Scientists have measured the darkness of the sky all over the planet. The darkest area is over the Canary Islands

The research team collected photometric data from 44 locations around the world. So they want to quantify

determine how dark the night sky is in different parts of the globe. They found that the darkest skies were over the Canary Islands.

Lead researcher of the project, astronomer MiguelAlarcon, is a native of these islands located off the west coast of Africa. The work, which will be published in the next issue of The Astronomical Journal, used a series of photometers called TESS. So scientists wanted to get a basic understanding of the darkness of the sky.

The team collected 11 million data points from thesedistant places like Namibia, Australia and the USA. While this number did not include some popular astronomers' sites (such as the highlands of Antarctica), it was a good sample of different sky observing conditions. The researchers noted that the Canary Islands experienced the lowest level of background light. Only about 2% of the light comes from artificial lighting at the Roque de los Muchachos observatory on the island of Palma.

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However, scientists note that the dark sky is notnecessarily an ideal observation condition. They also need to consider other factors, such as atmospheric visibility and temperature fluctuations, which can cause observational problems. The main takeaway from this study is that if you want to see the night sky, it is worth going to the islands off the coast of Africa.

However, there are other, naturallight pollution sources that affect different geographic regions in different ways. The moon and the Milky Way are standard features of the night sky and certainly contribute to its natural brightness. However, there are other, more variable sources that have been observed in this study. These include the glow in the upper atmosphere, which is caused by a combination of factors such as the solar cycle, geographic location, and season.

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