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UK light pollution map

Psychobilly

By Psychobilly
in The Astro Lounge

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Beulah

Beulah

Posted
Posted

When we were at teh Moutain Center last year you could see the glow of the Valleys and coastal belt from over 30 miles... and thats with the highest peaks of the Brecon Beacons in the way... still got lost though when looking striaght up....

Wow....:)

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acey

acey

Posted
Posted
Whats the Philips one like?

I have the Philip's map which shows a pattern pretty much like the web maps (and thanks for these links, Peter - really useful).

The problem is in the detail. The Philip's map is based on data from a few years ago, and light pollution is spreading faster than map-makers can keep up with. I recently moved site because the Newcastle sky-glow was getting so much brighter - thanks to the council's new streetlighting (which apparently has CfDS approval!!). I suspect that the dark area in the north of England has got a lot smaller in the past year or two.

Andrew

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Psychobilly

Psychobilly

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Thanks Andrew for confirming the philips and online maps are in broad agreement...

You know what its like when your driving looking for dark skies your always wondering what it going to be like around the next bend or over the next hill....

Peter...

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Dangerous-Dave

Dangerous-Dave

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That's a very rough map!! I've got the Phillips dark skies map which is pretty accurate in my experience. NW Scotland is pretty dark, but suffers from copious amounts of cloud, with the driest months being May/June which barely get dark. I'd say your best balance of dark skies and low cloud cover is the north of Norfolk. Hence Kelling. :)

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Dangerous-Dave

Dangerous-Dave

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I suspect that the dark area in the north of England has got a lot smaller in the past year or two.

Andrew

It's shrunk radically since I was a kid. You used to be able to drive five minutes from our house, up the A690 and be in pitch black skies. Now the same road is flanked with high pressure lamps all the way to Durham - and beyond.

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MeerkatinBKK

MeerkatinBKK

Posted
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Thanks for all these links. It's interesting to see on the Oceanic map how my current residency, Thailand, is so much more light-polluted than its neighbours. My two sites are red (Bangkok) and green/yellow. The green site is helped though as it's high up and surrounded my mountains up to around 10 degrees alt higher.

I did notice though that my mother-in-law's village, on the border with Laos, is marked as being as black as, well, black. This obviously raises that most serious of moral dilemmas for astronomers:

Do I spend more time with the in-laws in return for truly dark skies?

Hmm...this will need some pondering... :)

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Hipolito

Hipolito

Posted
Posted

Jeez ... just look at London. The only place in the UK to be WHITE. Explains a lot really ... either I should give up, or move out of London. Actually, I am very tempted to move out of London for a lot of reasons but the jobs market isn't quite so good elsewhere in the country.

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gman

gman

Posted
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I've been trying to integrate one of the maps from this site in to google earth as an overlay. Getting it exactly right is proving to be a bit of a sod but I'm getting there gradually. Its probably a bit out of date now but ought to give a rough guide.

Heres a ss to show what its like. If I can get it to fit, it could be quite handy.

The grey bits near my place have probably shrunk a tad by now.

Gareth

post-16534-133877373466_thumb.jpeg

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nitram100

nitram100

Posted
Posted
Jeez ... just look at London. The only place in the UK to be WHITE. Explains a lot really ... either I should give up, or move out of London. Actually, I am very tempted to move out of London for a lot of reasons but the jobs market isn't quite so good elsewhere in the country.

I know what you mean, i've lived in London most of my life and i can't believe that only 4 years ago i used to be able to go outside and use my telescope and have a good session, it has gone downhill rapidly since then.

It's just pointless now, with the amount of street lights they have put in over the last few years, the worst thing is that i live near a main road so have to contend with the sound of buses and police sirens 24/7, which wasn't a problem 4-5 years ago, but the area has become so overpopulated since then. Also, my garden faces this road, they did road works on it 18 months ago and ever since then, car headlights shine right at my face when i'm in the garden, there must be a bump in the road causing the headlights to bounce upwards or something, needless to say i haven't used my scope for going on 14 months now and it's KILLING me.

/rant over :cool:

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PeterW

PeterW

Posted
Posted

Another resource that covers France, Germany and Holland so far is here. If you look carefully you will find that the VERY south of the UK is also covered (download and zoom in on the HIGH RESOLUTION version)

les Dossiers AVEX France's light pollution map

It is interesting to compare to the Philips map already mentioned, which has 'lower resolution'. I had a chat with the guy who made these maps and he is about to prepare a UK one (as he has located a source of topographic data for the UK). I do not know how reliable his methods are or the sources of his data, but another resource to suggest locations to evaluate is always welcome. Quite often you find that hills can block out light pollution quite well, which the Philips map may not show. Of course there are obvious dark regions... but it'd be nice to find closer observing locations, that are nearly as good.

Cheers

PEterW

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James

James

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The Phillips map is based in part on the topography of the UK so it should show the effects of hills quite well. It certainly does near Taunton :cool: Of course the higher the resolution the better for hills and the like.

James

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PeterW

PeterW

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Full cut off is an issue too, the bulbs are really intense and when you live below their cut-off shield...... it's like having spot lights in your face! The old lights may be worse for light pollution, but at least my dark adaption stood some chance!

I really hope that there is a new LP survey soon, so we can see just how much worse things are getting, the CFDS compared 1990 to 2001 (I think) and the differences were bad, but we are a good way beyond that. How much 'prgress' have we seen since then??

PEterW

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Hipolito

Hipolito

Posted
Posted

Last summer I spent a few days in North-Eastern Portugal. The great thing was that there was nothing there for miles and miles except for mountain and valleys, with the odd village here and there.

The night sky was pretty amazing. Come night time, you really knew the meaning of darkness ... not even a hint of 'terestrial' light, let alone light 'pollution'.

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Macavity

Macavity

Posted
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I see my (shortly to be realised?) house move falls somewhere under the *** on the Phillips map. LOL. I sense the skies will be somewhat better - At least this location is on the miles-wide (rather than 10s/100s miles!) fringes towards "blue/grey stuff". :cool:

N.B. I was referred to the A-fifty-five, in the above (But left in for amusement)! :)

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The Warthog

The Warthog

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I got a look at the North American version of this map yesterday. I live in st. Catharines Ontario, which has one of the `white`areas on the map so close to my house that I could dropt an arrow into that area with my little bow. I`m in deep orange, and most of the peninsula that I live on is light orange, which I think is 4.0-4.5 mag. As the gradations are continuous, I suppose that if I could find a campground with 4.5 mag skies, which would be greatly preferable to mine, in the southern part of the peninsula. I notice the Starfest star party is held in a green area - still not great, but as good as it gets in southern Ontario.

However, the Manitoulin Star Party, a couple of hours farther north, is in maximum dark skies, and you can go to Manitoulin any time to get those skies.

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bengriffin

bengriffin

Posted
Posted

Every few years we go to the high mountain monastaries in Ladakh - which is very arid, has virtually no cloud cover during the summer, and an altitude of about 5,000m (yes, we need acclimatisation); there is no LP whatsoever. There's no electricity either, of course! Last time I took a pair of IS 8x25 binoculars, and it was some of the easiest observing I've ever had.

In contrast, observing in Central London (Islington), with the urban heat island effect, moisture, dust, cloud cover, aircraft, crazy 'daylight-ready' yellow-white skies (ever been to leicester square at night time and heard the birds?), continuous ground vibration (due to heavy trucks, cargo trains, and the underground) and a skyline which steals 30 degrees and up is ... a challenge. I can eyeball Magnitude 3 stars on a clear night... if I don't mind listening to the bad karaoke from the pub next door.

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