Clear Outside / Light Pollution Update

[wookie1965]

9 hours ago, Stu said:

That implies Mag 2 NELM which is pretty awful  I assume the figures are for best local conditions, aware from glare and I know you have some pretty trying conditions to contend with Paul.

Yes very difficult now that`s why trying to find a dark sky spot not far away. Well a better observing place anyway. Thanks everyone. 

[Stu]

1 minute ago, wookie1965 said:

Yes very difficult now that`s why trying to find a dark sky spot not far away. Well a better observing place anyway. Thanks everyone. 

I'm sure you can manage that Paul. Even just getting away from the local glare helps a lot, a local park maybe?

We use a village green nearby, there are still streetlights around the perimeter (although they dim after a certain time, quite late though). It is pretty good considering how close we are to London and Heathrow, Mag 19.3 or 19.4 I think is the best there.

[wookie1965]

I`m struggling round here Stu my local parks are run over by yobs at night I am not bothered about them it is my equipment I am worried about. Trying get hold of a business manager to see if I can use their car park  which is gated no luck so far.

[Stu]

15 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

I`m struggling round here Stu my local parks are run over by yobs at night I am not bothered about them it is my equipment I am worried about. Trying get hold of a business manager to see if I can use their car park  which is gated no luck so far.

Tricky. Hope you manage to find somewhere suitable. I assume there is no local club nearby?

[wookie1965]

There is Stu.

[Demonperformer]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

That is a very nice improvement with the new lights! Worth checking on other nights too, you perhaps might get better readings on more transparent nights. Was the moon around when you took the reading? It was quite full last night, and would have been having an impact this morning I should think?

Yes, with all the horror stories I was reading about the LED lights before they were installed, I was pleasantly surprised. They have been in for over a year now, but for some reason I still have the old SQM reading stuck in my brain.

Yeah, it wasn't a particularly great morning and the moon was around. That said, I don't recall ever getting much better than 18.6. But in one sense it is all a bit academic. I am not able to go anywhere else, so it is either image with the streetlights or pack it in completely.

[JG777]

Before this update the location finder used to work, now I get a network error message whether on 4G or WiFi and this happens across 3 devices. 

[FLO]

2 minutes ago, JG777 said:

Before this update the location finder used to work, now I get a network error message whether on 4G or WiFi and this happens across 3 devices. 

The apps were not updated as part of this change, it was purely on the server side so the issues you are seeing are unrelated.

We have seen some issues on Android devices relating to the location search feature due to some Android updates to the geocoding libraries which the Clear Outside app relies upon. To resolve this, we will be building our own location lookup system rather than relying on the Android one so hope to release an update / fix for this soon.

[JG777]

Thanks for the info. Yes this is 3 Android devices so this links with what you mention. It defaults to Exeter which means to use it I would have to move there, and that would be too near your warehouse, and I would be skint forever.....

It used to work before but hadn't used it in a while relying on Weather live and WSI ,that's why I thought it was an update.

[Littleguy80]

Great update, thank you. 19.66 at home and 21.38 at Seething, home of the Norwich Astronomical Society. Feels about right based on my on Noddy assessments 

[Victor Boesen]

Well....

+viewing from a terrace=great observing conditions

[Captain Scarlet]

Within the Clear Outside App (which I love, by the way) I'm trying to enter a place using lat and long coordinates, rather than finding a place-name. Within the App we are given the opportunity to enter coordinates, but there seems to be no way of entering a negative sign for any place west of Greenwich? I also tried going the long way around and entering, say, 358 degrees longitude but it didn't like that.

Cheers, Magnus

[Galen Gilmore]

Love this new feature.

My skies seem like they would be better, but I am sort of on a border between borlte 9 and bortle 6 skies.

[ngwillym]

How can I get hold of this to display on my website?

Thanks

Neil

[Thalestris24]

Forecast for Glasgow, Glasgow City, UK (55.88,-4.27)

  Est. Sky Quality:  18.45 Magnitude.  Class 8 Bortle.  4.52 mcd/m² Brightness.  4351.71 μcd/m² Artificial Brightness.

If the sky quality is based on 2015 data, I think it's noticeably worse now
 

Louise

[chiltonstar]

Shows my garden as 20.83 which is close-ish to my visual estimates, although I've not used a meter.

Chris

[SteveNickolls]

With 'Clear Outside' now displaying the helpful estimate of local sky quality got me motivated to check local conditions using the method described by Samir Kharusi in  

http://www.pbase.com/samirkharusi/image/37608572

On the last clear evening here (wow, that seems a long while ago now) with no Moon I obtained a value of 19.6 equating to a limiting visual magnitude of just over 5.1. This is better than the value on Clear Outside (19.1) so it's worth checking your local sky.

Cheers,
Steve

[Thalestris24]

3 hours ago, SteveNickolls said:

With 'Clear Outside' now displaying the helpful estimate of local sky quality got me motivated to check local conditions using the method described by Samir Kharusi in  

http://www.pbase.com/samirkharusi/image/37608572

On the last clear evening here (wow, that seems a long while ago now) with no Moon I obtained a value of 19.6 equating to a limiting visual magnitude of just over 5.1. This is better than the value on Clear Outside (19.1) so it's worth checking your local sky.

Cheers,
Steve

I don't think it necessarily gives the values for your precise location e.g. for me it shows Glasgow City whereas I'm ever so slightly outside the city centre. It probably doesn't make much difference for most people.

Louise

[saac]

2 hours ago, Thalestris24 said:

I don't think it necessarily gives the values for your precise location e.g. for me it shows Glasgow City whereas I'm ever so slightly outside the city centre. It probably doesn't make much difference for most people.

Louise

Louise I feel for you, Glasgow is a great place to live ( I grew up in Lanarkshire when I was kid and went to University in Glasgow) but the amount of light pollution must really limit what you can do.  How easy is it for you to move out to a nearby darksite - say Loch Lomond or somewhere similar for stargazing?Across here in Fife (near St Andrews) it's not as bad but it is only going to go one way unfortunately.  I wonder if we are a dying breed  

Jim

[RayD]

I suspect it is only meant to be a guideline rather than an accurate equation of sky quality.  

For here it is showing 20.13 Bortle 5, which I would say is probably about right, and for our house in Spain this is showing us as 21.30, Bortle 4/3, but given the exact location I suspect it is slightly higher than that as I can easily see M33 naked eye direct vision.  I haven't measured it, but suppose I should.

I think it's a nice feature and actually quite good fun, particularly given that it is a totally free app (thanks @FLO).

[Thalestris24]

53 minutes ago, saac said:

Louise I feel for you, Glasgow is a great place to live ( I grew up in Lanarkshire when I was kid and went to University in Glasgow) but the amount of light pollution must really limit what you can do.  How easy is it for you to move out to a nearby darksite - say Loch Lomond or somewhere similar for stargazing?Across here in Fife (near St Andrews) it's not as bad but it is only going to go one way unfortunately.  I wonder if we are a dying breed  

Jim

Hi Jim

Thanks for the empathy! Did you see my topic in the Astro Lounge re the rollout of LED lighting in Glasgow? I'm a UofG PG alumna - I only moved here in 2009.
I wish I could move or be able to go somewhere better for imaging but I'm stuck in my 2nd floor flat with no car - it's frustrating to think that Galloway dark site would potentially be in reach if I had my own transport. Still, I get to have a go from home - occasionally. Weather has been pretty dreadful virtually all year so far. I'm slowly working on getting an eq3-pro ready to actually take outside! I might at least be able to point away from the city glare, though can't escape the skyglow. Earth hour is next Saturday but it's always cloudy!

Louise

[RayD]

Crikey Louise I've just seen your figures there!  No wonder you mention the high levels of light pollution.  As beautiful a place as Glasgow is, it certainly doesn't seem ideal for astronomy 

[Thalestris24]

1 minute ago, RayD said:

Crikey Louise I've just seen your figures there!  No wonder you mention the high levels of light pollution.  As beautiful a place as Glasgow is, it certainly doesn't seem ideal for astronomy 

It isn't!!! I keep asking myself why I ever started! I'm sure the skies were a bit darker then (2014) though I didn't really appreciate what skyglow really was when I started. Uni actually has an observatory about 3 miles away. If I could only get an imaging setup on a bus... Less than 10 mins journey time - so near, so far! 
I suppose narrowband is still an option. I might try imaging through a combo of 7nm Ha and 3.5nm Ha - I don't know if putting two filters together  would help but it might be worth a try.

Louise