How dark can you get in Dorset?

[DaveS]

Yep, Need-Less pinpoints a spot near East Bexington as the darkest area in Dorset with a NELM of 5.71. Still Bortle 5 though, and "suburban"    . Seen a couple of very attractive properties in Puncknowle, one at £375k, and one at £415k with more ground. but I'm not moving just yet. Pity.

[Stub Mandrel]

Perhaps we should be less sceptical and bear in mind that from a global perspective of <75% of the population engaged in agriculture, virtually the whole of England is 'urban'.

[laser_jock99]

I used to live a couple of miles from Blandford in a village with no street lighting (or at least very little, and none near me) - TBH the sky there was far better than the Need-less site would suggest. The NELM prediction wasn't too far out, but the sky simulation was way off.

If you want the best dark sky, then by all means go to Ceredigion (my father was from a tiny little place just on the boundary between Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion, so I know what it's like there), but from experience I'd guess that you'd get far more benefit from the better weather in Dorset than from the darker sky in Ceredigion.

Parts of Wales are certainly darker- but you'll have to balance that against more frequent clear skies in Dorset.

Rural Wales is fantastic - but not necessarily a good retirement destination. When your health begins to fail, the last thing you need is 50 mile round trip to the nearest super market or 120 miles to the nearest large hospital.

[DaveS]

Yes, both those things are bringing me back to Dorset, sacrificing the deepest dark, for a better chance of seeing *any* dark. And the health thing is a major sticking point, given that if I do move anywhere it'll be for good until I either end up in a care home or a box. So edge of (Small) village perhaps or rural but not too far? In any case far from streetlights and megawatt insecurity lights. Not to mention floodlit sports facilities.

There was a time, after I downsized when I more than half considered buying a holiday place in Ceredigion, but the prospect of 200% council tax which some councils (Gwent, for one) are levying on second / holiday home put the kibosh on that.

I certainly don't think the whole of England can be called "urban" though large parts are affected by the fallout from the urban centres.

[Stub Mandrel]

I certainly don't think the whole of England can be called "urban" though large parts are affected by the fallout from the urban centres.

To be fair, more of a philosophical question than a practical one.

It depends what scale you look at. The fine scale just joins up any built up areas less than  200m apart, but if you the the 75% working in agriculture rule (which works over most of the globe) how many counties of England are rural?

It does remind us what an industrialised and crowded landscape we have.

[hgjevans]

...For instance, here I get a NELM of about 4.6, give or take, but I can easily see the Milky Way arching across the summer sky, which shouldn't be possible at all for a Bortle 7 region (borderline 8).

Actually, I have to backtrack a little on that claim. Last night I made a concerted effort to get a better estimate of my NELM here, and I found I could definitely make out g Persei when it was right up near the zenith. That was after I had been out over an hour, so I was more or less fully dark-adapted. Stellarium puts that at Mag 4.95, which still indicates Bortle 7 skies, but now rather closer to 6 than the borderline 8 I previously thought.

(Not, of course, relevant to Dave's Dorset-Ceredigion dilemma, but my apologies if I misled anyone there.)

[Stub Mandrel]

My skies are very odd. When I'm fully dark adapted and all is clear I can just make out the Milky way (without detail) near the zenith, but up to about 20-30 degrees above the horizon is totally washed out - or hidden by trees up to about 50 degrees in the unlit direction :-(

Looking back at my 'snaps' from my meteor hunting expedition, I must make more effort to image at nearby but much darker sites. Unfortunately anything that looks like a car park in this area attracts 'bones' and their sound systems etc. (what we used to call the boy racers in my day).

[DaveS]

Ah, thanks for the elucidation.

I'm thinking the guy who devised the scale must have been living in the southern US, since he talks about the Sagittarius star clouds casting shadows. This far north they barely rise, let alone could cast shadows. Perhaps in the deep south urban / suburban / rural take on different connotations.

Nevertheless, I still dispute that the whole of England can be called "urban", though affected by urban blight. See also the descriptions in the Avex-Asso site, dividing between major suburbs, and quiet small-town suburbs.

BTW & PS, after a 'phone conversation last evening, it looks like my cousin in Blandford may not be moving after all, as she's coming to like it there. Could have told her it's better than Poole, silly girl    .

[DaveS]

I've just been on the Need-Less site (As one does during lunch at work  ) and noticed that they're preparing a new, worldwide version using up-to-date LP data, calibrated against Unihedron SGM readings.

[Pan Euro]

Perhaps it will be a bit more accurate.

[DaveS]

Hope so, also could do with better scale and location info, trying to put the marker down where you are actually looking for can be a bit hit-or-miss.