[NTgazer (Chris)]

Returning to what I consider dark skies from my recent trip to the uk and observing in summer light polluted city skies has had me thinking to myself about how to visually represent how dark the sky appears in various locations for us noobs. Say if we wanted to 'compare' darkness relatively, could members who are interested maybe take photos at agreeable, pre-determined settings (thinking dslr wise) that most accurately represent what we can see with dark adapted eyes? So for example we experiment with settings so as to achieve an equivalent iso setting, aperture value and shutter speed for a given focal length that the resulting shot is a good approximation of what can be seen by the naked eye. Once agreed/compromised upon we should be able in theory to take shots at our own locations and compare what is visible. It would also be a good way to monitor seemingly ever increasing light pollution, if for example I took a photo tonight, then with identical settings took another in a year's time (approx-matching same age moon etc) I could compare quite accurately what is visible. As a noob I find relative magnitudes etc quite hard to get my head around (hopefully I'm not the only one!) and an exercise such as this would be very helpful I think.