Looking at that star chart makes me very sad. I remember stargazing as a child when I could see the Milky Way from our backyard in town. Now I am saddled with 2nd magnitude skies most of the time. Everyone around here is apparently terrified of the dark because most have at least one mercury vapor yard light augmented by a few flood lights. I can easily read a book in my front yard using the neighbor's lights.
That chart looks a little pessimistic to me. You can see Jupiter in the city night sky last time I looked up in the city. Light pollution does obscure a lot of the sky. Most of the night sky near me (suburbia with a touch of rural)looks like 3 on the chart but toward the shopping district before midnight and there is a haze that looks like 7-5 on the chart.
Looking at that star chart makes me very sad. I remember stargazing as a child when I could see the Milky Way from our backyard in town. Now I am saddled with 2nd magnitude skies most of the time. Everyone around here is apparently terrified of the dark because most have at least one mercury vapor yard light augmented by a few flood lights. I can easily read a book in my front yard using the neighbor's lights.
ReplyDeleteThat chart looks a little pessimistic to me. You can see Jupiter in the city night sky last time I looked up in the city. Light pollution does obscure a lot of the sky. Most of the night sky near me (suburbia with a touch of rural)looks like 3 on the chart but toward the shopping district before midnight and there is a haze that looks like 7-5 on the chart.
ReplyDelete