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Light Pollution Map

lightpollutionmap.info

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Re: Light Pollution Map

#61

Post by dheera »

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…

I do a lot of deep sky landscape photography (https://instagram.com/dheeranet/) and dark skies are essential to that. Most of these are taken from pretty dark spots on the map in California.

Especially essential is planning for dark skies in the direction of whatever it is you are trying to shoot, which is in some cases arguably slightly more important than the dark sky level of where you are standing. If a galaxy rises over a city, it's going to be hard to image even if you're far from the city.

One of the tools I use the most is an app called "PlanIt Pro", which gives you pretty much all the info you need, including being able to show where in the sky various astronomical objects are, their magnitude, a VR simulation of them with the 3D topo map, and lots of other things. It also has a light pollution map built-in, and can show you the position of the Milky Way. I plan many of my shots with it. There's a free version and I can't remember which features are omitted from that but it's been worth every penny for me.

Re: Light Pollution Map

#62

Post by sparker72678 »

Still dreaming that someday we regard light pollution as the pollutant that it really is, though tbh I have little hope.

99% of the people I talk to about this basically wish we could replicate daytime levels of light all around the clock. They want even brighter streetlights, even more lights around the outside of their homes, etc.

Re: Light Pollution Map

#63

Post by slowhand09 »

jonah-archive wrote: post #33

This is a bit tangential, but should be a pretty good aurora over North America tomorrow (Sat Apr 24) night -- visible on the horizon as far south as Salem, OR to Annapolis, MD: https://www.gi.alaska.edu/monitors/aurora-forecast (forecast is for the UTC day, so the prior overnight for NA)

I live in Annapolis. I can't determine from the link how to tell if its projected to be visible there.

Re: Light Pollution Map

#64

Post by ewhanley »

giarc wrote: post #8
steanne wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"...however, at any given time, several thousand transient workers support the Prudhoe Bay oil field."

The bright spot is bigger than the bright spot over Paris and London though. Do they just leave the lights on 24/7 in the bay?

Prudhoe is a massive oilfield. It's thousands of wells spread covering an area around 200k acres. Every well pad and facility has lighting.

Oilfields operate 24/7 so the lights are always on. Of course there's ~24 hours of daylight for half the year on the North Slope and ~24 hours of darkness in winter.

Re: Light Pollution Map

#65

Post by jakear »

jonah-archive wrote: post #33

This is a bit tangential, but should be a pretty good aurora over North America tomorrow (Sat Apr 24) night -- visible on the horizon as far south as Salem, OR to Annapolis, MD: https://www.gi.alaska.edu/monitors/aurora-forecast (forecast is for the UTC day, so the prior overnight for NA)

Neat! Any idea where on the Oregon coast would be the best place to watch? Hard to tell specifics from that map.

Re: Light Pollution Map

#67

Post by ewhanley »

Scottopherson wrote: post #39
toddsiegel wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw this same thing. https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2013/01/16/169511949/a...

"Many farmers in North Dakota can't prevent drillers from drilling — even if they'd like to. Decades ago, the rights to the minerals below those farms were separated from the rights to the land itself — which is why today, energy companies can move in, create drilling pads where they please, move in trucks and workers, without the farmers' consent." Am I reading this right? A company can just plop drilling operations…

That's right. You can't prevent a mineral rights holder from accessing their resources - even if you hold the surface rights. The company developing the minerals has to compensate the surface owner for roads/pads/etc.

Re: Light Pollution Map

#68

Post by agogdog »

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…

Many (like myself) also don't realize how far away they live from areas with great nighttime viewing conditions (a 3-4 hour drive for me).

:(

Re: Light Pollution Map

#69

Post by slowhand09 »

jonah-archive wrote: post #33

This is a bit tangential, but should be a pretty good aurora over North America tomorrow (Sat Apr 24) night -- visible on the horizon as far south as Salem, OR to Annapolis, MD: https://www.gi.alaska.edu/monitors/aurora-forecast (forecast is for the UTC day, so the prior overnight for NA)

I live in Maryland. I can't determine from the link how to tell if its projected to be visible there.

Re: Light Pollution Map

#70

Post by amoorthy »

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…

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.

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