Restoration Obscura’s Field Guide to the Night Uncovering the History Hidden in Darkness What if night wasn’t just something we endure, but something that shaped us? From the creator of the Restoration Obscura podcast and website, this is not your typical field guide. It doesn’t chart trails or list constellations. Instead, it uncovers the forgotten history and enduring cultural power of darkness itself. Historian and photographer John Bulmer takes readers on a journey through the shadows, exploring wartime blackouts, Cold War watchposts, ancestral fears, lost stars, and the unseen labor that keeps the world turning while it sleeps. Restoration Obscura’s Field Guide to the Night reveals what we have buried beneath the glow of modern life, and what still survives when the lights go out. Blending narrative history, folklore, cultural analysis, and science, Bulmer shows how darkness has shaped human behavior, belief, and resilience across time. From ancient myths and childhood warnings to surveillance towers and vanishing constellations, night emerges not as emptiness, but as a force that shaped our stories, our choices, and our survival. Spanning topics from lighthouse keepers and numbers stations to auroras, power outages, and the rise of artificial light, this book also confronts the growing impact of light pollution. It explores how the spread of artificial light has changed our relationship with nature and obscured the deeper meanings once found in darkness. This is part historical investigation, part cultural reflection. A field guide not to the stars above, but to what happens when we remember what it means to live without constant illumination. Whether you are a historian, a skywatcher, or someone who still feels wonder in the dark, this book invites you to rediscover what night once meant, and what it still can.