What are dark skies for astronomy and astrophotography?
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- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
- We always tell people who want to do astronomy and astrophotography to find dark skies. What exactly are dark skies? How dark do they need to be? What if you don't have really dark skies?
In this video I try and answer these questions by showing you what you can expect in a variety of places from just outside the fourth largest city in the U.S., all the way to a certified dark sky.
See the difference between being in a small town, and just outside that same town. You might be surprised!
I remember going to Crater Lake in Oregon. We were there to hike specifically and didn't realize it was a Bortle 1. We hiked down to the dock across from Wizard Island. The water was crystal clear down to almost 20ft. Maybe that was foreshadowing. It was getting dark and by the time we started back the sun had set over the rim of the caldera (the shadow on the opposing side being our judge of when we should head back.) And then.... BAM. It was like the Milky Way just opened up, there to stay, hanging in the sky, in an ocean of black. It was beautifully detailed and felt really special to hike at night under that. There was enough light, we hiked back without using our flashlights and there was no moon in the sky. I have to go to a Bortle 1 again. That place in Texas sounds great. Great video. Underrated channel.
Very informative video! I'm In Nashville, TN and the light pollution is just horrific and bortle 7 or 8 skies are terrible!
1:03 YES!!! YES!!! I have asked and searched to try to find out, just how far from a city do I need to be, to no longer suffer the effects of it. I know about the bortle scale, and I checkout the online map of light pollution, yet the VIIRS and the World maps are extremely different, and the VIIRS is done almost yearly, but it doesn't give you the bortle or the SQM data, but the World map gives you the bortle and SQM data, but it was last done in like 2018 or 2016, something like that. And I live in NC which means there is light pollution everywhere. The east coast sucks for star gazing or astrophotography. I cannot wait to finish this video. I have taken some images, of Andromeda, Orion nebula, moon/lunar eclipse shots. I use a tripod, canon T3i stock, and an intervalometer. I am hoping to get a star tracker within the next 2 months, either the SA 2i or the HEQ5. I also plan to get my camera astromodified with just the HA mod. But again, the light pollution in NC is just stupid.
I've always known this, but, It is so scary to go outside of the safety of the city, especially if like me you are unable to drive. It is such a complete bummer most people won't see the milky way, I likely never will.
Safety of the city? That sounds strange to someone living in a rural location. Seeing the Milky Way is amazing.
Travelled to an observatory only around 10 miles away from silicon valley (lick observatory) and the sky was far far nicer up there, even though the city was plainly visible.
Also have seen the Milky Way from silicon valley at my house but It's difficult to make out any detail, you can just about make out that its there.
I hate to say humans are ruining things with light pollution, because that wouldn't be an accurate statement. But I would give up all the restaurants and other entertainment establishments that highly contribute to light pollution in exchange for being able to walk out of my house and see that. Beautiful.
Terlingua and around have darkest sky in the country. Solid bortle 1. Astrophotography pictures’ SNR difference between Terlingua and bortle 7 is 20 fold! Yes, 20 fold. 1 hour picture from bortle 7 generated SNR of 5, while in Terlingua the same target the same rig the same season of year gave whooping 103 SNR.