Bortle 2 in Scotland

[JohnC]

I don't get the opportunity to contribute anything of substance very often to this section  but  Scotland will have a designated Bortle 2  area

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/space/article6887233.ece

With a bit of organising I bet a wee trip could be organised between you all -it's not much of a hop across from Ireland and it would be a great op. to meet each other. Just a thought.

[martinastro]

Thanks for posting this up John. A friend sent me over the Times link yesterday and I thought it was an interesting read. Good to see that such high quality dark skies are still available over the UK.

[rjgjr]

I read with great inrerest the link to the Times article regarding the proposed Bortle 2 site in Scotland. I have never heard of the Bortle scale and was amazed to see that the only other Bortle 2 sites were both in the U.S. I've attached a link to the National Park Service that tells about Natural Bridges National Monumant, UT being named the first Bortle 2 site in early 2007. It is indeed a very desolate and remote location. I was there in the early 90's, but unfortunately it was monsoon season and it rained day and night. The other site is located in Cherry Hills State Park, located in the mountains of northern Pennsylvania. It lookls to be fairly remote also, located about 100 miles southeast of Buffalo, NY. I wonder where my dark sky site at Wildhorse Meadow would fall on their Bortle scale? Good luck with the site in Scotland!

http://www.nps.gov/nabr/parknews/news040507.htm

[JohnC]

Richard- I still keep in touch with one of Tempest Tour guides,Brian Morganti ,who  is an astronomer too, he lives in Bernville,PA. He was telling me about this Bortle scale a few weeks ago and I sent him this article too and here's what he says about it. He told me that Tempest's storm chase Tours have been to Big Bend Nat. Park and I may get there on next May's trip, they've been chasing there a few times so I'll take my f2.8 28mm lens just in case.

You can check your own area on a Bortle world map. Here's the colour scale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bortle_Dark-Sky_Scale

Here's the World Atlas for it. I think you can enlarge your area..http://www.inquinamentoluminoso.it/worldatlas/pages/fig1.htm

Here's what Brian said which you'll find interesting, I'm sure.

"Interesting article.  Now that I've experience Bortle 2 (Part of the
Adirondacks is equal to Cherry Springs in Pennsylvania) it is hard to "go
back" to light polluted skies.  Here where I live I'm about Bortle 5, very
close to Bortle 4.  But there is a huge jump in stars going to Bortle 2.  I
would argue a bit with Bortle 1 only being available the middle of the
ocean...certain parts of Death Valley, CA and Big Bend Ntl Park in TX are
also rated Bortle 1.

[rjgjr]

That's a very interesting scale and map. I did find another site map that I think is only for the States and it zooms in to street level almost. My home just south of Gold Baech would be at about 2.25-2.50 on the scale I guess. Pretty lucky! The mountain site I sometimes go to would definitely be a 2. Big Bend National Park does look very good. I would have to argue a bit about Death Valley though. Maybe the far north might be a 1, but even 20 years ago the intense sky glow from Las Vegas to the southeast was very much a distraction. You even notice the glow from the L.A. Basin that's over 200 miles away! Thanks for the info.

http://www.jshine.net/astronomy/dark_sky/