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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 limiting magnitude for naked eye visibility refers to the faintest stars that can be seen with the unaided eye near the zenith on clear moonless nights. The quantity is most often used as an overall indicator of sky brightness, in that light polluted and humid areas generally have brighter limiting magnitudes than remote desert or high altitude areas.
The coordinating researchers compile this information to produce a public, freely available map of global light pollution. By September 2011, almost 70,000 measurements had been made. [ 1 ] The use of data collected by the public makes the program an example of citizen science . [ 2 ]
In order to describe how much light pollution there is at a particular location, astronomers classify night skies based on the Bortle Scale.
Light pollution is the presence of any unwanted, inappropriate, or excessive artificial lighting. [1] [2] In a descriptive sense, the term light pollution refers to the effects of any poorly implemented lighting sources, during the day or night. Light pollution can be understood not only as a phenomenon resulting from a specific source or kind ...
Data showed that Earth's artificially lit outdoor surface at night grew by about 2 percent annually in brightness and area from 2012 to 2016.
Parts of Idaho, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin may be able to see the lights Friday night. On the East Coast, the aurora might be visible in northern New York and parts of Vermont and New ...
The current versions has only one band of observation, that can produce misinterpretations if the light pollution changes from sodium-vapor lamp to LED. [8] The SQM-L, or "Sky Quality Meter - L," is a model with an additional integrated lens, offering a narrower measurement range of 20° compared to the 84° range of the standard SQM model. [9]