
The New World Atlas of Artificial Sky Brightness - nateberkopec
http://cires.colorado.edu/artificial-sky
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jonknee
This is really poor resolution and less useful than the many previously
existing tools that do the same thing. I like shooting pictures of the Milky
Way so dark skies are a must and I use this map most frequently:

[http://www.jshine.net/astronomy/dark_sky/](http://www.jshine.net/astronomy/dark_sky/)

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kranner
Is Dark Sky Finder US-only? I don't see anything over Europe or Asia while OP
seems to offer global coverage.

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jonknee
[Eastern] Europe has little dark sky, but here is a similar source that has
global coverage (the advantage of the other is suggested viewing sites, this
one is just a map):

[http://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html](http://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html)

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jakeogh
Based in (imho) the best city in the US:
[http://darksky.org](http://darksky.org)

I never realized how awesome it is to have almost no street lights until I
moved here. It's wonderful. You get to keep your night vision when you go on a
walk.

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e12e
Am I missing something, or did you not mention the actual location of "the
best city in the US"?

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jakeogh
Tucson, AZ. Home of the International Dark-Sky Association, The University Of
Arizona and it's Mirror Lab. Wrapped by ~9k mountains on 3 sides (Lemmon,
Rincon, and Wrightson). We have damn good thunderstorms too.

[https://vimeo.com/107450172](https://vimeo.com/107450172)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVS5DekZ7VQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVS5DekZ7VQ)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3glyRZLZAR0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3glyRZLZAR0)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41gM6lwAOo4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41gM6lwAOo4)

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js2
I was just in Mitzpe Ramon, IL with my family on a moonless weekend night. It
is supposed to be the darkest point in Israel. The viewing was fairly good
that night.

And yet my kids were disappointed upon seeing the Milky Way. They'd expected
it to look like what they've seen in pictures, like shown in this NPR article
on the subject:

[http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2016/06/10/481545778/...](http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2016/06/10/481545778/light-pollution-hides-milky-way-from-80-percent-of-
north-americans-atlas-shows)

I'd even forewarned them not to expect the night sky to look like it does in
photos they've seen of it. :-(

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alva
Interesting to look at the North Sea (off Scotland for those not familiar).
The magnitude of the light pollution from the oils rigs seems extremely high,
comparable to large cities. Seems unlikely.

Cool project regardless!

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pierrec
Oil rigs producing as much light a large city does not seem unlikely at all to
me. The Prudhoe Bay oil field in the north of Alaska has always stood out in
its disproportionate brightness and size in any night-view of the earth I've
seen (and light pollution is the least of our worries when it comes to this
place's environmental impact).

That being said, oil fields being overly visible might be a symptom that they
used data based on satellites capturing slightly lower frequencies (near
infrared) rather than precisely representing visible light. I know I've seen
night maps of the earth that turned out to be based on near-IR imagery.

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piceas
A hotspot on the map highlighting Mt Yasur Volcano, Tanna, Vanuatu is an
example of the near-IR. No light pollution there.

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gbtw
Interesting to see that the Randstad area i live in ( Zoetermeer) is one of
the biggest hotspots. We have a lot of greenhouse farming around here where
they take the CO2 from the petrochemical plants in Rotterdam harbour, pipe
them in the greenhouses and run lights during the night to make the plants and
flowers grow as fast as possible.

When my English friend came over he was amazed at how light it was out here, i
had to tell him i hadn't seen stars at night ever when i was out at night
around this area.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHyQx4eckkc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHyQx4eckkc)
< about a minute or two into this you see the yellow hue on the sky, this not
first rays of light from the sun hitting the clouds, its light pollution.

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donatj
What on earth is going on in northern Alaska? I feel like that has to be a
data error, because there is literally nothing up there. I verified on Google
Earth... Couple microscopic towns hundreds of miles apart, nothing like the
map is showing.

Update: Prudhoe Bat / Oil Fields

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akovaski
Is there an explanation for the large hotspot to the Northwest of Bismarck,
ND?

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turbohedgehog
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Dakota_oil_boom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Dakota_oil_boom)

