You tend to forget the effect that light pollution has on the night sky until you go somewhere with a complete absence of such pollution.
I stayed in a converted barn in deepest Dorset last week and saw some of the most amazing night skies I’ve ever seen.
In the city you see just the biggest stars but in the countryside miles from any town and without any light pollution at all the stars are simply breathtaking. There’s a depth to the sky, you can perceive the stars ranging back through space. It’s amazing to think that each star is a sun in its own right.
Part of the horizon appeared slightly lighter than the rest, I realised that we were seeing the lights of the nearest town. It made me think of the stories of people in the countryside around London during the blitz that could see the whole horizon burning orange from the fires that raged across London every night. If you had loved ones and friends in London it must have been an awful sight.