Seeing Stars
To see the stars it must be dark ─
dark as a wilderness where no-one lives
pitch dark as on a mountain top at midnight.
or as under an olden-days photographer’s cape.
Nowadays it’s hard to see the stars as they should be
for all the glitter, glitz and glow of electricity.
That first Christmas they were lucky─
no light pollution to obscure
the Star in the East.
dVerse gives us an image – rarely seen these days – of meteor showers, as a prompt
Vivinfrance's Blog 
Great post. I posted on a similar topic at
http://thesciencegeek.org/2015/10/24/dark-skies/
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This is so true about how difficult it can be to see natural beauty.
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There’s something magical about being outside on a clear dark night out in the country. You feel as though you could reach up and pluck a handful of stars.
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I think they were really lucky ~ Now we have to contend with city pollution but on a clear night, the sight of those stars are still magical ~
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True, so often they go unnoticed or are hidden from us. Luckily where I live there isn’t much pollution and the clear night skies are often raising to the stars.
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We’re fortunate to still live in areas where there isn’t too much light pollution–but still it’s not like it used to be.
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So many times I have driven from a city to a place where I could view the stars. Now, living in the country as I do, unless it is cloudy, I visit them nightly. And to think, all those centuries ago, being able to see all the stars and among them, that great guiding Star. thank you for participating in the prompt!
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I love this! It is true that with all the light pollution we have these days I wonder if the wise men would have even been able to see the star to follow it. Where I live it is very hard to see any stars, and I’m not even in the big city. But this past summer we were on top of Haleakala when the stars came out. It was truly glorious. Peace, Linda
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Thank you, Linda. I had to look up Halekala. I imagine the stars are more visible in Hawaii
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Indeed…one of the most sacred things to witness…a sky untouched by man-made light. Poignant, Viv.
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I’ve taken drives out of town before in the middle of the night just to view some of those meteor showers. Yes, the light pollution does make it nearly impossible sometimes to see anything up there. Thanks, Viv.
Gayle ~
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YES. I love when I can get out of the city and gaze at the stars with “no light pollution.”
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That must have been beautiful. Lovely poem!
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Well yes, so true! Especially in the city it is not easy to see the stars! Sometimes I wonder if we can still see the Star from the East – either objectively or subjectively.
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So true.. in times like these its difficult to pinpoint the stars at night.
Beautifully executed 🙂
Lots of love,
Sanaa
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I remember the stars at night on a farm in central Kentucky when I was a child. Have never seen so many so close & bright ever again anywhere else. This blog I follow from Georgia came in right next to yours, Viv. There are pix of pretty electric stars in Tbilisi. Pretty, but not as spectacular as the real night sky, so hard to see now. I’ll give a link below. Thank you for your thoughts & words, invoking memories. Merry Christmas from North Carolina. http://georgiaabout.com/2015/12/16/christmas-lights-in-tbilisi/
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Thank you for that link – those city lights are gorgeous, much more tasteful than many we see. But they don’t really compensate for the lack of visibility of real stars.
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I consider myself lucky if I get to see the stars at times. Pollution hitting alarming levels – hiding the celestial beauty of the beyond.
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The expression ‘the first Christmas’ gave me goosebumps…they were lucky indeed…
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We get some good, starry nights here but it is relatively sparsely populated and high up so we are lucky. I like to stargaze when I go up the garden to shut the hens up for the night and, on several occasions, I’ve tripped over a discarded dog toy or forgotten tree clipping on the way to the coop because I’m not looking where I’m going.
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🙂
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Absolutely! Hard to see the stars nowadays. Although we are quite lucky to lie in a rural area. And if we go just a bit further up the mountain, it gets darker still. I liked your alliteration of the glitter, glitz and glow…
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thank you, Marina
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I think i would see more of stars if I could just face the cold nights… summer nights you can only see the brightest of them… But it’s a pity that light-pollution destroys it all…. maybe we should be more careful.
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We get quite a good view of the stars on clear nights facing inland, where it’s quite sparsely populated. Huge brilliant tropical stars, so much nicer than the sad pale things you see in cities!
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I used to love walking home in the dark when we lived in Seychelles – I agree that the southern hemisphere tropical skies are wonderful.
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You can see the Milky Way so much more clearly down here. Sometimes we take the scooter out at night just to look at the stars and enjoy the cooler night air.
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