An aside:

When there's not much of a moon it's pitch black in our forests. Even in an open field is 'black'

Ever watch those horror movies where they run through the woods while being pursued? If you did that in our forests you'd go 'bonk' on the first tree...a face plant with a tree trunk.

We were once in the mountains and had chained up our bikes . We returned to the bikes just as the last light was gone. We dilly-daddled to rest up and have a snack. THEN I went to unlock the bike and realized I couldn't see the combination. Black.

It has been a problem for me for over 40 years and getting worse. I have seen different attempts made by local council to alleviate the problem here, but that doesn't include the new subdidvisions and the housing that follows it only concerned the street lighting.

Within the last 5 yrs, the city installed brighter lights in our alleys to prevent crime. Well, it didn't. All the brighter lights accomplished was making our night skies brighter. It was hard enough to see the Pleiades before the lights, but now you have to squint the make out any of the 7 Sisters. I have to say I do have a little more hope now. I have seen these new type of lights along the highways and in some suburbs. I don't know what they are called, but they are round on the top and flat on the bottom. You don't see any yellow coming from them until you are about a 1/2 block away from one! : ) : ) : )

Amy from Chicago

The LP in Johannesburg where I grew up in was a reason that I never really looked up. For the last 4 years I've been in Zürich and it's pretty much the problem. The only difference is now I can't escape from it, at least in South Africa there were remote places one could dissapear to.

Welcome Valentino_Wolf to the forums.

Still pretty dark out here in the country in N. Louisiana. BUT, some goofy pork barrel project re: airport improvement in rural US has undoubtedly funded a whirling beacon at airport 8 miles away. Not sure if it would affect photos or viewing, but it is definitely noticeable. My new farm neighbor also wanted a huge stadium light on a barn he built directly across from my house for his tractors. I worked out a deal with him to put up motion sensors lights, and he gave me combination to shut off all when needed. I monitor his security in return. It is always something. I wonder how much energy could be saved without all those useless lights.

I have to wonder how many backyard astronomers have been tempted to take out the old 22 and start popping out street lights. I did take a can of cream-colored paint and spray one guy's motion -detection light. He's never noticed. It cut the glare by 80%.

Here in St.Helens, Merseyside (between Liverpool and Manchester) in England I have LM 4.5 skies at Zenith. We have masses of both LP Sodium and also the new HP Sodium (SON-T) lights and and enormous orange glow which covers an almost unbroken 360 degrees field from horizon to about 20 degrees up, and that is on clear nights. On cloudy nights you can go about your daily business as though it is permanent orange twilight, you can see everything everywhere on the ground for many miles. Sort of like an orange 'day'.
A new development which is being piloted by our local council is METAL HALIDE lights which are PURE WHITE as far as I can tell and IMPOSSIBLE to filter. If you thought that Light Pollution was bad before, you ain't see NOTHIN' yet baby...
What the hell ever happened to our NIGHT TIME? All I see is PERMANENT ORANGE BRIGHT TWILIGHT. IT IS HORRIBLE. COMPLETELY UNATURAL.
...
It's all very well for those of you with cars... I can't drive to remote dark locations with my 'scope as it's a) to big (I bought a large aperture 'scope to get as good a view as I can and it's pretty good actually e.g. Ring Nebula and M13 Globular Cluster are breathtaking sights, but other things like the M31 Andromeda Galaxy are a complete washout comprared to the view through a scope from a non light polluted sky like in other countries) and b) I haven't got a blo*dy car.
Also, where the hell can you escape to in England if you can drive a hundred miles? The light pollution is pretty bad across almost ALL of the places within 100 miles of here...
I am INSANELY JEALOUS of you lot in Arizona and etc.. with the velvet black skies and millions of stars easily visible, it makes me PHYSICALLY SICK that I have to put up with these bright orange skies for the rest of my life.
CAN'T SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS PROBLEM, PLEAASSSEEE. Like, NOW.
For all our sakes, please e-mail your local council officials in the Environmental Protection department and Highways / Lighting department and tell them about this problem. It's your RIGHT - You pay their wages through taxes.
DO IT ***NOW*** or the problem can only get worse. MAKE YOUR VIEWS KNOWN.
But, please be constructive and logical and do NOT rant at the officials. Speak with reason and be carm but very logical. Get the point across to them, STRONGLY in simple plain English, but with no offence.
...
I pity my and others children for whom this orange sky problem will only be worse for them... Please do something to stop this curse of man made pollution from ruining our skies. NOW.
Support the International Dark-Sky Association;-
http://www.darksky.org
...and the back lash against Light Pollution has BEGUN.
Cheers, Alistair (sorry for the rant but I am emotional about this preventable problem).

i have always lived near big cities. I have never seen the milkyway until I moved to Mississippi.

From the backyard, looking eastward, usually can see 5.5-6.0. Unfortunately there is a small stream that runs next to the property...most clear nights, the optics dew up about every 5 minutes. Also, fog is a major issue.

Looking towards the Southern sky ispretty bad...mag. 2-3.

One thing I try to do, is to invite neighbors over to look through the scopes. They are much more understanding about turning the lights down.

BTW
I live about 10 minutes from a great observing site in the Cascade mountains. It takes about another 10-20 minutes to reach the trailhead parking lot.
Skies are INKY BLACK.

I don't go out to gaze at all unfortunatley. I'm here just for science and theory!
Although I wish I could be able to, but I live in an urban area, so there is no way in my dreams, unless I drive out and away, but I don't have no licence (I'm 15 and in Israel, you can only when you're 17) so my dad is always busy so he can't... This forum is my only astronomy!

I have good skies can usually see mag 5.5 but at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning it is amazing! but the southern sky is getting more light polluted

Livin' in L.A., I have been disappointed with the sky since the early 80's! Now that I have a telescope, I am even more bummed! I usually go to Red Rock Canyon to view Meteor showers because I would only be able to catch the most bright ones if I didn't! Can't do any deep space viewing here either! Those satellite views of the U.S. at night really show how bad it is!

*** Removed by Moderator ***

It's an awareness thing.  There are entire communities which are trying to do something about light pollution (Tucson Arizona comes to mind), and individuals and groups all over the country are working to turn back the tide of light.  if everyone just quit talking about it and went somewhere else the problem would only spread faster.  Many folks who contribute to these forums have talked to their neighbors and enlightened them (or should I say endarkened them?) and have made a real contribution in their own environment.  If we all just stay quiet and go away to do our observing there will soon be no place to go. 

  I live in suburban Detroit.  I have a wife, a kid, a dog, job and a house to take care of.  It simply is not feasible to drop everything-particularly during the weekdays-- pack up and drive 20-30 minutes north, set up, observe, pack up, drive home and get to bed for work the next day.

  I've done everything I can to eliminate  LP:  built an observatory, told my neighbors what I do there (hoping they take a hint about lights...), bought dew shields and  LP filters.  It all helps a great deal.  With effort, I can see almost every Messier that climbs above 40 degrees EXCEPT galaxies.

  During a good month, I might spend 5 or 6 nights in the observatory for 1.5 to 3 hours, not counting quick bino views.  If I had to wait for weekends in order to travel to dark sky sites, this might be only 1-2  outings.  The convenience of observing in my backyard more than compensates for the loss of mag 4.5-5.0 skies to my north.

   My skies range from Mag 2.5 to 3.5, maybe near 4.0 looking east over Lake St. Clair on the best nights.  I pray for a 2-3 day blackout with clear night skies. Oh, God, how awesome would that be?!?!?!

i understand  your point about entire communities which are trying to do something about light pollution. keep in mind i in no way what so ever was talking about the community, i'm talking about people who boo whoo cause they are having a hard time seeing the sky due to so many lights, maybe i don't see this matter as you do, i'm way off city limits i live out in the woods / sticks whatever you want to call it. so i don't have that problem. and if i were to live in the city, it's something i will just have to live with. and as for there being no place for observing. there are still to this date many places man has never set foot on planet earth. it's just something we all have to live with until something gets done. but in my eyes i dont see anything getting done about that problem anytime soon. but you are right and i see your point, have a good one...

People equate lighting up the dark with progress and prosperity. And with comfort and security, Humans are afraid of the dark, period. It isn't just here in the US or Europe, it's the same in the least developed areas of the planet. It's a daunting task to hold back lighting up the Earth like a parking lot. Better lights that put it where it's needed and rapidly rising costs of all that energy help. In the northern hemisphere, truly dark sky is becoming a rare thing.