I've overlayed stays on a light pollution satellite map

by louison11 • 3 years ago

576 211 3 years ago

NKosmatos3• 3 years ago

Hey, very good idea and nice execution. I like that it finds my location, even without asking or requesting permission. Extra points for having a track prices option.

I have a couple of suggestions/recommendations if I may:

- Put a Bortle filter so that hotels on specific (dark) areas can be selected. I understand this is a bit difficult but it would make an even better filtering option.

- Localize it, give us an option to see prices in different/local currency. Currently it's only visible in USD.

- I can see the Affiliate ID from Booking, perhaps it would be better to mention this somewhere to avoid complaints from users.

- Perhaps add a popup/permission notification for accessing location (see previous point as well).

- Put an info/about page so that you can give more info and also take some credit for your work.

gus_massa• 3 years ago

- Perhaps add a popup/permission notification for accessing location (see previous point as well).

Is the site using the location from the browser or just IP location? (My location was 240Km (150 miles) away from my home.)

I want to suggest also permalinks.

ale42• 3 years ago

Probably just IP location given that it doesn't ask for any location access (unless you click on the button to center the map around your position)

jabroni_salad• 3 years ago

My ISP connects to the greater internet in minneapolis even though I'm in iowa, and that's where the map centered on for me initially. Usually means they are just doing geo off the IP.

digging2• 3 years ago

It must be IP because the browser can't access GeoLocation without asking.

AlecSchueler2• 3 years ago

I like that it finds my location, even without asking or requesting permission.

I actually found this quite concerning!

donkeyd• 3 years ago

Guess what, literally every web site you visit can do this based on IP geolocation. If you're really concerned about this, use a VPN.

doublemint22034• 3 years ago

I'll try and make this. beginner cs undergrad looking for maps-based things to build. if anyone can reply and hit me with tips, quick info, or just a laundry list of things I'd be wise to google & learn to use, please lmk thanks!

totetsu• 3 years ago

Is it USD or is it the local currency with a $ in front of it. i am seeing some $50000 places in japan..

gkfasdfasdf• 3 years ago

Nice! I love how the date picker shows the phase of the moon.

NKosmatos3• 3 years ago

Yes, this is very handy for people looking for a dark site. Not that they don't know it already, but it's good to have it there in the calendar.

ricksunny• 3 years ago

This itnerant stargazer says...awesome :) I've been paying close attention to light pollution (and access to a telescope or stargazing tour services, so there's that too :p) while traveling internationally recently.

Scandiravian• 3 years ago

Really nice idea, but I'm having an issue with the date-picker; can't change the month, so it's stuck in October (I'm using brave browser on android)

bberenberg• 3 years ago

Hmm, seems like a cool idea, but I can't actually get it to show any hotels or anything? Probably pebkac but just FYI.

riz_• 3 years ago

Looks like the HN traffic has exhausted their API quota.

louison112• 3 years ago

OP Here. Exactly. We have a rate limit imposed by our data provider that's too low for this traffic atm. Hopefully you guys still "get" the concept and awesome to see such feedback. Try and come back when things calm down. Thanks. I'm working on ways to increase the rate limit/find alternative data providers.

loudgas• 3 years ago

Neat idea. Is there a color legend somewhere? I don’t see one.

chacha102• 3 years ago

Was also looking for a color legend. I can generally understand the different colors/layers, but was initially confused.

Text that explains exactly what each color refers to would be helpful.

NKosmatos3• 3 years ago

You're right it's missing. It shows the Bortle class of each location, see https://www.lightpollutionmap.info for a better explanation.

beardyw• 3 years ago

My phone screen got so full of stays I couldn't see the map! Thanks for the link.

eightyfive• 3 years ago

There really should be a legend somewhere, but in practice the amateur astronomy community has standardized on a convention that's more or less the same in color scheme and scale to the one reported here: https://djlorenz.github.io/astronomy/lp2020/colors.html.

You'll see the same scale in use at other light pollution sites, such as:

http://www.cleardarksky.com/maps/lp/large_light_pollution_ma...

https://www.lightpollutionmap.info

https://cires.colorado.edu/artificial-sky

Ridj48dhsnsh• 3 years ago

Edit: I misread that you're showing light pollution, not air pollution, so disregard my comments. But maybe an idea for another site?

Very cool. I was buying some land a few months ago, and made a similar map of the country to help choose areas with consistently good air quality.

I couldn't get the calendar to change from October, so I couldn't check myself, but I was wondering if you adjust for seasonality. Some areas have a distinct "burning season" when farmers burn their fields and the air quality is significantly worse.

I was also wondering if you're using publicly available sensor data. The granularity looks a lot better than what I had downloaded.

seszett• 3 years ago

This is light pollution, it doesn't have much seasonality and evolves slowly.

kedean• 3 years ago

On a technical level that's true. But the actual intention here is "places where you can see the sky", not places with low light pollution. Air quality is highly seasonal, and winter tends to have far clearer skies for assorted reasons. Wouldn't you be a bit upset if you booked a place way out in the country for stargazing and every rancher had just lit their fields ablaze?

That said it's probably asking quite a lot to composite that kind of data together in any meaningful way. You need a lot of domain knowledge for that.

EricMausler• 3 years ago

Any thoughts on how someone would do something similar for water?

stronglikedan2• 3 years ago

you're showing light pollution, not air pollution

I wonder if there would be a strong correlation between the two.

Gigachad2• 3 years ago

I’d think up to a point and then it flips. Highways and suburbs tend to have a lot of lighting and vehicles so the air pollution would be peaked, but then you get to the dense city areas where there is much much more lighting but not much capacity for vehicles so I’d think you’d see a dip.

tomcam• 3 years ago

Brilliant! Wish it had a color legend. But I always wanted a site like this.

iandanforth• 3 years ago

Thanks for doing this! I'd really like a "Search this Area" button. My first instinct was to use the map to find somewhere dark, then look at stays.

JoshTriplett• 3 years ago

You've got a bunch of places all placed at 0 latitude 0 longitude, saying "null". You may want to check your data sources.

swasheck• 3 years ago

null island is a tourist hotspot!!

AnimalMuppet• 3 years ago

The airlines have trouble scheduling flights, though...

;-)

progne4• 3 years ago

I used to live in an RV & cabins park in a very dark area, actually inside of the radius of the Very Large Array radio telescope. As part of a barter arrangement I made a website for the park. On the site I pitched the park as a destination for amateur astronomers. Come camp inside of a telescope! We put up some Google ads to that effect.

I don't think they ever got a nibble from that. It turns out that the population of amateur astronomers willing to drive long distances to dark spots isn't all that large.

But this is the internet, and a niche interest can have a significant following, and you're not trying to make a bunch of money with this. So from us dark sky lovers, thanks.

zf00002• 3 years ago

Maybe because you were already in New Mexico which has some pretty good dark areas? I'm up in Santa Fe, I don't need to drive long to get fairly dark.

progne4• 3 years ago

Yes. Also I think we astronuts tend to avoid campgrounds (too many people with lights) and motels (we're up all night). A piece of remote public land is just more suited to the purpose.

Zancarius• 3 years ago

We also have state-wide anti-light pollution regulations on the books[1]; unfortunately, enforcement is spotty and depends on the community.

Where I live (southern NM) we've had a steady influx of people from out of state, and the first thing they tend to do is install outdoor security lighting that is in clear violation of the NSPA. All that to say that I have noticed that some of the newcomers who were in violation may have been reported since their fixtures are now turned off after 11pm. So, enforcement does happen; it just takes time. Thankfully, we have a few astronomers in the community!

(The one deficiency in the NSPA is that it defines fixtures based on wattage rather than lumens. There have been efforts to change this language, but they've stalled.)

[1] http://www.darkskynm.org/lightinglaws.html

lp251• 3 years ago

I moved from Santa Fe County (Rancho Viejo area) to the Denver metro area and am sad every time I go outside at night. We could see the Milky Way most nights.

The NM sky is amazing during the day, too. Such a vibrant blue!

digging2• 3 years ago

I don't think they ever got a nibble from that. It turns out that the population of amateur astronomers willing to drive long distances to dark spots isn't all that large.

That's quite surprising to me as a person who occasionally will drive long distances just to see the dark night sky without a telescope. But I guess any group looks well populated from the inside. I suppose amateur astronomers with good equipment can get quite nice views where they live, though.

rqtwteye2• 3 years ago

The distances in New Mexico are huge and not much population.

rqtwteye2• 3 years ago

The Cosmic Campground is pretty close and they often have guys with telescopes there.

progne4• 3 years ago

That is an unfortunately unique place.

karagenit• 3 years ago

What’s up with North Dakota? There’s a spot in the middle of nowhere that has pollution levels on par with major metro areas.

richiebful12• 3 years ago

Probably fracking rigs. Where I'm from in the Marcellus shale region of Western Pennsylvania, you can see rigs on top of hills for miles when the leaves are down in winter

Edit: This map of Bakken Formation rigs correlates to their location in Western ND https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakken_Formation#/media/File:B...

Nicholas_C• 3 years ago

I noticed that as well, it’s gas flaring from O&G production. You can see similar patches south of San Antonio (the Eagle Ford shale) and in West Texas (the Permian Basin) and probably a few other spots too.

boomboomsubban2• 3 years ago

When extracting or processing natural gas, it's common to burn off some of the byproduct in a process known as "flaring." It creates massive amounts of light pollution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_flare

Those are the gas and oil fields of North Dakota.

cainxinth• 3 years ago

I’ll never forget a moment from the bus trip I took across the U.S. west as a kid when we got to Montana. We had been driving for hours and got to our cabins far from everywhere late at night. A bus load of tired kids filed off, eyes half open, and then someone said “Hey, look up!”

Cue two dozen kids saying “oohs and ahhs” in sync. Don’t think I’ve seen such a spectacularly starry night since.

dgrin91• 3 years ago

Cool site, but it really needs a legend. I can intuit that white is high light pollution because its on city centers, but how bad is green? I have no idea what I would see there.

ry4nolson• 3 years ago

I was thinking this same thing. I live in what the map has as a "pinkish red" area (right outside of white) and I just recently camped in a brown orange area (3 levels darker). The difference was noticeable but not a crazy amount. I really wonder how much darker the blue or not even colored areas are.

richiebful12• 3 years ago

I've been to a few blue and darker areas, and those are properly mind blowing. That said, I live in a dark green area, and you can see some definition to the milky way on a clear and dry night

doublemint22034• 3 years ago

alexwebb2• 3 years ago

Digital mapmakers often have a hard time getting color scales right; it's common to just sort of wing it and end up with something that looks like crap and/or doesn't work well with the nature of the dataset.

I'd recommend using one of the tried and tested scales from ColorBrewer (https://colorbrewer2.org). Great info there to help you decide.

And when you do pick a scale, Chroma.js (https://www.vis4.net/chromajs) is a fantastic color library that has built-in support for ColorBrewer scales.

Also http://turfjs.org has some great tools for manipulating GeoJSON.

dr_dshiv• 3 years ago

Please share the prompt!!

/s it is so beautiful. Really helps to understand the shape of humanity at a global scale. Middle East and Korea made me reflect.

chmod775• 3 years ago

What strikes me most is that the correlation with population is still weaker than expected - at least it appears (eyeballing it) that Europe has a larger/more extreme light pollution than India and China combined.

It also shows the lack of development of eastern Europe's rural areas. The contrast from one country to the next is quite strong.

irrational• 3 years ago

I live in the western USA where very dark sky areas are abundant. After reading your comment, I was curious to see what Europe looked like. I was astonished that not just Europe, but the Eastern USA also, has no very dark sky areas at all. It is amazing how populated these regions are.

But, then I go down to Australia and nearly the entire continent is great for sky gazing (other than all the critters trying to kill you).

rootusrootus2• 3 years ago

I'm curious how the dark skies map is actually built. I assume it tries to make generalizations based on density of buildings. And that is only as accurate as the building data is in the map source.

It's probably fairly accurate overall, but there is undoubtedly some region-specific things (different lighting styles, etc) that throw a wrench into the mix.

One place out my direction has a blue blob in the middle of a dark gray area, so you wonder what kind of civilization is there. Nothing, just a few buildings that are uninhabited and unlit. So there's no light pollution in actuality, but dark skies thinks there is.

gmiller123456• 3 years ago

They are based on nighttime satellite photos. The downside of that is its only based on the light that gets through the atmosphere. So a dusty/humid place will have a lot more light pollution than the map shows because the dust blocks the light from the satellite, and reflects some of that light towards an observer on the ground.

underseacables• 3 years ago

Very cool, it would be helpful to have a key for what the colors mean. I can deduce that white, is little to no darkness, and shades of green mean dark, but it would help to give that little context.

dmd• 3 years ago

What am I missing here? I see a dark sky map. That's it. No hotels or anything like that?

bittercynic• 3 years ago

It's working nicely over here, but sometimes takes a long time to load the places, and doesn't give any indication that it's still working on it.

FinnKuhn• 3 years ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38084473

alistairSH• 3 years ago

Same. I tried changing the dates and location search. All that happened was a recenter/zoom, but no homes were listed.

ranting-moth2• 3 years ago

It's broken on FF/Linux. I just flashing garbage that would probably trigger epilepsy if I had one.

probably_wrong• 3 years ago

Another bug on FF/Android (private mode): it first showed the map, then overlayed a message saying I had to enter my email to access, but once I did it asked me to click a non-existent "Got it".

I clicked on one of the social media buttons and immediately went back, and then I could see the map. No hotels, though, but that has been mentioned already.

executesorder66• 3 years ago

Works fine for me. I'm also using Firefox + Linux.

ranting-moth2• 3 years ago

You just made it a whole lot harder to find the bug! :)

joncp• 3 years ago

It's goofy on FF/Mac too. Not flashing but oddly distorted.

genezeta• 3 years ago

Completely psychedelic on Firefox/Win too.

acomms• 3 years ago

Not getting any stays overlayed on the map. HN hug of death? API Limit?

asow92• 3 years ago

The perfect overlay map to find the ideal cabin in the woods. I'd love to be able to overlay this on Zillow or Airbnb.

coding123• 3 years ago

As long as y'all show up before dark. That's the courtesy.

otteromkram• 3 years ago

Airbnb is a pile of sh!t that will screw over travelers on a whim. Please DO NOT PROMOTE THAT COMPANY.

Use hotels. They're cleaner, cheaper, and full of amenities. Plus, you don't have to clean before you leave!

Edit: And, before anyone downvotes me too much, think about the fact that Airbnb does NOT audit any stays or even verify proof of ownership of the property and/or the right to sublet.

If you do complain, Airbnb will give you the runaround for months in end, perpetually pushing goalposts further down the field, even amid a slew of overwhelming evidence.

Yes, this is empirical data I'm working off of. And, no, it wasn't a one-off event.

Imagine all the crap sold on ebay that isn't vetted. Now, apply that to a vacation rental and you have the company in question.

Kiro• 3 years ago

I think many people have never experienced and don't realize how mind-bending a clear night sky in the winter without light pollution is. You need to get pretty far from civilization but when you do you will see so many stars, colors and effects you had no idea were visible without a telescope. The first time I experienced it I couldn't believe my eyes and it redefined my perception of space.

wickedsickeune• 3 years ago

I've never seen it myself, but I plan to. I once showed to colleagues a photo of what can be seen by naked eye (the milky way) and they would not believe me even remotely (it wasn't super exposed).

the_g0d_f4ther• 3 years ago

It’s really is an incredible experience.

timthorn• 3 years ago

Also, it can be hard to navigate the sky if you're not used to it. The patterns of stars that you can see instantly in more polluted areas get a lot of "background noise" and you need to relearn the sky to a degree.

progne4• 3 years ago

How held back might science be in an alternate history with one change: a permanently cloudy sky. Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Einstein, would all have had so much less purchase on the shape of the universe to build their theories on. So much science depends on the fundamental insights from those models.

We would be a more inward focused civilization, and lesser for it.

pphysch• 3 years ago

Civilizational development would be radically different without celestial navigation.

macintux• 3 years ago

Your comment reminded me about one of Asimov's classics I'd long forgotten about: Nightfall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightfall_(Asimov_novelette_an...

kridsdale3• 3 years ago

This is a significant plot element in Andy Wier's Project Hail Mary.

dfxm12• 3 years ago

It's easy to understand why people looking up at this might consider it the work of the super natural.

b2w• 3 years ago

Having lived on a Caribbean island, I can relate to this visual sensation. Let me only tell you further that when coupled with the auditory expeience of the rhythmic ocean waves washing against the shoreline, it amplifies the entire encounter for me.

1-more• 3 years ago

Orient Point on Long Island had the same thing. Kind of shocking given how built up the whole island is.

nologic012• 3 years ago

An added bonus of a dark sky is that with a good pair of eyes (and more democratically, with a set of binoculars) you can see all sort of clusters, nebulae, Jupiter's moons and e.g., Andromeda.

While not as breathtaking as the panoramic view of a truly dark sky, experiencing this "micro-structure" is also a mind-expanding experience: The sky is no longer a set of random point sources. Its an organic "thing" enclosing other "things".

marssaxman• 3 years ago

I once got to watch the sunset from the peak of Mauna Kea. After descending to a less stressful altitude, we spent some time stargazing. I've never seen the sky like that before, or since; it felt like you could see the depth in the galaxy. I was no longer looking up at the dome of the sky, studded with stars; I was looking out, from the side of a planet, into the wide open space of the universe.

divbzero• 3 years ago

I’ve seen Jupiter’s moons using binoculars in the middle of the city without a dark sky. TIL it’s possible in some cases to spot them by naked eye.

schoen• 3 years ago

experiencing this "micro-structure" is also a mind-expanding experience: The sky is no longer a set of random point sources. Its an organic "thing" enclosing other "things".

Galileo was immediately astonished by this when he made his first telescope and instantly saw the complexity of things up in the sky.

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/46036/pg46036-images.ht...

dotancohen• 3 years ago

Jupiter's moons? Have you actually seen them? I think that I saw them a few years ago, as a line instead of as distinct dots. I even asked on Stack Exchange at the time:

https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/26664/is-it-poss...

louthy2• 3 years ago

My best experience of this was at Mt. Everest base-camp (Tibet side) at 5,364 metres (17,598 ft)

Not just no light pollution, but much less atmosphere too! It looked like those long exposure images of the Milky Way. There aren't words available to describe how incredible it was. I’ll just state that it was one of the highlights of my life!

thangalin• 3 years ago

High-lights? ;-)

ruined• 3 years ago

i think one of the greatest crimes of the modern world is light pollution. it has completely redefined nearly everyone's perception of the universe and themselves in a really tragic way.

we would all be better off with fewer lights on buildings, and fewer streetlights. there is no reason for most of them, and the cost is existentially incredible.

Fnoord• 3 years ago

Well, that depends. In general, there's no need for street lights to be on when there's no traffic. But I grew up traveling throughout my country from rural to main capital and there was always an area of the highway without street lights. That area was noticeably more dangerous because you simply see less, and have less reaction time. Especially during rain or snow or other extreme weather. It isn't just other cars. It is also deer who might pass the highway, for example. And that area was in a forest. If there were some kind of way to have them more intelligently work on/off (for example by seeing phone signals come closer) I'd wager we'd already have such. I actually dislike that premise and would like to agree with you (selfishly: I'd like my kids to grow up on a livable planet), so I hope you can prove me wrong.

bch• 3 years ago

Ironic how, in a way, light keeps us from being illuminated.

crazygringo3• 3 years ago

there is no reason for most of them

Yes there is, it's crime. Street lights deter crime.

Also simply driving safety. Driving with just headlights causes more accidents than on a well-lit street, since visibility is so much worse.

I love to see the night sky as well, but I don't want to pretend there aren't extremely good reasons for street lighting, and those reasons aren't going away.

That being said, are there ways to reduce outdoor lighting of giant industrial parking lots, of stadiums at 3 am, or whole floors of skyscrapers when 99% of people have gone home? Sure. But at the same time, reducing nighttime lighting by 50% isn't really going to make any difference in sky visibility. It's more about not wasting electricity.

I'm talking mostly about urban areas though -- in rural areas where there's already a decent amount of visibility and the population is small enough that most roads already don't have street lights, then regulation can actually make a difference, e.g. banning always-on floodlights on people's driveways.

switchbak2• 3 years ago

Greatest crimes? Dumping PFAS and mercury into our ecosystem? Sure. Acid rain? Yeah. Bright cities? I think there's a long list of 'crimes' I'd put before that, and I love the night sky.

Some of these things won't be gone for generations or more, whereas you can turn lights off pretty easily. Ideally we'll swap out the older designs of streetlights and such as better designs become prevalent and there's economic incentives to do so.

Gigachad2• 3 years ago

The greatest crime? What? We are literally pumping plastics and carcinogens in to the air 24/7, poisoning the ground, and deforesting the planet.

Some light pollution is unfortunate but it’s essentially trivial in comparison. It causes no long term damage and doesn’t really do anything but make the sky less interesting.

takinola• 3 years ago

The first time I saw the Milky Way with my bare eyes, I almost fell over. The sky looked like static from an old TV set. There were so many stars, it was overwhelming.

mynegation• 3 years ago

I grew up in a small town and my wife grew up in big cities. On our trip to Morocco we were on a camping trip to a desert and she asked me looking at the night sky: “What is this huge white thing across the sky?”. Took me a while to realize that she was asking about Milky Way.

TheFreim• 3 years ago

I also grew up in a smallish town, it was always odd to hear visitors comment on the sky. It was just normal to see many stars, even in town. Visiting big cities at night always had an oppressive feeling to it, like having been mugged.

nonameiguess• 3 years ago

What's special about the winter? My great-grandparents on my dad's side lived in the California high desert, maybe 50 miles or so from Edward's Air Force Base, when I was a kid and we visited every year for Independence Day. A week and a half after the summer solstice and I've still never seen more stars or more of the Milky Way outer rim than I did back then.

martyvis• 3 years ago

Humidity. Above a desert you won't have much moisture in the air in summer.

malux85• 3 years ago

Me too, I was on Formentera, which is an island off the east coast of Spain, just below Ibiza.

It's a small Island, only accessible by boat. One summer evening I went for a walk along the beach with my partner and we stood there in the clear night - with no light pollution, with the whole milky way above us. There were thousands and thousands of stars I had never seen before in a giant array that stretched across the whole sky. Subtle colours and brightness differences gave the milky way a structure and randomness at the same time, it was an incredibly beautiful and humbling experience, and changed my perspective of the universe too.

gavinhoward• 3 years ago

As someone who grew up in a place without light pollution, I had this wonder every night. And I miss it.

Growing up, I never even thought that people would not know what it's like; it was always just a part of my life.

Now I live in a city...it sucks...

freetime2• 3 years ago

Another important thing is to give your eyes time to fully adapt to darkness. In my experience this can take hours. The best stargazing experiences I’ve had have been camping under the open sky without a tent, where I would awake in my sleeping bag in the middle of the night and just be absolutely amazed at the stars above me.

pvorb• 3 years ago

I recently was on a 2000m high mountain in the Bavarian Alps during a clear night and it was truly breathtaking how many stars were visible. I grew up in the countryside where it's also very dark at night, but I haven't been out there at night for years.

mmanfrin• 3 years ago

My family used to have a ranch and in college I went up there to work off a debt to my parents. I stayed in a cabin at the top of a ridge above the valley the ranch sat in. The ranch was about 7 miles outside of the nearest town, a small place of about 400 people, way up in the northeast corner of California.

One moonless night I walked outside and looked up and my jaw dropped at how startlingly bright the sky was with stars. It was like a long-exposure photograph but in the highest resolution my eyes could see.

bombcar• 3 years ago

One thing that always amazes me is just how much you can see on the ground in a moonless, cloudless night when you're far from anything else, especially in the desert.

HappyDaoDude• 3 years ago

Absolutely! A few times I have seen the full grandeur of this on the west coast of Tasmania. Highly recommend. Also neat seeing all those satellites flying about after sunset.

nephanth• 3 years ago

Even in the summer I still remember the first time I saw the milky way. Can't believe I was completely unaware the sky was supposed to look like that

globular-toast• 3 years ago

Colours? Are you sure you can really see colours? The astrophotography stuff is "enhanced" to get colours.

I've been in the Namib desert in Namibia around the Orange river at night, although not during winter. There are loads of stars, but it's not colourful like the pictures and people will be underwhelmed if they have that expectation.

I took a group of people who had only lived in cities into the countryside to watch a meteor shower. It was fun seeing their minds blown when there were more than like 10 stars.

One thing I can't believe not everyone has seen is Andromeda. What's more is it doesn't even seem to be common knowledge that you can see it.

If you're in the southern hemisphere the coalsack nebula is cool although a bit scary.

goda90• 3 years ago

It won't eliminate light pollution, but something we can all do is petition our local governments to pass dark sky ordinances: https://darksky.org/resources/guides-and-how-tos/model-light...

EchoReflection• 3 years ago

it's mind-blowing to think that, for ancient humans (and moderns that live in distant/"isolated" areas), every night is still like that.

matt-attack• 3 years ago

How is winter helpful?

CWuestefeld• 3 years ago

My town (Dripping Springs, TX) was pretty dark when I moved here 10 years ago. We could at least see the Milky Way back then.

Today it claims to be a dark sky certified community, but this seems baloney. No more Milky Way. And while the town claims to have all those regulations to protect the dark, they start right off by ignoring those rules for the schools' football fields and stuff.

jmbwell• 3 years ago

Yeah when I lived in San Antonio, we used to go out to Hondo to see the milky way and explore the skies with our homemade telescopes.

LOL today

ModernMech• 3 years ago

Doesn't seem to work. Just asks for my email address and won't even accept one when I put it in.

doublemint22034• 3 years ago

mstudio• 3 years ago

Great visualization! For those in the Northeast US, Cherry Springs State Park in PA is a wonderful place to visit for night viewing (and camping). It's one of the best places (darkest night sky) on the eastern seaboard for stargazing. We camped there in the summer and saw the Milky Way like I'd never seen before. Be sure to look at the moon phases when planning -- try to plan for a new moon so you have a dark sky: https://www.dcnr.pa.gov/StateParks/FindAPark/CherrySpringsSt...

photochemsyn• 3 years ago

The eastern desert ranges of California are great for seeing a clear night sky (Panamint Valley etc.). There's even a Dark Sky Festival out there (Nov 9-12 2023). Shows up nicely on this map too.

https://www.easternsierraobservatory.com/california-dark-sky...

killjoywashere• 3 years ago

Feature request: Any chance of a "back in time" slider? I'm going camping this weekend for a bike race in Utah. Even there I don't recall being impressed by the stars there, compared to my childhood in Kansas, where I could see the Milky Way from my front yard. It would be interesting to compare this to what it looked like 30 years ago.

momirlan• 3 years ago

there is apparently a huge difference between the night sky in the Northern vs Southern hemisphere. whoever spent their life in the North has no idea how beautiful the Southern sky is.

alkonaut• 3 years ago

What on earth is going on in Närpes in coastal/rural Finland? It looks like it has extreme light pollution?

tpmx• 3 years ago

Greenhouses, apparently. Try Google Translate on https://svenska.yle.fi/a/7-1355536.

ricardobeat• 3 years ago

Needs labels for the light pollution scale, it's not immediately obvious.

A grayscale mode would be even better (thought less pretty at first sight).

Dave3of5• 3 years ago

Totally lost on the UI sorry can you explain how to operate the thing ?

Mortiffer• 3 years ago

This is very cool. I have been working on a way to get a hestmap of distance from roads to plan Backcountry hiking trips but this light pollution data seems much simpler.

namuol2• 3 years ago

“There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot. These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot.

Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question of whether a still higher ‘standard of living’ is worth its cost in things natural, wild, and free. For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television, and the chance to find a pasque-flower is a right as inalienable as free speech.”

- Foreword to A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold, 1949

jackconsidine• 3 years ago

Aldo Leopold was a genius. His love for nature was poetic and inspiring. He also offered a pragmatic ethic of the land. I'm not sure I've ever read someone as holistic and well-intentioned.

namuol2• 3 years ago

Absolutely.

One example for anyone who isn’t familiar: He dedicates several pages to an oak tree he cut down for firewood after a lightning strike destroyed it, and his tribute to its sacrifice left me in tears.

gnopgnip• 3 years ago

I stayed in shelter cove recently to see the perseid meteor shower. Definitely recommend staying in a similar remote area with low light pollution.

GMoromisato2• 3 years ago

This is wonderful!

One suggestion is to also include probability of cloud-cover at that time of the year.

badcppdev• 3 years ago

As a UK resident I sadly have to agree

rconti• 3 years ago

Nothing against the site, I just hate this usage of "stays".

emadda2• 3 years ago

Related: I released an AirBnB search engine optimised for desktop a few months ago.

https://stay100.app

doublemint22034• 3 years ago

Hey how'd you import the maps? I'm beginner cs/geospatial undergrad & looking to build something like this

emadda2• 3 years ago

It is using the Google Maps JS API.

thrdbndndn2• 3 years ago

Majority of Texas has no data when you zoom in:

https://i.imgur.com/cFYZ5pQ.png

cratermoon3• 3 years ago

I like how the map shows the lights from drilling platforms out in places like the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea.

tomatoman• 3 years ago

Whats going on in Venezuela in Maturin??

blamazon• 3 years ago

It's petroleum industry[1] in the Orinoco Belt[2], ignition of waste gas[3] produces a lot of light.

[1] https://energy-cg.com/OPEC/Venezuela/OPEC_Venezuela_BaseMap_...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orinoco_Belt

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_flare

grogenaut• 3 years ago

some feedback:

- a legend of the colors would be great, explaining in words what they mean, what I might expect - date range search is a bit odd for this, I guess if I was aligning with astronomical events, but if I'm just looking for nice places to stay. - Mine defaults to my location, seattle. I've seen 3 total astronimical events here in 13 years due to clouds.

etothepii• 3 years ago

This website is unusable in iPhone 14 Pro Max in Safari.

Would be interested in something similar for the 8th April Eclipse.

97s• 3 years ago

I am confused how do I see the places I can stay?

petee• 3 years ago

The Track Prices button hovers over the calender so you can't change the month. Otherwise pretty cool!

HomeDeLaPot• 3 years ago

Typo in the title: overlayed ‐> overlaid

jmuguy• 3 years ago

Maybe doesn't work in Firefox? I just see a map with what I guess is light pollution overlaid but no hotels.

stronglikedan2• 3 years ago

Same on Chrome.

louison112• 3 years ago

This should be fixed now. The HN traffic was way above the rate limit allowed by our data provider API. Hence the downtime in our AJAX requests and the reason why you didn't see any hotels loading up. It may still be on and off at the moment (there are hundreds of people active at all times), but if you move the map around a little your AJAX request should eventually "get in" ;-)

rmason• 3 years ago

The Michigan tourism folks have become focused on dark sky tourism. Here's a website that tells you the best parks in the state for sky gazing.

https://www.michigan.org/darksky

pcrh• 3 years ago

One thing that is interesting about this is how one may not need to travel to some far and remote place to experience low light pollution.

In the map of the UK, for example, low light pollution can be experienced within a 2 hr train ride from London to Wales, Devon or Cornwall. Similarly for France or Spain.

Central Europe and Eastern US has little such luck, though.

timeinput• 3 years ago

I apparently live in a pretty low light pollution area in the UK, but it's been a while since I've seen the stars because of clouds =[.

davidw• 3 years ago

Simpler method: just go visit central and SE Oregon.

* Maybe fly in to Bend. Nearby you can go up Pine Mountain to visit the observatory in the summer. Best views of the sky I've ever had... you're up at around 2000 meters, away from the city, with clear air, usually. You can very easily see the milky way and SO many stars.

* https://traveloregon.com/plan-your-trip/destinations/lakes-r... - dark sky park near Prineville.

* Steens Mountain & Alvord Desert - https://traveloregon.com/things-to-do/destinations/parks-for...

rootusrootus2• 3 years ago

Nice idea, but it didn't work great for me. It mostly finds hotels in heavily light polluted areas. And in the tiny out-of-the way places where light pollution is minimal, it didn't show me any lodging options. But going to Google maps for the same spots, there are definitely options.

stevage2• 3 years ago

It's a shame the site is not really usable on mobile.

shmageggy2• 3 years ago

Slightly off-topic, but I wonder what the big circle of light pollution is in Western Brazil, west-southwest of Manaus? It looks like it's centered over Urucu, which Google reveals is home to a natural gas pipeline. I wonder if there was a fire there or something when the satellite passed?

leonheld• 3 years ago

No major accidents ever as far as I can Google (I speak Portuguese, so I searched the local web).

boomboomsubban2• 3 years ago

When extracting or processing natural gas, it's common to burn off some of the byproduct in a process known as "flaring." So yes, there was a fire but there's always a fire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_flare

shmageggy2• 3 years ago

If that's the cause, it's surprising that it's as bright as an entire city, for example nearby Lima.

noslenwerdna• 3 years ago

Is it possible to add a legend? What do these colors represent in terms of visibility?

capableweb• 3 years ago

White/Transparent: You don't see stars at all/barely when you look up

Dark blue: you see all the stars that can see you.

IceHegel• 3 years ago

Excellent idea and I encourage all who've not seen the moonless stars on a clear summer night, do it at least once. It affected me much more than like seeing Vienna or Paris for the first time, and I love those cities.

caseysoftware• 3 years ago

I moved from Austin to rural Texas ~2.5 years ago and it's so dark, it was disturbing at first. After a while you get used to it but it's still SO awesome seeing the Milky Way many nights.

This past summer, I'd be outside working late (necessary in 100F+ heat) and turn off the lights, wait a minute and look up.

It was breathtaking.. and we're not even in the darkest place.

presentation• 3 years ago

Currency seems wrong when pointing this where I live in Japan, says that hostels are going for $5000 a night lol.

alabhyajindal• 3 years ago

Terrible. The page froze Firefox and I had to reboot my laptop.

dalore• 3 years ago

If you want outdoor stays your much better off using a large outdoor travel specialist sites like https://www.pitchup.com/

vikR0001• 3 years ago

Is there a legend for the shading? I wasn't quite sure what shades of color meant what amounts of light pollution.

Ostrogoth• 3 years ago

Where I grew up I could see the milky way over my house. I didn’t realize how lucky that was. Now with urban sprawl the stars are fading there.

I've overlayed stays on a light pollution satellite map

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