Light pollution ratings

Does a index or numerical rating system exist to describe Light pollution around populated areas. Or when weather conditions worsen the pollution effect?
Or even a city rating of good to worst for light pollution.
For telescope usage....

[edit on 11/19/2004 by Notme]

Hope this helps!



Here's some more: images.google.com...

Originally posted by Notme
Does a index or numerical rating system exist to describe Light pollution around populated areas. Or when weather conditions worsen the pollution effect?
Or even a city rating of good to worst for light pollution.
For telescope usage....

What do you mean?

There are several satellite pics of the world at night to see light pollution, but big telescopes are either in a non-populated area, or on the top of a mountain.

Originally posted by Murcielago
What do you mean?

There are several satellite pics of the world at night to see light pollution, but big telescopes are either in a non-populated area, or on the top of a mountain.

Yeah, I just took a stab that a light pollution map was along the lines that Notme was looking for... I think s/he was looking mainly for something for amatuer astronomy. Even just on the outside of a big city with a nice pair of binoculars or a small scope you can still see quite a lot. You don't need to head out way into the darkness every time, as great as that is.

EDIT: Fixing rampant bold text...

[edit on 11/20/2004 by cmdrkeenkid]

I guess what I mean is,
Is there a list of US cites in order of ranking of Light Pollution.
For example:
NYC -> pollution index of 9, rank is #1 (worst)
Atlanta -> index 4, rank 320.

Etc....

I guess nobody as ever try ed to quantify the pollution problem.

They do have a system, and it's just what the visual limit is. If you can see a magnitude 4 star, and no other stars that you can see are of that magnitude, there is a visual limit of 4. But there is a more precise and not so variable system that can be used to check visual limits. I've got it in one of my Sky & Telescope issues. I'll try to be back and post my findings within half an hour from this post.

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid
Hope this helps!

Here's some more: images.google.com...

Thanks for the pic, does show the problem areas, but not exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks non the less.
Notice how nice and dark it is at AREA51 ?
Maybe we should setup camp there, think they'll mind?

Check this very cool link for real-time and forecasted sky info and seeing conditions. Pretty nifty and used by many amateurs - covers most of North America/Canada....

cleardarksky.com...

Originally posted by UofCinLA
Check this very cool link for real-time and forecasted sky info and seeing conditions. Pretty nifty and used by many amateurs - covers most of North America/Canada....

cleardarksky.com...

I really like that link, thanks for showing it to us here. I'll be adding it to the Reference Library.

EDIT: Wrong link, oops!

[edit on 11/20/2004 by cmdrkeenkid]

One Astronomy magazine had maps showing amount of light pollution, different color meaning different amount of it.
I'll try to check tomorrow on what number it was. (at least it was this year's number)

You might find something from here:
www.astronomy.com...