Thanks to the global Light pollution map I now know the sky where I live is almost as dark as it can get, at Class 2. On a clear night I can see the Clouds of Magellan with my naked eye. ⭐️
Wellington, OTOH, comes in at Class 6: bad.
Miraz Jordan @jabel Now my struggle is to keep people aware of how lucky we are and what a treasure we have. There's a lot of new building going on (houses) and so increasing potential for spoiling that view.
Hollie Baggins-Kenobi You're so lucky, that's wonderful! I checked my spot on the map (thanks for the link!) and it's red as I expected. I would love to live farther out! :)
Miraz Jordan @jsonbecker Ohhh, hie thee hence asap to a dark spot and take a look.
Miraz Jordan @hollie Being aware is at least a start. You can now chat about this at social gatherings and build awareness. Over time perhaps things could change. So much money is wasted around the globe lighting the sky instead of the area that people want to light, such as a footpath or doorway.
Jessica Smith I checked where I am on this, and unsurprisingly, I'm at level 6 🙁 My street itself is really dark and poorly-lit at night, but I guess light pollution takes some distance to dissipate. That's further demonstrated by the middle of Port Phillip Bay being level 4 – something that did surprise me a bit!
Miraz Jordan @jayeless From our place we can clearly see the glow from places I think are Levin and Ōtaki (each 15 Km away by road but closer in a straight line) and perhaps Masterton, behind the Tararua hills, about 50 Km away in a straight line. But for all I know those ones could be Upper Hutt or another centre.
Simon DH
Class 6 seems not so bad from where I live....
Interesting map none the less
valerie Very interesting map, thanks for sharing! I guess one advantage of living farther from work than some of my colleagues is being in a class 5 rather than class 6 part of town 😂
Miraz Jordan @SimonDH A good reason to take some trips out into areas with darker skies…
Simon DH
If I study the map, I have never been somewhere below class 4 in my life I think.That is sad if you think about it and mayby, just mayby stars do exist in reality 😅
Miraz Jordan @SimonDH That's a shame. Next time you're planning a trip try finding somewhere where you can see the stars. 😀