Was the night sky clearer before electric lights?

by ChiefB1

Like could a person in Ancient Rome or China look up and see galaxys and more stars?

fablong

Absolutely! In fact, a few years ago an astronomer named John Bortle created a scale to quantify the interference caused by light pollution on the visibility of celestial objects (Bortle Scale). Sadly, there are few places left on Earth where one can observe the heavens as our ancestors did before the invention of electric lighting. Check out this image from deep in the Australian outback to get an idea of what we've lost (Taking Back the Night).