Well I live here, so I kind of think that when I see the aurora and get a bubbling feeling of "epic" inside, and just stand there and gawk, someone who live in the other 99% of the world would surely be moved as well. So I guess a video game featuring the aurora in all it's splendor would be a good idea. I honestly think if people wouldn't want to see it, they haven't seen it IRL.

The strongest aurora I've seen was in 2005, and I swear... Everyone at school (sun never comes up in winter, so it's dark all the time) ran outside.. The sky was awash in green flame like literally 100% of the sky was JUST northern lights. Everyone just stood there, some were actually (cross my heart) crying and/or laughing and couples were having a renaissance in their expression of love too, and HERE'S the kicker: it was -40 degrees celsius (all the converters are telling me that's -40 Fahrenheit too which sounds too warm) and everyone stood there for a good 10 minutes without their jackets, huddling up.

So the aurora is something that inspires and evokes emotion in people.

http://gfx.dagbladet.no/pub/artikkel/5/54/549/549857/Nordlyset2XcopyX3_1223641639_1223641658.jpg is the best anologue I could find for what I saw that day, but the quality is a bit low. And the one I saw was way more pronounced and contrasted. But they definitely get that huge!

Honestly, who knows what's going on in that light map. The could be numerous layers we don't see just because of the blooming effect which is why I have a hair up my backside about it to begin with.

I remember that when I first played oblivion and looked up into the sky I didn't think the outlines of the moons were that great, otherwise I don't
think there's that much of a difference. But i'll give the slight edge to morrowind.

Whats with the "realism" argument?

I can understand people wanting BGS to stick to lore... but there is no room for celestial "realism" in a game this far fetched. At most we can only implement cool things we've seen in real life but to think that one can actually create a realistic solar system is just too much.

Actually, I never advocated realism at all... Morrowind however, combines realism and stylishness to a degree Oblivion could not. While Oblivion's star map is realistic, it's moons are not, and Morrowind's extra-stellar/lunar sky content has other points of interest. That's why I said Morrowind had a better night sky in the first place.

EDIT: Although I don't mind the over all feel of content as basic as the in game sky to be unrealistic, I don't like seeing something that doesn't follow the laws of light. Oblivion's moons irk me to no end, because the dark edges are still very crisp against the background, unlike any lunar body seen from a planet's surface ever would.

I want the moons to be lore-consistent by being able to see stars through the darkened out bits.

The reason the Moons in Oblivion stick out so much seems to me a result of the nebula that you claim doesn't exist. Those 'cloud' looking things are going behind the moons and therefore are most likely those same nebula from MW.

Personally I do not think there is a huge difference and I am pretty sure that Skyrim will differ from both off them.

Im pretty sure the background to the menu of the magic skills gives you a glance at the sky at night

http://www.gameinformer.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/610x0/__key/CommunityServer-Components-SiteFiles/imagefeed-featured-bethesda-elderscrolls-elderscrollsv/SkillsMenu.jpg