I think one big reason why we don’t consider the stars as important as before (not even pop-astrology anymore cares about the stars or the sky on itself, just the signs deprived of context) is because of light pollution.
For most of human history the sky looked between 1-3, 4 at most. And then all of a sudden with electrification it was gone (I’m lucky if I get 6 in my small city). The first time I saw the Milky Way fully as a kid was a spiritual experience, I was almost scared on how BRIGHT it was, it felt like someone was looking back at me. You don’t get that at all with modern light pollution.
When most people talk about stargazing nowadays they think about watching about a couple of bright dots. The stars are really, really not like that. The unpolluted night sky is a festival of fireworks. There is nothing like it.
Hate to break it to you, but this picture is a lie.
The 1 to 4 - is something you can only see in a NASA telescope. Or on pictures a NASA telescope took and then it was rendered through a Photoshop.
Actual star sky when you are in a total dark place far away from any city lights looks like 5-6.
Only, without that bright coagulation of light.
Like, just many-many-many bright star dots. And that’s it.
The Milky Way, to a human eye, on a starry sky far away from a city is just that - a line across the sky where there are even MORE star dots than in other places.
And yeah, all stars look the same colour, no “light show” like the 1-4 picture wants you to believe.
Just… Black canvas (the sky) and a milliard of bright white dots on it. That’s it.
It DOES look magical, but if you set yourself up to see the 1-4 (and 5 to an extent) when you go to look at stars somewhere very remote - you will be severely disappointed.
UPD: found a picture that shows how the sky far outside the city TRULY looks to a human eye:
See that white “cloud” across the picture?
This is the Milkie Way and how it looks to us humans when we are far away from the city lights pollution.
Ok, thank god, that’s what it looks like where I live, I thought I was going insane for a moment but no, the chart was wrong
