Paul Bogard

The Publisher Says: No matter where we live, what language we speak, or what culture shapes our worldview, there is always the night. The darkness is a reminder of the ebb and flow, of an opportunity to recharge, of the movement of time. But how many of us have taken the time to truly know a starry night? To really know it.

Combining the lyrical writing of Paul Bogard with the stunning night-sky photography of Beau Rogers, To Know a Starry Night explores the powerful experience of being show more outside under a natural starry sky—how important it is to human life, and how so many people don’t know this experience. As the night sky increasingly becomes flooded with artificial-light pollution, this poignant work helps us reconnect with the natural darkness of night, an experience that now, in our time, is fading from our lives.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: There is a very strong chance that, if you're my age or younger, you've never seen a truly dark night sky. If you grew up east of the Mississippi River, it's almost a guarantee. The saddest part of that is the sheer, astonishing vastness of stars. The closest I've come to seeing skies like these:

...was an early 1970s car trip with my oldest sister who was leaving South Texas for California. I went with her and, at more than one point, she stopped the car at night, turned off the car lights, and we stared up at sheerly astoundingly bright skies...not from (in those days) mercury-vapor lights that were common and getting more so on major highways, as we were in the proverbial middle of nowhere, but from stars. Thousands and thousands and thousands of stars, more than I had ever seen before. The night skies I encountered in middle age above Machu Picchu were the only comparably startling revelation to me.

What made Author Bogard present this book of Photographer Beau Rogers's glorious night-time images to us was his increasing awareness that his own daughter, whose company on these night-time ramblings in the American West he treasured, might not have even these places to see the natural condition of darkness again in her lifetime.

Nothing could possibly be sadder than that!

What a loss to Humanity the curse of light pollution is...and how necessary it is to protect what there is left of it.

We're simply not paying enough attention to these losses. There's nothing to replace natural darkness. There's little research into the costs of the loss to the natural world...there's next to none on its impact to us, the polluters. What we lose only starts with the aesthetic awareness of the extent of the beauty around us on the planet.

This absolutely astoundingly gorgeous book is perfect to gift to your photography fan as well as the environmentally aware young person. It's a spectacular creation and worthy of a space on anyone's display shelf, coffee table, or even tablet. show less

When was the last time you stopped to look up at the stars? And if you have looked recently then can you remember how many stars were visible? Unless you are into astronomy then it was probably a while ago, and if you did happen to see some on a clear night then there were probably not as many as you remember. The night sky can be one of the natural world’s most dramatic scenes, and yet this is something that we are not seeing much now because of the advent of brighter lights in towns and show more cities. This extraneous light pollution means that only the brightest stars are visible now, and we almost never experience the richness of the Milky Way in the sky.

Bogard wants us to use less light at night to witness this spectacle once again. Travelling from Las Vegas with its Luxor Beam, one of the brightest single spot of light in the sky, he visits places in America that are beginning to recapture the dark once again. Heading over the pond he visits London to see the streets that still have gas lamps, and onto Paris where the night lighting is specially designed to enhance the atmosphere of the city. He travels to Sark, an island that he had never heard of before, to see how they are embracing the dark and even visits Wimborne to talk to astronomers.

The effect of too much artificial light at night is covered in lots of detail too. From the way it affects us, disturbs sleep patterns and the health effects of working the night shift. The natural world is dramatically disturbed as well, with nocturnal migrations of birds being swept of track and bats not being able to get the food they need as insects are distracted by lights. He blows apart the need for glaring security lighting too, revealing that criminals like the lights we helpfully provide as it means they can see what they are doing.

It is a call for us to rediscover the primeval beauty of the night sky and to consider exactly how we use artificial lighting to enhance our outdoor spaces. Well-written and passionate, his concern is that the next generation never will get to see the magnificence of the Milky Way. He raises interesting points about the use of security lights and how secure we are, and how the intelligent use of light could have a beneficial effect on our lives. Not a bad book at all. 3.5 stars overall. show less

I started this book thinking it to be a look at the science regarding light pollution, but it turned out to be a bit different. As my wife put it, it's a naturalist's look at darkness. It does cover science to some degree, but it's much more than that. Bogard takes the reader on a journey through bright nights and dark nights, meeting scientists, park rangers, lighting experts, and more as he uncovers how most of us no longer even understand what's been lost in the steady brightening of our show more night skies. An excellent and important read, and a journey we all ought to take. show less

This book talks about individual experience of the dark in terms of deprivation, of pollution, of biological necessity, of spiritual and psychological necessity, and in terms of wonder. The wonder that I felt that night in Acadia when we just happened to have been outside by firelight long enough that my eyes were more adjusted to the dark than they’ve ever been before, and I just happened to look up, and it happened that it was a clear, moonless night. It was brief, but exquisitely show more transformative. I’d never seen anything like it before. The Milky Way. A year later, traveling in rural Peru, we took a brief cold moment to go outside, stand around for a few minutes to let our eyes adjust, and stare up at the Southern Hemisphere view of the Milky Way. Even more impressive, even more astonishing. These are my two darkest nights. I hope to have many more.

The End of Night covers ever imaginable facet of the issue of our fleeting darkness. That we take for granted our mostly starless skies in the same way that a hundred years ago most people would have taken for granted the sight of the Milky Way, even in the city. That 90% of people growing up in the U.S. now will grow up without ever seeing the starry sky. That light is not a simple good in the world, where more means better. Light is not unambiguous. It has an ethics.

[Read more: http://alluringlyshort.com/2014/04/22/the-end-of-night-by-paul-bogard/] show less