Skyglow and how it stops you from seeing the stars

If you are interesting in star gazing and are working on a science fair project that involves night time observation you may have already encountered skyglow. This is the glow in the night time sky which comes from lights in the city. It is to be thought of as light pollution, which does not allow you to get a clear view of the night sky.

So how do you beat skyglow and still do your project? Well the obvious answer is that you take your night time star gazing project out of the urban area into a more out in the country area. That way the only lights that interfere with the viewing of your sky will be the ones that you are using on your camping trip.

This may not always be quite conducive to your daily routine. So there is another another solution. Its based on measuring the skyglow and then working out the right location to study the night sky from. You could just have to head out a few miles out into a semi urban area to see that the skyglow goes down enough for you to complete your star gazing project with ease.

To measure the skyglow you can use the Bortle Dark Sky Scale. This will need some basic familiarity with the concept of the night time sky for it to work for you. So study up on that before hand and get an adult with this specialized knowledge to help you out with the science fair project.