I agree, I couldn't live in a city of less than ~200,000 probably. That being said spending a week/weekend in a small town once in a blue moon for me is super enjoyable. I lived mostly in areas under 30k until 18, besides short 1 year stints in a 400k area and a 60k area, and I love the city. I also love going out into the country once in a while.
Going back into semi-rural Idaho after years, and skiing/getting trashed with old friends and seeing the milky way (with 0 moon) literally light up to where you can see clearly at night is unforgettable. Also going into super mountain/rural Oregon in the summer and doing a bunch a bunch of mushrooms and doing basically the same thing with college buddies is also unforgettable. Ok, I realize both of these experiences were colored by intoxicating drugs, but I still believe these experiences were better than going to the hip bar/amphitheater that week/(end).
Nature and shit is super dope once in a while.
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Thats what I regret the most from the time I used to live in the mountains, or even from my times in Sahel...
While living in a Metropolitan area, with scenic views to boot, does have its perks, the light pollution is so horrible you get to see only the most luminous stars at best...
Last edited by Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang; 2019-11-14 at 08:27 AM.
"It is every citizen's final duty to go into the tanks, and become one with all the people."
~ Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang, "Ethics for Tomorrow"
My high density area has amazing commutes... the low density suburb areas not so much... in fact they often have more traffic with people heading back home or out of their for work.
When I lived in a three family home in an urban area... it was quiet... always. There were like twenty houses on the block of families and it wasn’t loud nor was there traffic noise to worry about.
There also are a few parks some rather large around that area.
Well, living in the country allows you to see that every night, unless it is cloudy. I remember a comet which passed close to earth several years ago and I was working night shift and when I got off, you could see it as a bright star , with a faint tail on it. When I got home and looked at it...wow!! Was much more of a spectacular view than in the city. I still remember it to this day in all it's glory in the night time sky.
" If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.." - Abraham Lincoln
“ The Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to - prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms..” - Samuel Adams
Small town. Less traffic and stupid people to deal with.
The starry sky is a nice perk of rural living. The first year we moved here, we were out every night looking at the sky going “oooh” and “aaah.” Almost five years later, not so much. Yeah, we took it for granted now.
As for the Milky Way, you will need to go out into the wild to get a clear view of it. There is enough light pollution from even a small rural farming country to wipe out the night sky. Our closest neighbor is a mile away and they don’t have any bright lights in their yards, so we can see the Milky Way on a clear and moonless night.
Another thing that I learned from trying to take pictures of the sky at night is that elevation matters. The view of the night sky from our place (elev. 4,200' NAVD88) and Palomar Mountain (elev. 6,600' NAVD88) is night and day. Especially for taking pictures, you definitely want to get as far above the inversion layer that trapped the water moisture as you can.
One thing we won't see in the Milky Way with naked eyes/binoculars/telescopes is colors like you typically see in internet photographs. Those pictures were taken with cameras that accumulate light in ways the human eye cannot. The photographs register the reddish glow of hydrogen gas, but the light is too faint to trigger the color receptors in the human eye, so all we'll see are shades of gray.
What we will see is a faint, whitish glow, stretching in a huge arc from the southern to northeastern horizon. It almost look like a fluffy cloud with faint light background. It is beautiful. Just not like the photographs.
Just for comparison. Here is how the Milky Way looks to the naked eyes. Very faint and hard to see unless you know what you are looking for. It could be easily mistaken for cloud.
Here is how it looks on a photograph taken with Nikon D850 equipped with AF-S NIKKOR 14–24mm f/2.8G ED lens. Mounted on a tripod with shutter release.
Last edited by Rasulis; 2019-11-14 at 06:18 PM.
Big city, small towns suck.
I have all the services and shops I need/want, at a MUCH lower cost of living. So no, high density doesn't have anything to offer me. That is the point, you have nothing I need or want that I dont already have easy access to, I have access to things you don't (even if you dont like them), and my cost of living is a fraction of urban life.
I prefer a city in a small, low population country.
"It's just like I always said! You can do battle with strength, you can do battle with wits, but no weapon can beat a great pair of tits!"