Sneezeweed

A pretty night so Indy and I decided to take a bag of garbage down the driveway to the garbage can.  It's a wonderful time of the year to stargaze - warm enough to be able to stand for awhile; dark early enough to not interfere w/ my bedtime.  Found the Summer Triangle high overhead.  Saturn is in Sagittarius positioned between the teapot and teaspoon.  Jupiter is lower to the southwest.  I thought I lived in an area w/ dark skies but found out it's designated only a '3' on the dark-sky scale.  The scale quantifies the amount of light pollution in an area.  Class 9 is the most pollution.  It's inner-city sky where only the brightest stars are visible at night.  Class 1 is the least pollution.  It's where Venus and Jupiter are bright enough to affect your night vision.  There are some fairly easy ways to eliminate excess light and to ensure necessary lights only shine downward but not many people care.   After worrying about climate change, losing a quarter of our birds, bee colony collapse, invasive species, lead in drinking water,  (I could go on for awhile), light pollution takes a low priority.