CPRE Orion Star Count Dark Sky Survey is this week

[SuburbanMak]

Chatting on here about possible darker sites near me and came across the CPRE light pollution survey which you can contribute to this week.
 

I’m going to rope the kids in & thought I’d share the link: 

 

https://www.cpre.org.uk/what-we-care-about/nature-and-landscapes/dark-skies/star-count-2021/

Edited February 6, 2021 by SuburbanMak

[wibblefish]

Yeah I signed up for this the other week. Hoping to be able to do it but this seems to be the week atm!

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

We're on it mate thanks! 👍

 

[SuburbanMak]

7 minutes ago, wibblefish said:

Yeah I signed up for this the other week. Hoping to be able to do it but this seems to be the week atm!

Not am encouraging forecast! Clear outside has a few hours Wednesday evening for my area, but they’ve led me up the garden path before... fingers crossed. 

[SuburbanMak]

3 minutes ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

We're on it mate thanks! 👍

 

Cool - thought it must be on here somewhere, it’s a good initiative.

[SteveNickolls]

More than happy to oblige. Now it's up to the weather!

Cheers,

Stede

[Ouroboros]

Yep, had a go at it tonight and sent in my count.  

Here in Oxfordshire I counted 11 stars inside the Orion rectangle they specify.  That’s borderline “some to severe” light pollution on their scale  - though I knew that already. 😐 

[Swoop1]

Did mine at 22:00 tonight and, after 10 minutes adaptation, hiding in the shadow of my house, I managed 18 stars from my garden in the middle of Marlow.

It would have been far less just parked in the middle of the lawn.

[Ouroboros]

That’s very good. I would have thought Marlow was about as light polluted as here. However, my eyes are much less sensitive now than they used to be. I can only see Mag 5 in Bortle Class 2 with averted vision. I can’t see mag 6 at all now. 

[Helical]

Had a try at this at 22.45 last night from supposedly Bortle 4 , managed 8 after about 10 mins. Might be the effects of cataracts rather than pollution so I don't think I'll send the results in. 

[Swoop1]

11 hours ago, Swoop1 said:

Did mine at 22:00 tonight and, after 10 minutes adaptation, hiding in the shadow of my house, I managed 18 stars from my garden in the middle of Marlow.

It would have been far less just parked in the middle of the lawn.

I have returned to apologise for overstating my situation.

When I said lawn, what I should have said was area of scrubby grass and moss.

[wookie1965]

Did mine last night 7 stars is all I could see and that was at the end of my session so I was well dark adapted.😢

[SuburbanMak]

Finally got some clear skies last night & both my daughter and I did this which was fun. After 20 minutes to adapt (hiding between shed and car to escape neighbourhood security lights) Freya counted 21, I got 19 - but then she's 11 vs. 50 so I was quite pleased! 

Also looks like Winchester is not as light polluted as I'd thought, but then Orion was to the S.E which is the direction of S. Downs park so less out there until you reach Portsmouth 25 miles away or so.  

[Ouroboros]

2 hours ago, Helical said:

Had a try at this at 22.45 last night from supposedly Bortle 4 , managed 8 after about 10 mins. Might be the effects of cataracts rather than pollution so I don't think I'll send the results in. 

I would send em in. They will be factoring in variations in eye sensitivity. 

[Capt Slog]

I'll do mine tonight with a bit of luck.   I was out in the garden last night but didn't know anything about this.

 

BTW.  I didn't know what CPRE was a acronym for, so I went to their website to have a look.  I looked and looked, but couldn't find it there!  All I knew was that they are "The countryside charity".  It took a Google search to find out that they are the 'Campaign to Protect Rural England'.  Little things like that really annoy me. 

 

[wibblefish]

That was mildly depressing did mine, bortle 5 (19.94 SQM) and got 7 .... just about. I swear my night vision is terrible as well! 
I keep hoping the council will start to try and save money by turning off the street lights but no luck so far 😂

[PeterW]

SW London, local Playground yesterday; SQM around 18.9, walked about to get eyes adapted and got 18-19, spent a while with averted vision trying to ferret out more stars till I was confident I hadn’t imagined them. The 2x54 binoculars gave about 40 but fogged up almost instantly.

Peter

[Tiny Clanger]

From my suburban garden after about 90 minutes of observing, so eyes well adjusted , I saw 11 , which seemed reasonable as not only was light reflecting off the blanket of  snow,  it also seemed every neighbour had lights on and curtains open . Conservatories lit up like lanterns too.

Wonder if they's close the curtains if they noticed me stood out there with telescope & binoculars  🙂

Heather