Light Pollution Map

I built this because I wanted a fast way to check dark sky conditions anywhere before planning a stargazing trip. Would love feedback from fellow astronomy/travel enthusiasts!

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The Bortle scale integration is genuinely useful here. Most astronomy tools just show sky brightness as a raw number without context. Bortle gives stargazers an actual reference frame - a dark sky from a certified dark sky park (Bortle 1-2) is fundamentally different from suburban skies (Bortle 6-7). The satellite data layer combined with weather overlays solves a real planning problem for astrophotographers. You can check conditions at multiple locations before committing to a drive, and the aurora probability layer means aurora hunters actually have actionable forecasts instead of just guessing. The photo-based sky brightness analysis is clever because it lets people contribute real observations to refine the model. This is the kind of tool that makes outdoor planning actually scientific instead of based on hope.

Congrats on shipping this. Loving that you can click a spot and get the Bortle rating before you drive out for a dark sky. If you later want AI on another project, discounted rates are at pzero.studio.

Which light pollution dataset are the Bortle readings built on, and from which year? Between the older and newer atlases a spot can shift a whole class, which matters if you're driving two hours on the strength of it.

Light Pollution Map Your product has strong potential, but I found a few key improvements that could make it even better. I'd love to share my feedback and suggestions—please contact me at [email protected].