191–200 of 200 posts
Is it a rendering artifact or something, that the left half of the United States is entirely darker than the right half? Like a line was drawn down the middle.
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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?
I don't do astrophotography, my interests are more terrestrial, namely street photography :D
There are lots of street photographers I follow, such as Shin Noguchi [0]. But I absolutely hate how Instagram is the go-to platform for photographers nowadays. I can't imagine a worse viewing experience for street photography, which tends to be ~35mm and landscape, than my phone's narrow, vertical screen. It's awful. But it's the most popular platform today, so there's really no getting around it.
[0] https://shinnoguchiphotography.com/photo/something_here/
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Probably the most noticable change in recent years is the replacement of mercury-vapor streetlights with the yellow-orange sodium-vapor lights, or with orangish LEDs (although some use blueish LEDs that are not that great for light pollution). In terms of actual legal requirements, Bavaria prohibits sky beams/searchlights directed upwards, and the illumination of facades of public buildings between 11pm and morning.
yellow-orange sodium-vapor lights are terrible for anyone who's not an astronomer. The sharp output spectrum prevents humans from seeing color
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…
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https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=7.00&lat=34.1123&lo... Flagstaff vs. Prescott in Arizona is another good example. Flagstaff has strict output per area limits, Prescott has none, while the density of both areas is similar.
Flagstaff makes an effort to enforce their lighting ordinances, Prescott makes no effort whatsoever. I think the problem is that all the people who knew why the lighting ordinances were passed retired. Because Prescott doesn’t have Lowell Observatory in the city limits the reasons behind the ordinances were forgotten. Blue-white outdoor lighting should be prosecuted as a public nuisance.
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?
So it occurs to me that this map and other light pollution maps are estimated, not measured. The town I live in is in a valley. Go north past the mountains and it gets very dark quickly. In fact, the light is blocked significantly that I don't have to go very far to get to a dark sky.
Because it doesn't correlate with population completely so there must be some measurements somewhere.
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Lick Observatory
Not open to non-professionals after dark except for a handful of "Photo Nights" each summer. If you drive up there after dark, you'll get yelled at (at a minimum) or they'll call the cops on you for trespassing.
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Not open to non-professionals after dark except for a handful of "Photo Nights" each summer. If you drive up there after dark, you'll get yelled at (at a minimum) or they'll call the cops on you for trespassing.
Mount Hamilton Road is available all year. Once you get above the cloud cover, the Milky Way is visible without an Observatory!
From https://www.ucolick.org/main/visit/info.html
"Please do not visit the observatory at night without a ticket to one of our evening programs.
Lick Observatory is an active research facility, and at night all of the buildings are locked and astronomers are working at the darkened telescopes. Telescopes require the darkest possible conditions to detect the faint light from celestial objects. The success of our work relies upon minimizing lights around the observatory at night. Thank you."