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Comment by tejtm | Hacker News Reader

At the Oregon Star Party! After you eye are dark adapted (an hour) see your shadow on the ground from the light of the Milky Way.

https://oregonstarparty.org/

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=12/44.3092/-120.2062&laye...

Perhaps more usefully, contact your local Astronomy clubs.

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-clubs-organizations/

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Astronomy+club+France&t=ffsb&ia=we...

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Rural areas in the PNW are about a 2 on the Bortle scale, and the stars are strikingly vivid. The first time I saw Starlink with my own eyes, I was making an alpine start on Mt St Helens. The cluster of satellites against a backdrop of bright stars was breathtaking, and I got this powerful sense that we were truly conquering the heavens. You could call this another form of light pollution, but it made a pretty big impression on me. It felt more like science fiction than reality.

I'm guessing there is a local effect of the Bortle scale because when the skies were clear we clearly saw about 30 Starlink sattelites and according to https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/ we live in an area with Bortle class 8-9, the algorithm for calculating the Bortle class seems to be a bit work intensive. https://www.handprint.com/ASTRO/bortle.html

Starling visibility is due to how far up they are and only visible for a while after launch. Once they're in position you shouldn't be able to see them.

Central Oregon has some amazing night skies. Went to Hancock Field Station as a kid for astronomy camp and it was incredible.

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