Peculiar Survey

[woldsman]

I just read an article in the Oxford Mail that claims Oxford is one of the best UK locations for stargazing:

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/24303631.englands-top-stargazing-locations-revealed---oxford-fare/

The underpinning survey can be found here:

The Best Outdoor Stargazing Spots | Millets

"The study, considering factors such as light pollution and air quality, demonstrated that the city with its 1.98 mcd/m2 brightness and a 35-point air quality index

presents promising conditions for astronomical activities." 

While you can view a Full Moon from the city centre, it is very sad just how few stars are visible even on the night of a New Moon. Some other highly rated locations are

Barnsley (number 1), York, Northampton, Brighton, Bournemouth, and Rochdale.  

How could the report's authors possibly have arrived at these conclusions??

 

[dweller25]

“How could the report's authors possibly have arrived at these conclusions??”

There are lies, damn lies and then statistics 🤣

Edited May 8 by dweller25

[Gfamily]

52 minutes ago, woldsman said:

The underpinning survey can be found here:

The Best Outdoor Stargazing Spots | Millets.  

How could the report's authors possibly have arrived at these conclusions??

The 'Methodology' part of the Millets link explains that they started by looking at locations with high populations, so basically it's the least worst centres of population.

[Marvin Jenkins]

86.74% of statistics are made up on the spot.

Marvin

[bosun21]

Being from Oxford I wholeheartedly refute these findings 🤔.

[Carbon Brush]

I might buy a tent from Millets. Correction. That was until this report.
Given this twaddle, can I trust them to supply any advice or product?

 

[Louis D]

That seems really weird to encourage someone to travel to a town or city to stargaze instead of getting out to the countryside.  It seems like they should have listed the best publicly accessible parks, beaches, trail heads, rural B&Bs, etc. from which to observe.  If you're going to travel, you might as well go to the best places to observe in absolute terms rather than limiting it to towns and cities.

No one travels to the Texas Star Party at Prude Ranch and then decides to observe from Fort Davis nearby instead.  However, this would be my vote for best town in the US to do this from.  I've stayed there at night, and they take dark skies seriously with the McDonald Observatory nearby.  All street lights are full cutoff designs with deep red filters over them.  There is no exterior illumination of anything at night.  Store windows have blackout curtains over the windows.  It's actually kind of eerie how seriously they take dark skies.