Saturday, Jun 21

Welcome to Your Daily Dot where Dot will share tips, advice, and stories on how we can make our world better.

Dot recently sat on a beach to watch the sunset and then the appearance of the first stars. Waves lapped at the shore, while the sky bled pink, purple, orange, then indigo. And then, like magic, the stars started showing up. I highly recommend doing this — it’s like a scrub for our wounded souls. It reminded Dot of this Dear Dot from the archives, and of the importance of protecting our night skies from artificial light. (If you want to protect the dark skies where you live, Bluedot’s got you covered with some tips.)

Dear Dot,

I was on an island off the northeast coast of the U.S. in late October, and one night I noticed that the night sky looked different. I don’t remember ever seeing so many stars, and I’m someone who tends to look skyward a lot. Are stars brighter at that time of year? Was there some celestial event? Did I imagine it? 

–Dorothy

Dear Dorothy,

Many years ago, Dot sat mesmerized in an audience as Elizabeth Lindsey, a National Geographic fellow, enchanted us with stories of her ancestors — Pacific Island wayfinders who navigated the ocean in tiny boats by “reading” stars and waves, millennia before Western explorers. 

Indeed, in a story for TIME Magazine, Roberto Trotto (author of Starborn: How the Stars Made Us and Who We Would Be Without Them — available on Amazon and Bookshop) writes that it was the study of stars and other celestial bodies that helped usher in the Scientific Revolution in the 17th century and “consequently, the advanced technology our lives depend on today — from electronic devices hinging on electromagnetism to planes relying on aerodynamics.” Our night sky is vastly more than just inspiration for songwriters, poets, and lovestruck teenagers.  

What did a starstruck astronomer and science writer tell Dot? Keep reading.

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