Given the harmful effects of light pollution, a pair of astronomers has coined a new term to help focus efforts to combat it. Their term, as reported in a brief paper in the preprint database arXiv and a letter to the journal Science, is “noctalgia.” In general, it means “sky grief,” and it captures the collective pain we are experiencing as we continue to lose access to the night sky.
I live in Italy. The map doesn’t show a single spot below yellow in my entire country.
I’ve never seen a clear sky in my life.
As someone living in a purple/white zone, the red zone really is magnificent by comparison. It’s clear enough when avoiding street lights that when I step out of the car, despite the dash and headlights affecting my adaptation, I immediately see the Milky way. Yellow is a step clearer, so don’t be discouraged