between WBZ and WLS in Chicago, even though the WLS signal wasn’t as strong. We didn't want to risk missing the first airing of a Beatles song, shaky signal or not. At 14 years of age, it didn’t get much better than this – spending time with a friend, listening to music, and looking at the stars.

I have vivid memories of the times I've marveled at the night sky. Some examples are when I:

• looked up at the stars through the car window as Dad drove us home through the country darkness after a visit to one of his sisters,

• drove away from the city lights of Fort Wayne, Indiana on a cold March night in 1986. My husband and I were taking our three children, ages 10, 7, and 5, to a darker place to view Halley's Comet. Every 75-76 years the comet passes close enough to Earth that it can be seen with the naked eye. My children will all be in their 80s when it returns in 2061 or 2062 but they'll be able to say they saw it twice,
  

• watched the Perseid meteor shower with my eleven-year-old son late one warm August night in 1992. Lying on a dock in the darkness at Glen Lake near Traverse City, Michigan, the show above us seemed magical,
  

• viewed Saturn with its rings and moons through a large telescope at a camp in southern Michigan. Set against a background of the deepest black I’ve ever seen, the real-time image was so vivid it looked like a high-resolution photograph in National Geographic,

• watched the moon rise with my son and grandchildren in July 2019 as we headed back to my dock after a boat ride. Soon, both Jupiter and the orange-glowing, red supergiant star, Antares, came into view on the moon’s upper right. Saturn joined the show on the moon's lower left,

• watched the Hunter’s Moon rise in October 2018 and the rise of the Super Pink Moon in April of this year. As always, I alerted my children and siblings about when and where to look.

 

The Hunter's Moon over the St. Joseph River, Elkhart, Indiana on October 23, 2018. (Photo by Jody Bradish)

On April 7, 2020, the reflection on the St. Joseph River in Elkhart, Indiana was the actual color of the Super Pink Moon. (Photo by Jody Bradish)

– CHANGES IN THE NIGHT SKY –

Even though I’m able to view the sunrise and the rise of the moon, stargazing has become difficult, at best. I live about a mile west of a small city with a population of about 50,000 and six miles east of two cities that have a combined population totaling just under 150,000. Unfortunately, light pollution is evident and getting worse. The sky is now a much lighter gray than it used to be; there’s an orange glow, called skyglow, over the tree line across the river. And finding Polaris is a challenge, even on moonless nights, because it's so faint in the light-polluted sky. 

My diminished view of the night sky has become a source of frustration over the last few years. But it wasn’t until I started researching the issue that I became aware of how serious the light pollution problem has become worldwide.

Light pollution interferes with night sky observations by amateur stargazers, astronomers, astrophysicists, and astrophotographers. It also wastes energy; decorative outdoor lighting is a good example. Not only that, but we are exposed to harmful blue light in our everyday lives through the use of LED lighting on our electronic devices, and in street lights and our homes. 

Additionally, light pollution disrupts ecosystems worldwide by altering the night–day cycle. This, in turn, alters how efficiently nocturnal predators can hunt and how well their prey can hide. It harms animals, such as frogs, sea turtles, and corals, and even damages insects and plants. (International Dark-Sky Association) Light pollution isn’t a problem for just the scientific community – it has a negative effect on all life on our planet.

 

– MAPS TELL THE STORY –

Although it was disturbing to read about the adverse effects humans have caused through our careless use of light, the real shock came when I found the maps. Never underestimate the power of a picture to drive a point home. This 2012 composite image of Earth at night is beautiful, but I was stunned by the number of places that have large areas of very bright lights. My first thought was, "No wonder I can’t see anything from my home."

 

NASA world image of night light pollution in 2012. (NASA Blue Marble Navigator)

My red arrow in the image below points to the Mishawaka/South Bend/Elkhart region. Obviously, stargazing will have to take place at another location. 

This cropped image from the 2012 NASA world image (previous photo) shows how serious the problem was in the U.S. alone at that time. (NASA Blue Marble Navigator)

– EUROPE, RUSSIA, AND ASIA –

 

Great Britain, Europe, Scandinavia, and the western portion of Russia in 2012. (NASA Blue Marble Navigator)

 

Asia in 2012. (NASA Blue Marble Navigator)

 

I miss the night sky from my childhood. I'm saddened by the realization that, other than the occasional excursion to a place more remote than my current home, I won't be able to add to my memories of a star-filled sky and the arc of the Milky Way. Instead, I'll have to rely on Internet images or books. Both are poor substitutes for stepping outside on a warm summer night to look up and see thousands of twinkling stars set against an ebony sky.

 

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– ONLINE ASTRONOMY SITES –

• NASA
• Sky & Telescope: The Essential Guide to Astronomy
• SPACE.com
  
• Astronomy Magazine
  

 

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Bradish-Scott Family History - June 2020  (Updated June 2022)