[Chaos-l] Skywatching canceled

[Michael Hrivnak]

You mentioned that the weather wasn't great a lot of the time.  When the sky 
was completely clouded over, were the clouds lit up at all, or was the sky 
black?  My experience at Almost Heaven was that the sky was actually a bit 
brighter when it was completely cloudy.  That tells me that even in a very 
dark place, there is some light pollution reflecting off of the clouds, and thus 
the same light brightens a clear sky at least a little.

Although, I suspect that stars which are too faint for us to resolve 
individually with the naked eye could collectively cause the whole sky to seem 
less-than-black.  It would be interesting to look at a part of the sky with 
the least number of stars, and compare its blackness to other parts.

Michael

On Sunday 20 September 2009 02:32:09 pm Mark South wrote:
> I know this is slightly off topic but I had a question
>
> I noticed at okie Tex one of the darkest star parties in the us that
> the sky as never truly black.. sort of how it looks at the
> planetarium.  Why is that?  I think it was quite clear but the sky
> still was grayish.  Is it possible to find a black sky with stars on
> earth with an atmosphere and light adaptation.  Greg Dillon theorized
> that it is truly darker than we realize but he thinks the stars light
> the sky up some.  Has anyone ever thought of this or been to a truly
> black sky?
>
> Mark
>
> Sent from my cell phone
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