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A trip to the United Arab Emirates’ darkest spot reveals a rare view of the Milky Way
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A trip to the United Arab Emirates’ darkest spot reveals a rare view of the Milky Way

The Seattle Times The Seattle Times·Jon Gambrell·3 days ago
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AL QUAA DESERT, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The gleaming skyscrapers and brights lights of the United Arab Emirates draw the eyes of all who travel there, a sign of the Arabian Peninsula nation’s rapid, oil-fueled development over the last decades into a major hub for commerce and tourism. But something has been lost over that period: a clear vision across nearly all of the country’s inhabited lands of the stars in the night sky that once guided Bedouin across the shifting desert dunes of its vast interior, known as the Empty Quarter. A group of volunteers from the Dubai Astronomy Group recently has been helping people reconnect with the sight of stars and the Milky Way by taking them on nighttime excursions to Al Quaa Desert, one of the darkest spots remaining in the Emirates. “It causes us to appreciate our existence in this galaxy,” Sheeraz Awan, the general manager of the astronomy group, said as he guided participants through a weekend view of the stars in late May.…

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