Bortle Scale

[brantuk]

I often bortle out of setting up - especially if I'm tired or it's cold lol

[Moonshane]

wah wah wah waaaaah!

good one Kim.

[Nexus 6]

difficult to properly evaluate this, I do get to see the Milky Way quite often although faint and occasionally its very obvious.

would say around 6/7 voted 6

on a recent thread I gave it as around 4.6 due to seeing a few stars within the Square of Pegasus only a week or so ago

[Nexus 6]

I often bortle out of setting up - especially if I'm tired or it's cold lol

just get the bins out Kim less hassle

[swamp thing]

I am somewhere between 8 & 9 at home. That is why I never use the scope there.

As others though I don't really rate this scale.

Regards Steve

[Polar Bear]

an 8 with a 7 at best.

Add to this the constant cloud cover from the west and it is enough to make you 'hit the bortle'

Paul

[Mr Spock]

7 for me.

lol, the dark sky site in the peak district rates 5 on this scale...

[Beulah]

I live in a pretty dark area Bortle 3 - 4 (probably not for long if developers have their way), but I find the concept of not being able to see your telescope silly. The stars actually provide some illumination when your eyes have adjusted to the dark.

[faulksy]

going on this scale im at around class 4

[Ags]

You can't keep a good thread down! I put seven, but I think a couple of times a year I have '6' and more often than not I have '8'.

People complain about the Bortle scale's details, but that is because Bortle stuck set out concrete criteria - if Bortle had produced a fuzzy vague scale, there wouldn't be anything to complain about but the scale would be meaningless.

[umadog]

There's nothing wrong with the Bortle scale, it's just unrealistic for one to expect that a site will have the same value on each night. The value will obviously change with humidity (transparency), the moon, the time of year, etc. Also the Bortle scale doesn't take into account direct lights shining onto your observing site. If you have significant direct lighting then you can't make a meaningful Bortle estimate.

[Beulah]

I might have to take back what I said in an earlier post.

Th Need-Less website shows that I live in a Bortle 5 area. The website linked by the OP indicates Bortle 3-4 by my observation.

I need to by an SQM....

[umadog]

These websites are always just a rough guess. For example, if you have a flood-lit stadium half a km away then that will really impact your skies but it won't be registered on those LP maps.

[pete_l]

I might have to take back what I said in an earlier post.

Th Need-Less website shows that I live in a Bortle 5 area. The website linked by the OP indicates Bortle 3-4 by my observation.

I need to by an SQM....

If you do, you'll come to realise (as I did) that none of these scales is particularly helpful.

For a start, there's no such thing as one single value/description/measurement that can be taken on it's own to compare observing sites.

Even using technology like an SQM, it's values vary day by day - so even with a meter you can't say "this site is a X" as it will be different tomorrow, or when the moon comes out, or next year, or for a different observer standing right beside you.

So far as Bortle goes; if I was to believe the scale, my site would be Rural/Suburban transition - there are fields about 100m away. However none of the stuff he claims is visible from that description is even slightly see-able and the NELM is waaaaay off. Nowhere near 6.1 to 6.5 - 4½ if I'm lucky! That means I should be in a city

Even my place in Spain which *is* NELM 6.1-6.5 doesn't match the description of what's visible. So all you can conclude is that the properties of a site is largely down to temporary circumstances and the qualities of the individual observer.

[saturn5]

Not meaning to rub it in to you city guys but I live in a Bortle 4 area but a 30 minute drive from Bortle1 skies.One of the advantages of being a Highland Choochter.

Been waiting for weeks to get out there with the camera to get some Milky Way shots but the only clear nights have coincided with a full or nearly full moon.

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

5 in the garden, maybe 3.5 or so at my site.

[Ptarmigan]

I often bortle out of setting up - especially if I'm tired or it's cold lol

I have been laughing with that so much all evening that I nearly didnt join in here considering the lack of humour of some of the other posts

But what the heck :

I go with what Talitha said way back in 2008

Sorry, but I've never cared too much for this particular scale. Depending on what items I use as guidelines, my Starpad can be #2, #3 #4 or #5... too much of a spread to be totally accurate, JMHO.

Bortle is way off !

Zodiacal visible in Class5 Suburbia with the milkway washed out, ha pull the other one it plays John Peel!

Let him ask S@N to consult their Sq. of Pegasus

I guess he doesnt have streetlights, nor car and bus oil fumes, nor central heating, aerosols and particulates, in his suburban lands ( suburban Atacama or Manchester ! ? )

Limiting magnitude 5 in urban transition Class 7 ? Ha Pegasus Square 2 if you're lucky.

Bortle is worthless.

Ok, Im lucky, I live in a dark semi-rural location, times are I need to get dark adapted to see hands in front of face, milkyway is often complex, the great rift is easy as is M31(And.) when my eyes were younger M13 was easy,

Zodiacal, Gegenshine, dont kid me Mr Bortle

Sorry, feeling grumpy ,,,

Malcolm.

[BPO]

Bortle class 1 at my site, with SQM-LE readings a hair above 22.

The descriptions seem to be pretty accurate, insofar as the darker classes go: I routinely see shadows cast by the light of the MW, and always see very obvious ones caused by the likes of Venus and Jupiter.

However, I can't say whether the brighter end of Bortle's scale is any good.