Most of this seems pretty explainable except for the offshore spots near South Korea, both east of Busan and near Jeju. Fishing related?
Light Pollution Map
41–50 of 200 posts
Re: Light Pollution Map
#42Nice project! A few questions: How is this data collected? (I'm guessing a satellite image of city lights across the world) I'm trying to understand the scale. Zenith means overhead, so overhead sky brightness. The magnitude scale stops at 17 but I thought magnitudes above 7 is no longer visible to the human eye [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_magnitude
this is explained in the FAQ. They merge different sources, notably data from SQMs which "stands for Sky Quality Meter. It's a small device that can measure sky quality ie. darkness. It's widely used by amateur astronomers because it's fairly cheap and gives you fast results which can be easily compared to other SQM users."
Re: Light Pollution Map
#43Is the light pollution in the North Sea really that intense? How about the Grand Banks off Atlantic Canada / Newfoundland? Are these due to oil platforms? I find it hard to believe that the light pollution at the head of the Grand Banks, almost 200km off shore, is equivalent to the the metro area of St. John's, nearby.
The North Sea ones are oil platforms, yes. I believe the light intensity is largely because of gas flares [1], but I might be wrong.
Re: Light Pollution Map
#44The data from the International Dark-Sky Association[0] would be a good complement to this. In case you're interested what a dark sky town ordinance looks like for a small town that has the designation near where I live, see here[1]. [0] https://www.darksky.org/our-work/conservation/idsp/finder/ [1] https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/torreyut/latest/torrey...
Ironically, it's not very international. 22 out of the 29 "International" Dark Sky Communities are in the US:
https://www.darksky.org/our-work/conservation/idsp/communiti...
I can think of a lot of towns outside the US that have excellent dark skies but they aren't listed here.
Re: Light Pollution Map
#45Nice project! A few questions: How is this data collected? (I'm guessing a satellite image of city lights across the world) I'm trying to understand the scale. Zenith means overhead, so overhead sky brightness. The magnitude scale stops at 17 but I thought magnitudes above 7 is no longer visible to the human eye [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_magnitude
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Re: Light Pollution Map
#46It's not like nothing can be done about light pollution. For example Germany has a law about light pollution, and it shows on this map. It less polluted than its neighbours, although it has higher population density and urbanization level.
What is the law? What are people legally required to do?
Actually, I stand corrected, there's no federal German law about light pollution. It's left to different federal states, and most of them incorporated regulations about light in their legislation.
I can't find an English text but the document from the federal parliament below summarizes the legal state of the topic in Germany.
https://www.bundestag.de/resource/blob/632966/7ba7c4cd1cfef8...
Re: Light Pollution Map
#47Is the light pollution in the North Sea really that intense? How about the Grand Banks off Atlantic Canada / Newfoundland? Are these due to oil platforms? I find it hard to believe that the light pollution at the head of the Grand Banks, almost 200km off shore, is equivalent to the the metro area of St. John's, nearby.
The North Sea ones are oil platforms, yes. I believe the light intensity is largely because of gas flares [1], but I might be wrong. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_flare
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibernia_oil_field
Just found this as I was attempting to figure out what the bright light is off Newfoundland.
Re: Light Pollution Map
#48I like this. I think it would be also useful to add isolines for brightness of various astronomical objects to the map. I want to easily understand where I need to go to see Milky Way for example.
Re: Light Pollution Map
#49I am grateful for this map. I used it to scout out Mojave desert as a place to do some stargazing. I was surprised that Las Vegas is still very clearly visible on the horizon, despite this being a very dark "hole" in the map. You gotta go really far out to get dark skies all the way to the horizon.
If you don't require dark skies for 360 degrees, you can get away with going to a place that has dark sky in the direction of whatever you're trying to observe.
I've done a lot of deep sky photography within an hour of the Bay Area by being mindful of this.
Re: Light Pollution Map
#50Does this tool take into account elevation? The Mt. Wilson observatory, for instance, being on the outskirts of LA, is in a red zone on that map, yet is still a great place to stargaze. Not that this map isn't useful and insightful, but perhaps it can make things seem worse than they really are? As long as you have mountains around you, it's not like you can't go there to see the stars with the naked eye. Last year,…
You've gotta get out to a truly Dark site — sounds like you'd love it.