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The Bortle dark-sky scale (usually referred to as simply the Bortle scale) is a nine-level numeric scale that measures the night sky's brightness of a particular location. It quantifies the astronomical observability of celestial objects and the interference caused by light pollution .
The Bortle scale is a nine-level measuring system used to track how much light pollution there is in the sky. A Bortle scale of four or less is required to see the Milky Way whilst one is "pristine", the darkest possible.
[10] [11] Amateur astronomers have used the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale to approximately quantify skyglow ever since it was published in Sky & Telescope magazine in February 2001. [12] The scale rates the darkness of the night sky inhibited by skyglow with nine classes and provides a detailed description of each position on the scale.
John E. Bortle is an American amateur astronomer. He is best known for creating the Bortle scale to quantify the darkness of the night sky. Bortle has made a special study of comets. He has recorded thousands of observations relating to more than 300 comets. From 1977 until 1994 he authored the monthly '"Comet Digest" in Sky and Telescope magazine.
As a fourth-magnitude star, η Carinae is comfortably visible to the naked eye in all but the most light-polluted skies in inner-city areas according to the Bortle scale. [46] Its brightness has varied over a wide range, from the second-brightest star in the sky for a few days in the 19th century, to well below naked-eye visibility.
According to the Bortle scale, it is faintly visible to the naked eye from dark rural skies. The star is located at a distance of approximately 970 light years from the Sun based on parallax , [ 8 ] but is drifting closer with a radial velocity of −7 km/s.
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The darkness of the night sky is classified on the Bortle scale from 1 ("excellent", i.e., extremely dark) to 9 ("inner-city sky", i.e., partially dark). Hanle is categorised as an excellent dark astronomical site with Bortle colour key "Black". [9] The dark sky is important for the conservation of nocturnal animals and ecology.