The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) was running it’s annual star count for 2021 from 6th – 14th February.
Basically in order to assess the effect that unnecessary man-made light pollution has on the quality of our life’s the CPRE want people to count the stars they can see within a box formed by the brightest stars in the constellation of Orion (not including the four main stars that form the box) and submit their observations.
A couple of us arranged to get together remotely and count the stars we could see at 8pm on 10/2/2021 when Orion was near it’s highest point in the South. Of course at this time of night the light pollution is also fairly high 🙁
Suburban Sites
| Observer | Star Count |
|---|---|
| Jim | 9 |
| GeekBoy | 10 |
| GeekGirl | 11 |
| Neil | 12 |
The SQM (Sky Quality Monitor) reading for our (GeekBoy/GeekGirl) location at that time was 19.92 mags/arcsec2 which places it around a Bortle class 5 sky (NELM 5.6-6.0). Of course later on during the night, once the causes of light pollution subside I normally get a reading of 20.6 mags/arcsec2.
| Observer | Star Count |
|---|---|
| Giles | 9 |
| Stephen et al | 13 |
Rural Dark Site
Dave got out with his family to star count from his rural dark site and the comparison is stark ! There may be an age effect on the eye sight here as they are from the same time/location but either way it’s shows what can be seen in the absence of excessive light ingress.
| Observer | Star Count |
|---|---|
| Dave | 23 |
| Daughter & Boyfriend | 27 |
Well that was a bit of fun and a welcome distraction in the current never ending lockdown – thank you guys !