LIGHT POLLUTION POLL

[Highburymark]

11 hours ago, DirkSteele said:

Submitted.  It goes without saying that Chelsea in central London is 100%.

Likewise. 

I don't even think about light pollution - what would be the point? You just learn to ration yourself with Luna, planets, brighter dsos, double stars and solar. And when you manage to get your telescope out of the city, it's the most marvellous treat. But living in one of the most light polluted cities in the world doesn't sap my passion for the hobby. There's still a lot of wonderful targets to be pursued and enjoyed.

[Moonshane]

I can cope with the probably 100% of sky being affected. The main thing that brasses me off are the more local problems of insecurity lights,  bedroom lights,  kitchen and bathroom lights etc.

Not voted as it's a difficult question to 'understand'

 

[estwing]

my home sky isn't that bad...I still don't observe from there tho!

[HnrKS]

It's not the sky polluted in my situation. It's that there are street lamps all around me (I have literally 3m² of darker space in my backyard). It's impossible to have my eyes adapted to darkness.

[andrew63]

Well if you think we got it bad here, spare a thought for Belgium astronomers.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39900940

andrew

[DaveS]

That's horrible .

[DaveS]

Despite the all pervading LP I still manage to image, mostly NB, but even galaxies are do-able though they need work.

[fozzybear]

I live in a small village in rural france and on a Wednesday night during winter my local football training ground lights everywhere up with their floodlights it's like daytime.  but heyho one day a week is fine for me

[DeepSkyMan]

I've replied 75%, but I have to say the severity is somewhat variable depending on the level of high alt cloud cover.  Sufficient high alt cloud, and you see that ominous pink glow spreading like some alien gangrenous malaise over most of the sky.  Then again I am based in central Scotland, albeit In a green/yellow region.   Seven miles in any direction takes me into red zones, so sky is affected to some degree round the compass.  My best skies are to the south across the Slamannan plateau where on the odd occassion I've gotten NELM 6ish.  On the positive side, an hour and a half drive north and I can get those bortle 3 and 2 skies.  A little further north than that and 1 is in play :-)

[DeepSkyMan]

On 12/05/2017 at 18:51, wookie1965 said:

I have never seen the milkyway been looking for 35 years.

Take a visit to Scottish Highlands or the Western Isles ?

[popeye85]

I think the general feeling is that this question is a bit difficult to answer, there is also a general feeling that the 'Bortle Scale' is not very good for the UK. So what is the best way of judging how dark our skies are?

[EWHB]

3 minutes ago, popeye85 said:

I think the general feeling is that this question is a bit difficult to answer, their is also a general feeling that the 'Bortle Scale' is not very good for the UK. So what is the best way of judging how dark our skies are?

Hi

Thanks for your comment

I just want to get a rough idea of what people around the world are feeling and then I can compare it to my area of Essex

Hope this helps

Emil

[tich]

I did put in a 50% vote on mine as it's not to bad at the moment, however when next doors security light comes on its easily 100% so kinda sucks really. I will be putting up some sort of tarp curtain across though so that should block it out, when we get round to getting the obsy built.
It does make me sad seeing more & more lighting going up everywhere when it's not needed that & the fact it messes up sleeping patterns for wildlife & ourselves.

[JimT]

Sorry Tich, have not been around for awhile so just voted.  I have put 25% in as at midnight the street lights go off at midnight and the one remaining sodium light has been capped by the council, been in place seven years now   :).

[SteveNickolls]

On 5/12/2017 at 19:17, Alien 13 said:

The odd thing is that I live about a mile from a City center in a heavily populated area and have no problem seeing the Milky way on some nights.

Is that when the power is all cut off to the city?   

This is what it can be like some nights 3 miles NE of Nottingham, this is the view to the East overlooking the local church and it's frequently lit up spire.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[Relpet]

Very interesting topic and replies.  The light pollution map linked by John gives misreading results.  From our village in Surrey, where we don't have a single street light,  you can scarcely see anything to the east as the light from the Gatwick/Crawley combination wipes out half the sky.  Guildford, Horsham and Dorking to the west, south and north throw in their two-penn'orth.  Yet the map shows little LP.  Our village in France, though, is about Bortle 3, unless football practice is under way and the floodlights are on, but the map gives, locally, about the same reading.  Milky Way, Surrey.  No chance.  Voie lactée, France.  You betcha.

Our biggest gripe in France is that each parish has its own budget, to some extent, to spend on local amenities - including street lights.  No one goes anywhere on foot (except the ex-pats).  If we invite the French neighbours round they will get the car out to drive 80 metres.  But though we already have street lights every fifty metres or so along the high street, if anyone demands a street light outside their house they get one.  So in what could truly be a dark sky site we do have a lot of local nuisance that I do my best to screen out.

[Excelsior]

Hi,

I combined maps of light pollution on Google Earth for some parts of Europe.

You can find this maps and the sources on my site here : http://www.astrodark.fr/

 

 

If you have Google Earth you can open this file to see accurate maps : 

PL Royaume-Uni (2).kmz

[DaveS]

The problem with satellite LP data is that it measures what goes up, not what is scattered down and across. I'm in the orange area here:

https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=13&lat=6724171&lon=-44439&layers=B0TFFFFT

Which doesn't look too disastrous for London, but the scatter from the red areas all around (Plus the overall London LP) make the LP pretty horrible.

The council have started installing LEDs but given the overall glow I doubt they'll make any difference one way or the other.

[Excelsior]

The first image is the lighpollutionmap.info, the second is of The New World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness and the last is the combined image I made under Google Earth.

5 hours ago, DaveS said:

The problem with satellite LP data is that it measures what goes up, not what is scattered down and across. I'm in the orange area here:

https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=13&lat=6724171&lon=-44439&layers=B0TFFFFT

Which doesn't look too disastrous for London, but the scatter from the red areas all around (Plus the overall London LP) make the LP pretty horrible.

The council have started installing LEDs but given the overall glow I doubt they'll make any difference one way or the other.

Yes in the lightpollutionmap.info you can see the sources of lights but not the effect of them all around. 

To see the sources and their effects all around I combined the lightpollutionmap.info and The new world atlas of artificial night sky brightness under Google Earth !

[LukeSkywatcher]

Honestly, i have no idea. I'm about 30 miles west of Dublin (South County Dublin.......not the actual city of). I am surrounded on 3 sides (W,N and E) by mile upon mile of open countryside. To my south (about 3/4 mile away over the back fence) is the north campus of Maynooth University and the small town of Maynooth itself. 2-3 miles past that is a main artery into Dublin city. The Uni itself (is not lit up like a Christmas tree by any stretch of the imagination and the main road into Dublin is so far away and uses LED lighting as not to be an issue. I also live slightly elevated above the Uni,town and road.

In saying all of this, under certain weather conditions, the sky above is pure yellow (moisture in the atmosphere etc). When its a clear night, its really quite dark. I can see M31 naked eye and the milkyway.

So i have rated my skies as 0% light polluted.......purely because when its clear, its clear and dark. On night when the air is lit up yellow........usually no point going outside anyway because its basically cloudy or fog,or rain or snow............... 

[TareqPhoto]

Oh, i miss Scotland, i am from UAE and i was in Scotland for holiday or vacation and i loved that part of the world.

I remember when i was there i was able to see the stars much better than my country anywhere, i swear even in a city i am able to see stars, so light pollution in my country is worse than elsewhere, i once was in Sterling for 1 or 2 days, and went up a hill next to that castle, and i was completely scared because it was so horrible dark up there and only the lights from the castle i can see, and i couldn't see any human nearby me and i felt like i am in a horror movie, but when i looked up to the sky that time....... WOW, i can see the universe.

I remember i was able to see stars in New Zealand as well, not sure in USA [NYC/LA], but to be honest, going North or South the visual is much better, while in my country or region it is harder, it is possible for visual but not as good as in countries i visited, i don't know if that is because of light pollution or because the haze or humidity or the earth regions and whatever, i know to get into dark sites is the best thing, but how dark is dark enough? i went to some dark areas in my country and the visual wasn't that much great, better a bit than in urban/city but not to a big degree, but i really miss that time when i was able to see better in urban/city several years ago, not sure how or why, but is it because the light pollution was low or is it because it was a winter time when the sky is cleared from humidity and haze, so i will winter and i hope i will be ready for some AP or visual.

In my urban or say from my house background, i can see only very bright stars, and planets mostly Jupiter and sometimes Saturn but not that bright, Mars isn't that much bright either and i have to use Stellarium to locate any object in the sky, now how bad is the light pollution it can be for visual even a planet? i can see the Arcturus always, i can see that Big Dipper when it is not a full moon and i turn off all the light in my house or yard, and few stars, so will my scope see more than what i can see? i tried with my binocular and i managed to see more stars than my eyes can, does that mean that LP isn't bad after all in my urban?

 

[Excelsior]

6 hours ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

Honestly, i have no idea. I'm about 30 miles west of Dublin (South County Dublin.......not the actual city of). I am surrounded on 3 sides (W,N and E) by mile upon mile of open countryside. To my south (about 3/4 mile away over the back fence) is the north campus of Maynooth University and the small town of Maynooth itself. 2-3 miles past that is a main artery into Dublin city. The Uni itself (is not lit up like a Christmas tree by any stretch of the imagination and the main road into Dublin is so far away and uses LED lighting as not to be an issue. I also live slightly elevated above the Uni,town and road.

In saying all of this, under certain weather conditions, the sky above is pure yellow (moisture in the atmosphere etc). When its a clear night, its really quite dark. I can see M31 naked eye and the milkyway.

So i have rated my skies as 0% light polluted.......purely because when its clear, its clear and dark. On night when the air is lit up yellow........usually no point going outside anyway because its basically cloudy or fog,or rain or snow............... 

 

[Excelsior]

On 15/05/2017 at 01:50, Relpet said:

Very interesting topic and replies.  The light pollution map linked by John gives misreading results.  From our village in Surrey, where we don't have a single street light,  you can scarcely see anything to the east as the light from the Gatwick/Crawley combination wipes out half the sky.  Guildford, Horsham and Dorking to the west, south and north throw in their two-penn'orth.  Yet the map shows little LP.  Our village in France, though, is about Bortle 3, unless football practice is under way and the floodlights are on, but the map gives, locally, about the same reading.  Milky Way, Surrey.  No chance.  Voie lactée, France.  You betcha.

Our biggest gripe in France is that each parish has its own budget, to some extent, to spend on local amenities - including street lights.  No one goes anywhere on foot (except the ex-pats).  If we invite the French neighbours round they will get the car out to drive 80 metres.  But though we already have street lights every fifty metres or so along the high street, if anyone demands a street light outside their house they get one.  So in what could truly be a dark sky site we do have a lot of local nuisance that I do my best to screen out.

 

[Excelsior]

On 14/05/2017 at 21:39, SteveNickolls said:

Is that when the power is all cut off to the city?   

This is what it can be like some nights 3 miles NE of Nottingham, this is the view to the East overlooking the local church and it's frequently lit up spire.

Cheers,
Steve

 

 

[Excelsior]

On 13/05/2017 at 22:24, andrew63 said:

Well if you think we got it bad here, spare a thought for Belgium astronomers.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39900940

andrew