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Re: (meteorobs) Florida Keys Night Skies: Darkest and best I have ever seen!
Apologies for this off-topic post from me! Those not interested in preserving
dark-sky sites on the North American East Coast should kindly hit "Delete"...
This is response to Felix Martinez's email about the Keys.
Howdy, Felix, it was sure nice to hear from you again!
Felix writes:
>late 1970's in early 1980's. However I am pleasantly surprised to hear
>that these type of skies are still available with the subtle growth &
>development experienced in the Florida Keys.
They are, Felix. But only just barely, I'm sad to say...
Unfortunately, our favorite site of the 1970s and 1980s, the old Bahia Honda
Bridge head, is now awash in light from nearby Marathon and Big Pine. Both of
these areas are newly "incorporated", and so are free to expand out of control
now, beyond any conceivable capability of the ecosystem down there to support
this "development". With local governments firmly under control of real estate
developers, only some kind of disaster, whether a quiet ecological one, or a
more apocalyptic Cat 4 or 5 hurricane, seems likely to halt that process now.
Still, there are other sites, further up the Keys, that are still really worth
traveling to! Long Key is the best of these, that I have found so far. But it
is also threatened... Those in the US (and maybe also in Europe?) might notice
the recent upswing in the amount of "press" received by the Keys in just the
past one or two tourist seasons? This fragile little string of islands is now
suddenly being featured in ubiqitous "travelog" programs, car ads, movies and
other sorts of "free advertising". That is because there's an ever-increasing
number of new hotel "resort" rooms to fill down there, even within light-dome
distance of Long Key... And the construction (& advertising) continues apace!
Don't get me wrong: Whatever I may feel personally about developing the Keys,
I would never mention it on this forum, if only these new developments were
being *lighted responsibly*! But instead, of course, with the lack of guide-
lines, and lack of general awareness, and lack of advocacy, every new project
that gets completed down there now is being lit with vast arrays of counter-
productively bright (and expensively wasteful) lighting, rather than the full
cutoff Low Pressure Sodium fixtures which would benefit EVERYONE...
Oh, well... "Flame off". Please direct any responses to the above to my own
private email address "dedalus@alum.mitdot edu", as this really is off-topic.
Clear (dark) skies all, and keep in touch, Felix!
Lew Gramer
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