How Dark Are Your Skies?
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- Опубліковано 3 чер 2021
- The pros and cons of three methods for evaluating Sky Quality.
Method 1 (Satellite data): lightpollutionmap.info
Method 2 (Bortle scale): skyandtelescope.org/astronomy...
Method 3 (Light pollution meters): Unihedron Meters - unihedron.com/ Stars4All Meters - tess.stars4all.eu/products/
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Week 3 of appreciating Five Minute Fridays
How sweet would it be if there was like an online database that synced up everyone's sky scans so you could see what the light pollution is in all the spots it has been measured and people have volunteered that data!
Just had five minutes so didn't mention this, but there is an iOS app trying to do this. Here's the map: www.darkskymeter.com/ When I had an iPhone, I did try the app and found it to be just slightly more optimistic than my more expensive unihedron meter, but not bad for an app.
@@NebulaPhotos awesome!!
So thankful that I only have to travel 15-20 miles out of town. The stars in West Texas are amazing!
Jealous...
Look forward to these little bits every week. Thank you for posting such great content!
This is fantastic! Thanks for this. Loving these videos more and more!
Love this new format! Keep it up, and thanks for all the great information shared!
Friday! Looking forward to these videos every week.
Another great vid! Thank you so much for the time you put into this from all the people you've helped over the years. That TESS meter is so cool. I went hunting, and it appears that the TESS-W is now open source and there are plans for you to build one along with a link to calibrate using the master photometer by contacting the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
Another jewel of information! Thanks Nico!
Really nice, quick and simple video. Thanks!
Nicely done Nico. The best thing you can do to help figure out your area's light pollution is to start working with your local IDA chapter and helping to reduce it! For PA, Pittsburgh just put out the notice to get contractors to install new street lights at the guidance by our IDA chapter, the work is set to start next year. All shielded LED's that are less than 3000k (but can go up to that if there's an emergency, we can brighten the block it's on). I can't wait to see them get installed!
awesome series! keep 'em coming :D
Love all your vids so much!!
Maaan...I absolutely love your videos...the clarity of your knowledge and the way you explain..thank you!! 🙌🏼🙌🏼
nice video. look forward to seeing more.
I live in the worst light poluted location in the world. Netherlands near Rotterdam Getting some shots means travelling 200 km (140 miles) rather frustrating
Thank Niko! Great info!
According to the App clear outside I am a Bortle class 5 at home. I can see the milkyway from my backyard. I am on an acre of land and keep all my lights off and curtains closed.I am super fortunate to have neighbors that ALL keep their lights off and or facing down. (except for 1 person!!)
Also we have pretty good downward facing street lights with proper Kelvin.
Clear skies
another great video brother, hope you are doing well!
Fantastic Video Nico, Great Information on Skies!! Bortle 8 skies hear 🌌
I would Love to visit Bortle 1!!🔭
Thank you! This cleared up a lot.
great information , thank you very much
Thanks Nico. Found it interesting
Luckily I live in Maine, so I am not too far away from so many good places to try out astrophotography. In the next month we're actually going to take a drive north to a class 1 location. I'm excited and also very happy to have found your channel, because there is a lot I still need to learn before its more than just playing with my camera.
How was it?
loved this one
Superb ❤️🎉❤️ information 🙂 thanks..🙏❤️
Dark skies are the most important factor in astrophotography...
Good video explaining it!
Nice video.The light pollution map showed me bortle 4 with a SQM of 20, i am curious how much difference is in acuracy when using your own sky meter. The Tas metter looks interesting, i have the town in the east
Very interesting! I image from a bortle 7 - I'd love to see darker skies properly one day! :)
It's worth the effort. I got my first taste some years ago. The Milky Way was casting a shadow and that was still not the darkest.
I'm looking forward for next weeks and next next weeks and next next next weeks Episode :)
I use the sky measurement in Sharp Cap along with sensor analysis, this gives great results for imaging
Yeh, I was just recalling where I had watched something on Sharpcap, NINA or some other program allowed you to do that.
Excellent video Nico. I just emailed Jaime Zamorano about ordering a TAS device like yours. We are beginning the process of IDA certification for Black Mesa State Park, Oklahoma. I need to do sky readings and this device would do a geat job of it! Thanks again.
Great video, but would like to make a couple points.
Another way of measuring your skies is Dr. Samir Kharusi's skyfog/jpeg method. I've used it numerous times, and found it to be very close to SQM readings done at the same time. Another advantage is an all sky cam, with calibrated flats, can do a full sky survey to find the sweet spot in your sky. Something akin to what the TAS does but without the annotations. However, I bet that something that someone could code a filter/script for pretty easily.
My issue with the Bortle scale is it essentially gives up at 8/9. As a result, my Bortle 9 skies are noticeably darker than the Bortle 9 skies ten miles away. Those skies are even darker than the "Bortle 9" skies in NYC. I even went so far as to write an article to address this in one of the astronomy forums, in which I presented an extended scale to reflect this. As a result, downtown Pittsburg jumps to Bortle 11 with an SQM of 16.49 while an SQM in the 17's is still an 8/9. Personally, I found the extended scale also worked better when dealing with public outreach Q&As.
Now that's out of my system, it was still a great video.
Light-mapping my favorite (darkish) sites for best shooting directions is a really cool idea. I wonder if there's a cheaper alternative.
According to websites, I'm at a Bortle 8-9, which makes sense. If I drive 40min I get to a Bortle 4 area.
Can you make a full guided tutorial on Milky Way astrophotography with its pre- and post-processing guide? It would be a great help.
By the way, really love your video's and work.
Keep it up Man!!!!!!
Super interesting Nico and something that has an impact on us all. I live in a Bortle 5 but only 30 miles south from the centre of Bortle 9 London. I often wonder what Bortle rating that gives me in real terms when looking north. How far from a city do you need to be not to be influenced by it?
With a city like London, a pretty long way. Most likely would have to be on a ship in the ocean to completely escape that light dome.
Brilliant, we have just bought a Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Pro paired with a canon 6d mark 2, hopefully I'll get some nice photos.
Class 6 here outside Phoenix, Arizona. I can drive a little over an hour and be in class 3 and 5 hours to class 1, but I never do :-( However, I'll be up in Colorado all next week in class 2 skies and will be bringing the scope :-)
you're very good
Apparently Stellarium uses Bortle in its light pollution settings. Comparing that with what I see in the backyard, it's about a 5.5. Not good, but I knew that already. Despite living in the middle of nowhere, I still live in a town. Basically every piece of land around here is a private farm. There's plenty of dark sky around I'm sure, but it doesn't do me any good if it requires trespassing in order to use it.
Lol I would take that every day of the week and twice on Sunday compared to my Bortle 9. I have to drive 45 minutes to get to Bortle 5, and almost 2 hours to get to truly dark sky.
According to light pollution websites, I'm in a B4-ish zone. The problem is I'm in a particularly bad site with lights all around my "horizons". Being a hilly area, that makes it worse. I should go to the outskirts of town to shoot but I haven't addressed my backup power situation yet.
I am in the city with a class 5ish. A 25 minute drive (17 miles) and I'm in a class 2. Let me tell you it's like night and day.
Hey Nico, I am a beginner AstroPhotographer from New Jersey. I am in the south region.Closer to philadelphia. I have a Canon T3i with a kit lens of 18-55 mm. and a ultra wide lens from Rokinon. I can get to some nice dark areas within 20 minutes drive. lots of open fields and farms. What type of lens should i buy for a nice tight image of galaxies or nebulas? love your videos bro! Keep being awesome!
My favorites are the Rokinon 135mm f/2 or the Canon 200mm f/2.8. Without a star tracker, you will be limited to the brighter nebulae and galaxies, but a number of them are possible with dark skies and good technique.
Hi Nico. When we're looking for a darker place how far from the source of light pollution being a city or a bortle 4 suburban area i had to go to get, at least a bortle 3?
Dear Mr. Nebula Photos, I used to live a little north of you and got sick of the light pollution. I moved to northern New Mexico and never looked back. Dark Skies every month!
how accurate is the "world atlas 2015" overlay in terms of the date?
If you click there, you can see more up to date data with the VIIRS surveys. However, the VIIRS data can be more misleading as it is very localized, which can make it look like there are Bortle 2 zones on the East Coast, when they are actually Bortle 4/5. For this reason, I still recommend the World Atlas 2015 unless you can interpret the VIIRS with other sources
Randiance values can be transformed into Bortle scale ? And what's means ratio value ? Thanks
I recently visited a bortle 1. I could see spiral arms of the Sunflower Galaxy with a single 1 minute frame
I bought an SQM-L and the readings have always been brighter than the maps. :-(. Bortle 2s on the map are usually Bortle 3-4s
These tips are very helpful but the real guestion is how do you explain to your wife/gf where the 1k in your bank account went
I’m lucky I don’t have to deal with that! 🤣
😹🤣
How does the scale change as you go on top of a very tall Skyscraper high above the rest?
That may help a bit to escape a lot of the localized light pollution bouncing around. However, most skyscrapers are in the middle of downtown metropolitan areas, which are the worst generally for light pollution. Also, many skyscrapers sway a bit in the wind, which may affect imaging. So generally, I'd still rather escape the city entirely than be high up within the city.
Who is the winner for the giveaway??
That Spanish SQM meter looks like it's designed to be mounted on say a pole or side of a building.It would seem pretty pointless as although light pollution changes, usually for the worst,it tends to be fairly static over short periods of time.Those little black box SQM meters you can take with you but they are fairly pricey which has always put me off buying one .
Nah, they make a weatherproof one for mounting on poles/roofs for studying LP long term. This one is meant to be used how I use it: to build full sky maps for different locations. I used to do that manually with SQM meter (the black one), but it was a ton of work
How does a difference of SQM unit relate to required integration time?
I've read that going from a dark blue zone (Bortle 2 / SQM: 21.8) to a white zone (Bortle 9 / SQM 18.5) you can expect to need 35x more integration time to reach the same SNR. I think that must be broadband and the difference may be smaller with narrowband.
I just take shots of the sky using the same lens/settings and compare to other sites in photoshop. Important to do it with no moon in the sky too.
That's a good comparative method! Thanks for commenting it!
How does the milkyway looks?
(Sorry for my English)
I wanted to ask, if I’m working with only a dslr canera, no extra equipment, and in a city light pollution level (white) what kind of deep sky objects could I expect to be able to photograph? Cause I know I can see something like the beehive cluster that has a magnitude of 3.7 but would I be able to see a 6.0? Or a maybe. A 8.0?
You are definitely able to capture mag 6 or mag 8 stars and objects with a stock DSLR. The trouble isn't capturing them, but dealing with gradients of the light pollution and getting enough contrast with the sky background so that the photo looks ' good'. Some popular DSOs that are bright enough to shoot from city light pollution with a stock dslr include: Orion Nebula, Lagoon Nebula, Double Cluster, lots of other open clusters, esp. all the Messiers, M13, Andromeda Galaxy.
@@NebulaPhotos thanks so much! I always excluded them thinking I wouldn’t even be able to capture them. But about the contrast, yeah I have to wait for them to get on one side of my backyard where the sky looks way darker. That’s what you mean by it right? Like how “dark” the sky looks to me on the ground and having the objects away from the afterglow of the night sky and have no moon out.
@@redshirtnumber3494 correct!
@@nicocarver2473 awesome, you’re a godsend man. Time for me to get back to work!
Where I live I can't even see M31 with binoculars. I know enough about in which bortle class I live.
* VERY* with a thick cloud overcast lol
I am lucky to live between 3 and 4. So i can still see the Milky Way from my backyard.
im between 4 and 5 and i can see it too a bit:D thats cool:o
Bortle 6 with 150km distance to bortle 4
I live in london and the level is really bad its 8-9
idk, my sky goes down only to nautical twilight
Wow! That meter is $480.
I'm in the worst part of the Netherlands at 8-9...
Let's all be honest here....we want to move to Montana, North Dakota, or one of the deserts in the west. Lol
20 years ago.. and speaks as if it was the 1950s..
Love your videos but Agena astro is the worst company I have ever dealt with. Don’t purchase from them.