technically, yes mate - if you are making a conventional report and that is the accepted criteria for the format, then yes than it is a mag 6 sky.
Kearn
So basically dark skies are like beauty..."There in the eyes of the beholder"
I might have to buy a lazer pointer and put my 4yr old girl to the test and see if she can reach mag7 or better in the backyard.
"So basically dark skies are like beauty..."There in the eyes of the beholder"
LOL yep!
Dark skies depend on a few other variants too i guess - i find with my 25mw lazer pointer in the suburbs - you see an awful lot of dust particles in the beams path (looks like they are burning as some people say) but in the country I struggle to see many dust particles in the beams path, normally, which makes the beam a bit dimmer of course. Even during a full moon I find country skies are much better for observing due to the lack of pollution/dust particles being lit up (yes i have gone out for meteor showers during full moons!)
Kearn
Phil, that equates to skies i am seriously jealous of! on the envy scale of one to 5 - it would be a 3.5?
When I say the mag's are a personal guide for me, if I was to see a southern latitudes specific bortle scale, i would envisage the two madge's and the two mega globs would figure largely. Because they are diffuse objects first, and in the case of the mag's VERY LARGE diffuse objects, which makes them ideal, i would think, for true visual 'unaided eye' quick rough estimations. The level of stucture and detail you see in the SMC and the LMC varies a lot, with conditions and the site, as you all know. At really dark skies, to us, the LMC takes on a more rectangular solid barred stucture and the apparent 3Dness can be wild of course with both of them at truly dark skies when they are crossing the meridian particularly - I would include the 3D factor in any scale too. Also with the SMC being around mag 3 but very diffuse and large - i find it diffucult too see at all naked eye in most suburban situations, if at all most times. i would say if you can easily see the SMC low or at nadir for mid latitudes you would have at least 6th mag, or close to, skies. With some obs you have to state the LM in the same area of the sky you observed the object in, and thats what really matters in most cases i guess.
Kearn
From another point of view,(sorry about pun), if you pick a constellation with mags ranging from say, -1/0, to 8 or 9 & below, from your charts, then on your observing night, count how many stars you can see in it. This gives a 'rough' indication of seeing/mag. etc.....It's surprising how much it varies by..... L.
I overlayed a desaturated version of the light pollution map with the current Iceinspace member map. I think you can count on one hand the members under unpolluted skies.
I live on the edge of the yellow and green I think.
On good nights I can just detect the LMC , SMC when they are placed high, but to the north and west I would be lucky to make mag 4
As good as I could get it without spending too much time on it. The white border line from the light pollution map matches the border of Oz & NZ to within a pixel, which is probably better than the resolution of the data anyway.
After reading more info on this subject, I realize I "under exaggerated" my skies as being 5.5-6. I'm thinking now it's more like 6.5-7 mag.
Your skies should be Ideal John, apart from your local streetlights youve no major centres apart from Pt Lincoln. Any skyglow from there?
I'll have to reassess my skies the next chance I get.
so can i on a good night, but faintly
nor do i know what this equates to...
Probably that your skies are darker than someone elses that cant see them
AND that we need a darksky table that relates to the Southern Hemisphere so people can gain a perspective of what type of skies others are viewing and imaging in.
Is anybody/bodies up to the challenge of creating a Southern Hemisphere darksky table using selected easy to distinguish objects that are visible across the Southern Hemisphere?
Hi Slice. No, I don't get affected from the lights of Port Lincoln luckily. The street lights are a nuisance naturally. I ended up making 2 big frames 10'X8' & covering them with black plastic to over-come the street lights & the wind if it does happen to spring up while I'm observing. I need to make 2 more screens & then I'll have like a mini removeable observatory.
From my back paddock with unaided eyes on any given clear night (except from mooning) I can see the full Milky Way as a fairly bright band of white and all the stretches of dark matter running through it stand out including the Coal Sack (very obvious).
I can also see 47Tuc, Omaga Cent, just make out Tarantula and the Magellanic Clouds are obviously very easy.
When I went to the Star Camp sight one night (only 2k away) I was amazed at how much more I could see with unaided eyes! Everything is so bright I actually had trouble differentiating the Crux from all the other stars! There are almost too many!
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The white border line from the light pollution map matches the border of Oz & NZ to within a pixel, which is probably better than the resolution of the data anyway.
