How dark is your sky?

[Sandraj]

Hope I am posting this in the right place..

Interesting read here - http://astrobob.areavoices.com/2010/12/06/how-dark-is-your-sky/

Posted for anyone like me who is relatively new and would like to tell how good their sky is for viewing, thankfully, if that is right, mine are quite good. Hope it helps someone else.

[ronin]

First one only.

Pointing out Polaris and then saying "If you could see them there is a line of stars that form the Little Plough" at public events is normal.                                                                                                                                                 

[Scott]

I thought a polaris was a small imaging mount . 

Only joking, I would say from home, I'm somewhere between the first two (maybe edging toward the second).

[Stu]

I thought a polaris was a small imaging mount .

Only joking, I would say from home, I'm somewhere between the first two (maybe edging toward the second).

Same here, unfortunately. On rare nights, often after it has rained, I can see all the main stars in Ursa Minor, ie down to mag 5 I think?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jim Smith]

An interesting link.  Thanks.  I will try it next time there is a moonless night.

[DaveS]

I can't connect to that page unfortunately, but Stellarium has a sky quality setting slider, that can show the sky at varying Bortle numbers, so you can match what you see to the Bortle number.

Been a long time since I saw all the stars of Ursa Minor, but on a time I *could* see them and a faint Milky Way from here.

[andrew63]

Some good stuff on that site.   I don't think it will be 'dark' for most of us for the next 6 weeks !

andrew

[jason.p]

I think I must be pretty lucky here. From what I recall, I can see all of the stars in ursa minor. If it's any guide I can see Andromeda galaxy and Beehive naked eye. On a good clear night the Milky Way can be so bright it's virtually impossible to make out make out constellations!

My only problem is one pesky street light, but we won't kick that all off again!

[Dave_D]

Only ever seen 3 stars in Ursa Minor from this location

[DaveS]

How the heck are you lot seeing this?

I've tried Firefox, Chrome and IE but none of them want to know

This isn't a wind-up is it?

[ArmyAirForce]

So there's more than one star in Ursa Minor?

I have a seriously bad city sky, and while I can usually find M45, the Pleiades, sometimes I have to search hard through the pollution. On the Bortle scale, 8 on a really good night, 9 on an average night, and orange clouds the rest of the time!

Visual is a bit of a waste of time from here, while photography picks up much more. We do have a dark-ish site about 35 miles away, but it's not really worth the effort in the Summer when it is never fully dark here anyway. However on a good Autumn or Winter night, I've been there until the Sun came up!

[L8-Nite]

If I go up the local mountain, and with dark adaption, I would say mag 6.

[avtaram]

I can only see Alpha, Beta and Gamma in Ursa Minor with the naked eye from my location.

Avtar

[Spikey]

Street lighting and nuisance lighting are contentious issues on an astronomy forum and suggestions on how to 'fix' the situation sometimes defy common sense.

 

The moderation team would like to remind all posters that CRIMINAL DAMAGE IS ILLEGAL - do not post suggestions of criminal damage on SGL.

 

This includes air rifles, black paint, pointing lasers at the sensor, tampering with the electrics (you could die) and 'anything' else that prevent it from working.

 

Suggestions of illegal activity, even in jest,  concerning tampering with any nuisance lights will result in 'WITHOUT WARNING' sanctions from the moderation team.

 

If this is unclear or you feel you cannot comply with this request please do not post on this subject.

 

Many thanks

 

The SGL Moderation team.

[Spikey]

Unfortunately this thread has attracted criminal damage suggestions. We've tidied it up and posted the reminder above.

Thank you to those members who post sensibly on the subject.

[andyb505]

Well I can see all of the stars in the little dipper from my back garden, so I guess my sky's are darker than I thought

Interestingly the county council have just replaced all the streetlights in our street. It has not made much difference in the back garden, but I think the neighbour opposite in the front has already asked for a shield to be fitted as the new lights are higher than the old ones and now they have one that shines straight into their kitchen window!

Andrew

[DaveS]

Just a quick post before dashing off to see a removals company.

I did have a night in Dec where the sky hit Bortle 6, couldn't quite make out all teh UMa stars, but that was mainly down to low laying murk. I did see the stars in Orion's bow, though for the first time in years. Whether this is due to the council's use of LEDs is a moot point, but I think it is.

[MND]

I cant make out the dipper, my sky is very yellow.

[DaveS]

OK, I did manage to get onto that site, but from work, Why only from work I don't know.

It will be interesting to see how the sky where I'm moving to compares to Acton. I'll report when the skies get dark enough to judge.

[pyrasanth]

My garden is where I do most of my observing. It has 3 Sodium street lights over hanging the north west quadrant of the sky. Not good at all- however this has a happy ending.

I reported the issue a month ago to my local council under the faulty street light section of the web site. I complained about the badly shielded lights & they said they would consider the issue. I heard nothing after nearly 3 weeks so I contacted them again through the web. I hinted that I did not want to go to my local MP & complain about light pollution ruining my enjoyment of the sky & the associated physiological damage.

My wife telephoned me at work to say that a large maintenance lorry appeared & RESULT- all the sodium lights have been blacked out.

If you moan & bitch enough you can get the result you want- everybody has the right to observe the sky as nature intended & I think I scored a little victory for everyone in that direction!

[Pondus]

I can see all the stars in Lille Karlsvogna, but then again its in a favorable position in 'my' sky.

Rune

[Pondus]

Lille Karlsvogna = Little dipper.

Sorry bout that

Rune

[Knight of Clear Skies]

My local sky is better than I thought. my dark site is about a mile out of town and I can just glimpse Canary Wharf and The Shard from it, but at midnight yesterday I could just see all of Ursa Minor, even with a nearly full Moon.

[Jim Smith]

I tried it on the day of the summer solstice at 01:00 from my back garden and I could just see all seven "Little Dipper" stars without averted vision.  I will try to remember to give it another go when the skies get a bit darker.

[Ouroboros]

Nice website! I've used the stars of Ursa Minor for some years as a rough guide to the darkness of the sky because it has a nice range if magnitudes from 2.0 down to 6.0.

The best I've managed to measure with a sky quality meter is a Naked Eye Limited Magnitude of about 5.0 in my urban region of Oxfordshire and 5.75 in rural Oxfordshire. Judging by Ursa Major though I'd guess somewhere between 4.0 and 5.0 for my personal NELM.

Where I some times observe on the north coast of Cornwall I measure a NELM of ~6.25 .... but my eyes or the seeing is not good enough for me to confidently say I can see a mag 6.0 star.