Jay Honeck wrote:

Wow -- I don't know where you live, but in my lifetime air pollution
has been all but eliminated. I remember the skies around Milwaukee and
Racine (Wisconsin) being black with coal smoke almost 24/7 when I was a
kid -- now, they are clear as a bell, and the view of the night sky is
unrestricted.

It varies across the contry. In East Tennessee, visibilty has been reduced by
75% during my lifetime, the measurement being that there are now only 25% as
many days that you can see 50 miles from Clingman's Dome as days that you could
see that far in the 60s. The decrease has been laid primarily on the use of coal
for power production in the Ohio and Tennessee valleys.

Regardless of that, anywhere within 10 miles of the yard from which I watched
Echo and Sputnik, you wouldn't be able to see anything of the sort these days
due to light pollution.

George Patterson
I prefer Heaven for climate but Hell for company.