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What’s your Bortle’s sky scale!

Light Pollution
15 replies•902 views
In which Bortle’s sky scale do you use to shoot astrophotography?
Multiple choice poll 150 votes
1% (2 votes)
3% (4 votes)
10% (15 votes)
19% (29 votes)
25% (38 votes)
15% (22 votes)
14% (21 votes)
8% (12 votes)
5% (7 votes)
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Daniel Arenas avatar
Daniel Arenas avatar
So that’s the question and in order to make it easy, let’s do a poll. In which Bortle’s scale do you use to shoot with your equipment?

In my case in a Botle 5 sky in a coast town (more than 20 thousand inhabitants). It coul be better of course but it could be worse too. And what about you? Are you a lucky one or not?
Don Ogaard avatar
Don Ogaard avatar
>>  Are you a lucky one

Small-town Wyoming here. Yeah, I guess I'm pretty lucky for the dark skies.  I clicked "Bortle 2" on the poll, but that's a rough average. My backyard would be more like Bortle 3. But I can drive for 5-10 minutes out in the badlands and be Bortle 2.  And with another 20-30 minutes drive, Bortle 1. No lights at all for 10–20 miles.

And I hope to do some of that, if spring ever gets here! (3-4 inches of snow yesterday!)
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Joe Alexander avatar
Joe Alexander avatar
I replied Bortle 4, but that's only the western half of the sky, approximately SW to NE. The rest is at least Bortle 5, with the nearby city of Fredrick to the east and the DC Metroplex to the southeast. 40+ years ago when I built my house, it was a solid 3 all around.

Joe
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Dale Penkala avatar
Dale Penkala avatar
I clicked bortle 4. While I wish I was in darker skies, I very happy to have what I have an use filters to get what I want out of different objects/targets.
SemiPro avatar
SemiPro avatar
Bortle 8/9! However I can be in Bortle 2/3 in roughly an hour. A tank of gas is the best light pollution filter I have.
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kuechlew avatar
kuechlew avatar
Bortle 5 in the West, Bortle 6+ with a huge light dome in the east due to a major city.

Clear skies
Wolfgang
Doug Gray avatar
Doug Gray avatar
I'm deep in Bortle 7 territory right now, in between the two main freeways running up to San Francisco, CA. However we just bought a house in a slightly more rural community that shows up as Bortle 5/6 on the various light pollution maps. While this was obviously not a major factor in deciding to move, I'm excited to see if I can take longer broadband exposures from our new home.

I wonder if anyone here is dedicated enough to this hobby to decide to move based on light pollution. smile
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Matthew Proulx avatar
Matthew Proulx avatar
2-3 depending on where I look. I picked 3 because thats what my app says. Either way its dark enough to see Pleiades as bright blue with naked eye and most of the milky way is illuminated.
Richard Smith avatar
Richard Smith avatar
Bortle 7 at home (also on the Peninsula just south of San Francisco) but 40 minutes away from 4/5 in the Santa Cruz mountains
Eddie Bagwell avatar
Eddie Bagwell avatar
Bortle 5 for me as I live in the country but between two large cities East and West of my location.
Ian Dixon avatar
Ian Dixon avatar
I have not imaged from my backyard (Bortle 6 or 7), but rather, frequently visit a number of sites within an hours' drive, one of them very dark at Bortle 2.

My home is a city of .8 million but there are very few towns in proximity (Central Canada) which allows for a quick escape from the light dome.   Even better, the land transitions from prairie to boreal forest within 50 km to the east of the city, and thats where the fewest people and darkest skies are.

There is a small crew of us (as many as 6) and sometimes only 2 or 3 that make these trips.

Ian
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Rob Johnson avatar
Rob Johnson avatar
The clear outside app flips between 7 and 8, either way it’s bad 😕 that’s where I have my permanent setup. An hour and a half away would get me a 3 maybe in north Wales, used to go there a lot but my aging bones don’t like the cold anymore ☺️
Scotty Bishop avatar
Scotty Bishop avatar
Bortle 4 with magnitude 20.85 skies here.
Bradley Watson avatar
Bradley Watson avatar
Clicked bortle 8 but if I point east thats into the city light zone. Man, LP is terrible!
Stuart Taylor avatar
Stuart Taylor avatar
Never really worried about Bortle scale, to be honest. As long as you image in narrowband you can do it in the centre of town with a full moon!

Unless you're talking about visual astronomy. But who does that anyway? smile
Daniel Arenas avatar
Daniel Arenas avatar
Stuart Taylor:
Never really worried about Bortle scale, to be honest. As long as you image in narrowband you can do it in the centre of town with a full moon!

Unless you're talking about visual astronomy. But who does that anyway? 

That's a big issue but in narrowband a lot of time is needed. Maybe if yo have a backyard or similar in your house to shoot could be the solution but for those of us who live in flats and have to moove every session, I don't know it's the best issue. I'm very interested in that because I want to do my next step, a dedicated camera. But price is still a big issue 2200€ for a ASI 2600 MC in front of a 2900€ for a ASI 2600 MM and filterwheel and filters are needed... For butget reasons OSC (MC) is my best option.