Sky & Telescope - February 2023 - 84

NOAA VIA GETTY IMAGES
FOCAL POINT by Bob Konior
Even the Darkest Clouds
One day after Hurricane Ian devastates his area of coastal Florida, the author finds a silver lining.
Hurricane Ian's eye passes just west of Fort
Myers, Florida, on September 28, 2022.
better than New York's but still not
great, and it has since become far worse.
The Milky Way is barely visible on the
most transparent of nights and only if
you know exactly where to look.
Jump to September 28, 2022, when
Hurricane Ian plowed through our part
of southwest Florida. It decimated our
barrier-island communities, tearing up
bridges, buildings, homes, and trees.
The storm surge flooded our community
and left behind a dreadful death toll.
Everyone experienced shock and horror.
That first night after the storm I went to
bed exhausted and depressed.
The next day Floridians began the
I GREW UP in Queens, New York,
where the night sky was unremarkable
at best. On the clearest evenings, only
the brightest stars were visible, and they
never really caught my attention.
One day in 1965, when I was 12, my
parents decided that for our summer
vacation our family would take a road
trip out West. It proved to be a grand
adventure. We hit many national sites,
stopping first at Mount Rushmore
and Yellowstone in the north before
continuing on to California, where we
drove down the coast then headed back
east through the southern states.
The day that changed my life
occurred in Grand Canyon National
Park in Arizona, where we stayed overnight
in a park cabin. The cabins were
primitive affairs, with shared outhouses
and only one dim light outside so you
could find your way back in the dark.
That night I ventured out to use the
84 FEBRUARY 2023 * SKY & TELESCOPE
facilities. I informed my parents where
I was going, but when I hadn't returned
a half hour later, my mother came
looking for me. She found me standing
just outside the circle of cabins, staring
up at the star-filled sky. When she
asked what I was doing, I pointed up in
amazement and said, " Mom, where did
all those come from? "
My mother stood with me for a few
minutes, unable to answer my sky questions,
and finally said it was time to go
in. Embarrassed, I had to admit I hadn't
yet used the outhouse. I was hustled off
to finish what I came out for.
Back home in New York, I devoured
astronomy books and studied the
heavens with my dad's World War II
binoculars. Although disappointed with
the severely limited New York celestial
sphere, I did my best with what I had.
Decades later, in 1998, I moved to
North Fort Myers, Florida. The sky was
long process of recovery. Once again,
as evening came, I felt spent from the
day's travails and looked forward to an
early bedtime, as none of us had power
except for the few with generators.
As I took the dog out one last time,
I looked up, as I have ever since that
night in Arizona. Déjà vu! The Milky
Way was clearly visible - I could easily
follow its hazy glow from Cassiopeia
all the way south to Scorpius. With the
widespread power outages, light pollution
had become almost non-existent.
Exhaustion be damned. After staring
up for a few minutes, I ran to get my
Celestron C8. I made sure to tell my
wife what I was doing, not wanting a
repeat of that situation so many years
ago. I set up the scope and observed
long into the night, largely forgetting
about the storm and its terrible aftermath
as I reveled in the sight of an
incredible, nearly unrecognizable sky.
Sometimes the darkest of clouds have
a silver lining.
¢ BOB KONIOR lives with his wife in
North Fort Myers, Florida.

Sky & Telescope - February 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - February 2023