The stars lost their luster

Where dark skies draw stargazers, wildfire smoke spoils the view

夜空引来了看星星的人，野火的烟雾却破坏了景致

The high, lonesome dunes that run up against the Rocky Mountains at 7,500 feet above sea level in southern Colorado are a long, long drive from the closest streetlight, and after dusk, the almost untainted darkness and thin, dry air reveals just how bright the night sky can actually be.

在科罗拉多州南部，海拔 7500 英尺的高处，高大而荒凉的沙丘背靠落基山脉，绵延而上。这里距离最近的路灯有很长很长的车程。黄昏后，几乎纯净无瑕的黑暗和稀薄干燥的空气，让人看到夜空能有多么明亮。

The dunes are usually an ideal spot to catch the annual summer light show put on by the Perseid meteor shower. But not so much this year. The West is on fire, the sky is full of smoke, and on many nights, even in the darkest corners of the West, the meteors that once slashed across the heavens with fiery intensity only pulse faintly through the murk — if they can be seen at all.

沙丘通常是观看英仙座流星雨带来的一年一度的夏季光影秀的理想地点。但今年并非如此。美国西部山火肆虐，天空烟雾弥漫，在许多夜晚，即使在西部最黑暗的角落，曾经如烈火一般划破天空的流星，如今也只能透过昏暗的夜幕微弱地闪烁着——甚至可能根本看不到。

"I've never seen it so smoky as this year,"said Bob Bohley, a volunteer astronomy ranger at Great Sand Dunes National Park. "Some nights it's been so thick that even the brightest stars were hard to make out."

“我从来没有见过烟雾像今年这么多。”大沙丘国家公园的星空守护志愿者鲍勃·博利（音）说，“有些夜晚，烟雾密布，连最亮的星星都很难辨认出来。”

Great Sand Dunes is one of 27 national parks and monuments that are designated as dark sky parks, where light pollution from cities is scant. But in recent years, the fire season — as summer is now often called — has meant that the chance for stargazing depends on how many square miles are burning upwind.

大沙丘是被指定为暗夜公园的 27 个国家公园和遗址之一，这些暗夜公园很少受到城市光污染的影响。但近年来，火灾季节——现在人们常常这么称呼夏天——意味着人们的观星机会取决于上风处燃烧的面积有多少平方英里。

"Just as light pollution and smoke don't respect boundaries, the consequences of how we handle climate change travel far,"said Bettymaya Foott, a photographer of the night sky.

夜空摄影师贝蒂玛雅·福特（音）表示：“正如光污染和烟雾不会遵守边界，我们对气候变化的应对也会带来广泛的影响。”

If the stars lost their luster, much of the country might not notice. NASA estimates that only about 17% of Americans live in dark rural places where they can see the Milky Way.

如果星星失去了光彩，大部分美国人可能都不会注意到。美国国家航空航天局估计，只有大约 17% 的美国人生活在能看到银河的黑暗的农村地区。

主编：Jojo、Jenny

品控：Jojo、Maisie

审核：Felicity

Photo Credit:

Mads Schmidt Rasmussen / Uplash / Caleb Cook / Unsplash

重点词汇

stargazer

/ˈstɑːrˌɡeɪ.zɚ/

n. 凝望星辰者，观察天体者（如天文学家、占星学家等）

相关词汇：gaze（v. 凝视，盯着看）

例句：The child gazed at the toys in the shop window.

词根词缀：-er（表示“做……的人”）

spoil

/spɔɪl/

v. 破坏，糟蹋

例句：I haven't seen the film, so don't spoil it for me by telling me what happens.

The stars lost their luster

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