The Night Sky

One of the things about the Night Beat that astronomers probably realize is that those of us on it are often in a position to view astronomical events without having to stay up past our bedtime or get up at oh-my-god-it's-early.

These events don't get as much hype as last summer's solar eclipse both because, let's face it, that was a pretty significant event and the events that occur in the wee small hours just aren't going to be as well-attended. EMPs (Early Morning Persons) have busy lives and need their sleep so, when Aldebaran makes an appearance at 3am, as it will this week (w/e 7/21/18) the EMPs just won't have the correct sleep pattern to even have a decent shot at seeing it.
Night Beat walkers can either take a break during a work night, or go outside otherwise and view all the night sky has to offer, which is a great deal if you know what to look for.  Even without a telescope, there are dozens of things you can see on a clear night.

I became familiar with this sort of thing when I first started on the Night Beat via the PBS show Jack Horkheimer: Star Hustler.  Jack Foley Horkheimer was director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium for years and he partnered with his local PBS station to do an educational show about stargazing.  Beyond his excited presentation and obvious knowledge in his field the most prominent thing about Jack was his toupeé, it was of Earnest Angley magnitude.
Later, in the age of the internet, the name of the show had to be changed as the search term 'Star Hustler' brought up naked stuff from Larry Flynt rather than naked-eye astronomy.

The show still plays, even though Jack rejoined the universe he loved so well, with new hosts.  The website and production values are more polished and professional and the information is fascinating as always but without Horkheimer at the helm it just isn't the same.  The utter and complete enthusiasm is gone, replaced with a certain gliding, passionless mediocrity.  Perhaps that's for the best any attempt to replace or replicate that Jack Horkheimer ardor for all things astronomy would simply fall flat and look like trying too hard.

So fellow Walkers next time you're outside when the rest of the world is asleep take a minute and gaze at the night sky.  There are apps you can get for your phone that can help you identify the magnificence above you (google sky is a favorite) or simply go to a stargazing website or get a book on astronomy.  Enjoy the night sky, it's something special, available to only a select few on a regular basis.  It's easy to take this fringe benefit of the Night Beat for granted but take advantage of it when you can and "keep looking up".

Tota Nocte
~The Night Beat

The Night Time

Back when newspapers were the social media of choice, they had reporters who were assigned a particular area of interest (such as sports or city hall etc) from which they were expected to generate stories, such an area was called a beat. A beat is a certain area or topic for the reporter to work regularly to build familiarity with; the term stems, etymologically, from the 'beaten path'. Of course beat reporters still exist (mostly sportwriters) but in the digital age there are far fewer, just as there are far fewer newspapers for them to work for but back when they weren't "old news" many newspapers had a reporter who worked all night covering the stories that happened when most folks were asleep.  
That job was called the night beat.  
The world doesn't stop when the day shift ends and people go home and go to bed after the 10 O'clock News or late night talk show monologue.

Nope, there's a whole world at night, and that world is pretty different from the one that exists in the daylight.
I've lived in that world for more than 30 years.

Night owl, insomniac, evening person, nighthawk, vampire...whatever you call us we're out there on the Night Beat.  Whether it's the trucker hauling ass and freight on the mostly empty roads, the 3rd shift nurse waiting for the ER to get busy after last call, or the first responder hoping for an uneventful night, they are out doing the job.  Some people just stay up late, not to earn a paycheck but because of a myriad of other reasons.  Then there are the amateurs, the people who like nightlife but don't live their life at night.  They are (often) drunken tourists to the Night Beat; they visit but they don't really understand it. This blog is for anyone and everyone who wants to read it, but it'll probably only make sense to people who regularly get to bed just before sunrise.

As always if you have stories about life at night, send them my way, I'm not sure anyone does long form interviews on blog posts but hey, it's the middle of the night, we have time.

Tota Nocte
~The Night Beat