Dark Skies

[Kal (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by okiscopey

Interestingly, there's no sign of any brightly-lit area 20km ENE of Parkes on the NASA 'Earthlight' view, only on the 'sky brightness' map.

Anyone got any ideas?

The patch to the NW looks like it is caused by a couple of quarries that are in the area. That very bright patch is bizarre, all I could think of was a bushfire at the time of mapping? On my google map overlay it appears to be directly over some forest area.

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/6370/upload3mq0.png

[okiscopey (Mike)]

I've e-mailed Dr Perantonia Cinzano to find out if the Night Sky Brightness Atlas is using 'averaged' or 'single date and time' data. If the latter, roadworks, bushfires and other ephemeral events could maybe affect the results. I've asked if he's come across any similar inland 'anomalies' which might help explain the Parkes one.