Category: Dispatches

Key takeaways New to the numbers? The Bortle scale runs from 1, the darkest skies left on Earth, to 9, an inner city where the constellations disappear. Sky brightness is measured in mag/arcsec², where a higher number means a darker sky. A Bortle 3 is a properly dark rural sky, dark enough that the Milky Way still shows real…

Key takeaways New to the numbers? The Bortle scale runs from 1, the darkest skies left on Earth, to 9, an inner city where the constellations disappear. Sky brightness is measured in mag/arcsec², where a higher number means a darker sky. A Bortle 3 is a properly dark rural sky, dark enough that the Milky Way still shows real…

Key takeaways New to the numbers? The Bortle scale runs from 1, the darkest skies left on Earth, to 9, an inner city where the constellations disappear. Sky brightness is measured in mag/arcsec², where a higher number means a darker sky. A Bortle 4 is where the Milky Way becomes obvious again, clearly visible well above the horizon, even…

Key takeaways New to the numbers? The Bortle scale runs from 1, the darkest skies left on Earth, to 9, an inner city where the constellations disappear. Sky brightness is measured in mag/arcsec², where a higher number means a darker sky. A Bortle 2 is a genuinely dark site, dark enough that your surroundings show only as silhouettes against…

Marfa gives you a brilliant night sky along with a mystery that’s confounded people for over a century, plus a food and art scene you wouldn’t expect from a town of under 2,000 people. It’s found in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert, in a West Texas town small enough to walk end to end…