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Light Pollution Map

lightpollutionmap.info

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Re: Light Pollution Map

#181

Post by closeparen »

dmrotar wrote: post #56

Resources like this (and as others have mentioned, Dark Site Finder) are very useful for astrophotography, especially for a hobbyist like myself. Many don't realize how relatively close they live to areas with great nighttime viewing conditions. For example, upstate New York has some great viewing locations, so even if you live in NYC it's an easy weekend trip. Here's a shot I took of the Milky Way taken from such a…

Public places like parks are generally closed at night, aren’t they? Are there special sites that welcome nighttime visitors? Do you get camping permits? Or just hope the police don’t notice?

Re: Light Pollution Map

#182

Post by andreareina »

dmrotar wrote: post #56

Resources like this (and as others have mentioned, Dark Site Finder) are very useful for astrophotography, especially for a hobbyist like myself. Many don't realize how relatively close they live to areas with great nighttime viewing conditions. For example, upstate New York has some great viewing locations, so even if you live in NYC it's an easy weekend trip. Here's a shot I took of the Milky Way taken from such a…

Gorgeous. You probably know this already, but you can avoid the star trails by making several shorter exposures and stacking them.

Re: Light Pollution Map

#183

Post by decibe1 »

s0rce wrote: post #174
cbkeller wrote: post #173

What is fascinating to me about this is the regions including [1] in North Dakota or [2] in northern Russia (~300 km southwest of Norilsk) that have incredibly large and bright zones of light pollution -- more than many large cities -- almost entirely disconnected from population, apparently as a result of temporary natural gas extraction infrastructure. The pollution at [1] is larger/brighter than Denver, and [2] is…

Mining or oil/gas extraction?

Correct. 'Gas flaring' specifically. I think this data is a few years outb of date. They've cut back drastically as of late.

Re: Light Pollution Map

#184

Post by 2bitencryption »

dmrotar wrote: post #56

Resources like this (and as others have mentioned, Dark Site Finder) are very useful for astrophotography, especially for a hobbyist like myself. Many don't realize how relatively close they live to areas with great nighttime viewing conditions. For example, upstate New York has some great viewing locations, so even if you live in NYC it's an easy weekend trip. Here's a shot I took of the Milky Way taken from such a…

Whoa, that site (lumathon) looks like exactly the sort of "Flickr alternative" I've been looking for.

It's so performant, and the zooming-as-you-scroll part is really elegant.

If that's your site, which it seems to be - great job!

Re: Light Pollution Map

#185

Post by 3dee »

In the Netherlands a lot of light polution is caused by greenhouses.

Now I am wondering: does something like a foil exists that keeps light in the greenhouse while letting sunlight pass through?

Re: Light Pollution Map

#187

Post by skerit »

ehsankia wrote: post #20
the_arun wrote: post #17

Isn't Light Pollution directly proportional to population density?

In general yes, though just looking quickly, it seems like Belgium for example was a lot brighter than surrounding countries, and I don't think they have that high of a density? I would liked to see a map like this normalized for population density, though not sure how granular that data is.

Belgium has a pretty high population density: 375/km². That's the 9th most densely populated country of the world. And that is mostly because of Flanders, the part that is actually lit up on the map. Flanders has a population density of 484/km².

Re: Light Pollution Map

#189

Post by dmrotar »

2bitencryption wrote: post #184
dmrotar wrote: post #56

Resources like this (and as others have mentioned, Dark Site Finder) are very useful for astrophotography, especially for a hobbyist like myself. Many don't realize how relatively close they live to areas with great nighttime viewing conditions. For example, upstate New York has some great viewing locations, so even if you live in NYC it's an easy weekend trip. Here's a shot I took of the Milky Way taken from such a…

Whoa, that site (lumathon) looks like exactly the sort of "Flickr alternative" I've been looking for. It's so performant, and the zooming-as-you-scroll part is really elegant. If that's your site, which it seems to be - great job!

Yeah it's indeed my service that I'm in the process of getting off the ground. Thank you sincerely for the compliment -- the UI is definitely something into which a lot of hours went so I'm happy that it's having a positive impact on the experience. (I too wasn't satisfied with some aspects of Flickr and the other big photo hosts which is why I started work on it.)

Do you do any astrophotography?

Re: Light Pollution Map

#190

Post by derwiki »

doubtfuluser wrote: post #107
amoorthy wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow amazing! I've been itching to show my kids the Milky Way. I myself have only seen it once in New Zealand decades ago. What is the minimum dark sky rating to be able to see it with the naked eye? I live in the Bay Area and I know there is Pigeon Point Lighthouse which is a dark sky spot but I think it's often cloudy. If anyone has better suggestions would be grateful to hear those.

I once got nice shots from Mt Tam. You can hardly see it, but with an ok camera doing long exposure you can get some nice pictures - even being so close to SF

Yea the blanket of fog over SF can actually help trap light and make the sky more visible. Watched a meteor shower from Tam once.
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