Light pollution / sky rating tool

[kev100]

Hiya,

I couldn't find this anywhere on here, so though I'd post it. Looks fun. 

Need-less light pollution

My sky gets a rating of 3 stars (out of 5), and an LV rating of 5.58 (Bortle scale 5).

Kev.

[leelee970]

I love the "render cloud" button. I think mine is stuck on cloud at the moment.

Lee

[Brent]

I use the site quite a lot - comes in handy when booking a holiday.

My home site rating is half a star out of 5, LV is 4.26, Bortle 8 - which is why I use it when booking a holiday

[RobertI]

Mine gets 2/5 stars, LV of 5.1 and Bortle of 6. Doesn't look briliant on paper. I might have a go at estimating it myself from my actual observing site (local park).

Thanks for posting the link.

[Beulah]

Moved from a Bortle 5 to a Bortle 3  sky several months ago.   Shame about the increased cloud cover, though.  

[kev100]

Having had a look at the Bortle scale on wikipedia, I'd say my sky is closer to a 4 than a 5. I have seen (just) M33 naked eye with averted vision (apparently something only possible in a 4 sky), and the Milky Way, esp in the summer, is far from washed out!. Still, a useful tool nonetheless, and I'll definitely refer to it when booking holidays!

[ronin]

The daigram says I cannot see anything, which is odd as I often go outside to look at the constellations and can see a reasonable amount. One of the areas that clubs go to owing to it being dark site they says 2 out of 5.

I would guess they are a little weighted to saying how not dark you are.

[SacRiker]

Is there a similar site for the U.S?

[kev100]

A quick Google of 'North America light pollution' turned up this site (amongst others):

http://darksitefinder.com/maps/north-america.html

Kev

[DaveS]

Have a go with this, supposedly based on light picked up from space.

http://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=7&lat=6853533.8965&lon=-124114.05426&layers=0BTFFTTT

Alternatively this is a good site

http://www.avex-asso.org/dossiers/pl/uk/index.html