Light Pollution

My university is right downtown. I don't really see stars most nights. There are a few, but mostly the sky just looks empty.

I didn't notice it until recently. It's just really eerie; I looked up at a completely cloudless sky long after sunset and literally had the thought "where are the stars?" And I keep thinking that any time I'm outside at night. The campus is full of streetlamps, and most buildings have lights that stay on all the time, so it's never truly dark--with the exception of this one specific sidewalk where the lamps come on way later than all the others for some reason.

The quad in the center of campus is usually the best place to see stars because you aren't right under the lamps, but it still feels uncannily bright due to having all the light sources spread out around you.

I grew up in a neighborhood right off a major highway, so light pollution has always been my normal, but this is different. There's something terrifying about looking up and having to wonder where the stars went. As a kid, I wanted to be an astronomer.