Night Sky at Sea

I spent three of my four years in the Navy at sea. Gazing at the night sky while on a cruise was one of the most memorable experiences of that time at sea while living aboard a Navy ship. There is nothing like it because these warships cruised dark. They were not lit up like a festive tourist cruise liner. They ran dark and the only light on the decks were subtle red glows near hatches and passageways. The whole idea was to move without being seen which was probably a leftover from the pre-radar days. There were no white lights on deck and just red running lights. This made for spectacular viewing of the night sky.

You could see the sky from every direction and horizon to horizon. There were more stars in the sky then I ever thought was possible and definitely more than I had ever seen growing up in a city. It would also be incredibly bright if there was a full moon. It was amazing how much you could see then.

Our ship had a small helicopter flight deck and we would often lay on our backs there and watch the bright night sky dreaming of home... or at least getting back to dry land.