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Something to keep you awake at night!

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I haven't seen more than a few stars in years. Last time was years ago on Captiva Island in Florida. Even on the clearest night, light pollution here in the East ruins the night sky - no Milky Way that I used to see when I was a kid. Just the planet Venus, maybe Mars or Mercury, a few of the major stars and that's it. Todays kids will never get to see the universe as it really is.
 
Mercury is tough from anywhere. Here's a shot I took (with a simple camera) of Venus and Mercury. Mercury almost had to be pointed out to be found. Normally, the sun is just too bright (and close).
Venus and Mercury 23 April 02.jpg
 
We were in Flagstaff, AZ a few years ago at the Lowell Observatory. There is a small plaque near the building that represents the sun. A few feet away another that is Mercury, then Venus and maybe Earth. Turns out Pluto according to the scale there is just east of Los Angeles. Bill Bryson, is a book, sort of a history of everything suggests the if one could scale atoms to solar system, the space between the electrons, the parts of atoms spinning around, I think, would be as great as the distance between the planets.
 
Yes, the distances are really staggering, even for the planets.
 
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