The Bortle Scale

[stfoskey12]

How dark is your sky according to the Bortle scale?
Where I am on the OU campus, the sky is probably about an 8, simply because there are so many streetlights that you can easily see color. But by going into an open field a little ways off campus without lights within 100-200 ft. (30-60 m) of me, the brightness drops to about a 6. I'm taking an astronomy class and we sometimes look through a telescope on the roof of one of the buildings, and the 40 ft. (12 m) increase in elevation drops the light pollution to a 7, or maybe a 6. Back at my home in Chapel Hill, NC the light pollution was around a 6. The darkest I've seen was a 3 or maybe 4 near the Durham/Orange/Person (NC) County border, and this past summer I realized that the sky at Emerald Isle, NC is a 4.

 

[Synobun]

Between class 6 and 7 right now.

I grew up in a class 3 area.

 

[warpus]

This is my neck of the woods' light pollution map

I am in the city halfway between Detroit and Toronto and live about 5km (as the crow flies) from downtown. There is a lot of light pollution here. I can see some stars, but visibility is poor. It's not horrible but compared to what you see when you drive a half an hour away from the city, it is very poor.

The two arrows I added indicate my 2 favourite spots for lying back and watching the stars, at least in this part of the world. (They are generic markers and point to a geographic area and not necessarily a specific point)

The blue arrow is Bruce Peninsula, which has the best parts of the famous Bruce Trail (which runs all the way to Niagara Falls I think), a lot of parks, other hiking trails, little islands, beaches, grottos, an interesting coastline, quaint little towns, etc. It's a popular tourist destination, but there aren't really many towns there other than Tobermory right at the tip and I think Lion's head about halfway (They are the two dots you see). A lot of the penenisula doesn't get much light pollution at all, and there are cottages scattered along the coast on both sides, there's parks, campsites, etc. It's a popular place to rent a cottage, stay for a week, swim in the lake during the day, and drink and look at the stars at night. This place is about a 4 hour drive from my house so it's close enough for long weekend trips too. The island you see just north of Bruce Peninsula is the equally cool (and worth visiting) Manitoulin Island. Not much light pollution there and lots of cool hiking opportunities and cool little fishing villages with really good fish

The red arrow is Algonquin Provincial Park, a place that feels like a pure wilderness, far removed from civilization. It's about a 5-7 hour drive depending on traffic in Toronto and which highways you take.. It is an AMAZING place to go for 1-2 week long camping, portgaging, canoeing, camping, hiking, etc. trips. Did I say camping twice? Yes, I did. Because that's how awesome it is.

Algonquin park is especially amazing for star watching. The only other places I've ever seen the milky way come in so beautifully have been southern Patagonia and near Mt. Salkantay in Peru. Arctic Norway would have probably been spectacular too, but it was usually cloudy so I didn't get a good look. Algonquin is such a .. powerful place to go camping. I've been with my family a couple times, with friends.. You're so far removed from everything, there are your typical "Canadian wilderness" sounds at night, but I think the way the stars look is what "sells it".

As you can see I am close to 3 of the great lakes. There are a lot of campsites near the coast. Lots of cool places to go camping or for a day trip, many parks, nature reserves, sandy beaches, etc. and the stars come in well at night too, but it is nothing compared to what you see in Algonquin.

 

[Old Hippy]

stars.... what stars, class 9 inner city
but go bush as we say in Australia and you have near perfect conditions there, class 1
there was an article on TV last week where Chinese tourist are flocking to a salt lake that has shallow water and you can walk with the stars reflected in the water

 

[W|M]

I live in a class 8/9, the closest place to me which has class 1 skies is the ocean about 100 km away from the coast, and the closest place on land which has class 1 skies is about 900 km away. I live in a red area here:

 

[Arwon]

I'm around the urban marker there. If I wanted to see stars I could quickly head about 20km in most directions and be in crisp mountain air. Australia's pretty empty. The other marker is Tidbinbilla observatory, the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex and one third of NASA's Deep Space Network along with Madrid and California.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

From the point of view of looking out of my windows, it's basically 8.5. I have no problem seeing the Moon and brighter planets, but the stars are problematic. There's just too much light pollution here.

I'd hope for a power outage some night, but with my luck it would happen when the sky is cloudy.

 

[Lexicus]

I live well under the shroud of Mordor. I'd say 8 or 9, though I voted 8 because I don't know if I'm technically in an inner city...

 

[Farm Boy]

Fourish.

 

[stfoskey12]

Here's the map for my area. If I had a car, I would have easy access to dark skies nearby. And since I live in the plains, there would be some great viewing.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Midtown Toronto should be a 9 on that scale.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Northeast Albuquerque is pretty bright, but if I go 20 miles in almost any direction the light drops way, way down. Most of NM is pretty dark at night. And empty of people.

 

[Narz]

I live in the the Bronx so I imagine it's a 8 or 9.

 

[Hygro]

in the bronx? a 10.