The Vast Majority of Humans Today have Never Seen an Unpolluted, Natural Night Sky

 तारारूपाणि यानीह दृश्यन्ते द्युतिमन्ति वै । दीपवद् विप्रकृष्टत्वादणूनि सुमहान्त्यपि ॥३.४३.३०॥  (महाभारत, आरण्यकपर्व) " The luminous stars, thought really very large, appear small and twinkle like lamps on account of their great distance. "

लहानपणी मिरजेला अनेक वेळा घरासमोरील त्यावेळी कमी रहदारी असलेल्या रस्त्यात रात्र पडल्यावर बसत असू (आम्हाला अंगण आणि गच्ची नव्हते) आणि साहजिकच नजर वरती जाऊन चंद्राची अनेक रूपे , चांदण्या पहिल्या आहेत... चंद्र अगदी घरचा वाटे... त्याच्या पृष्ठभागावर कल्पना करू ती गोष्ट दिसत असे... हरीण, ससा वगैरे... आता आकाशाकडे केंव्हातरी पाहतो... 

Rebecca Boyle reviewing "Starborn: How the Stars Made Us (and Who We Would Be Without Them)" By Roberto Trotta, 2024 for WSJ:

"...The vast majority of humans today have never seen an unpolluted, natural night sky. They have never seen the gauzy stripe of the Milky Way arcing overhead on a summer evening, the fuzz of the Andromeda Galaxy, the faint stars that fill in the empty space between the brightest constellations. It is a great paradox of our age that even as the night sky is screened by a haze of artificial lighting, the glowing rectangles we hold in our palms can bring us to the edges of the universe. As Mr. Trotta artfully puts it: “The pixelized ghosts of photons that chanced to fall onto the mirrors of our giant telescopes after a few billion years’ journey through space are served up from the cloud in an instant.”..."

Stars over Biwa Lake, by Shoda Koho, 1930