I am fortunate to have easy access to truly dark sky, from my northern base. Kielder and Galloway. The fewer lumens the better, with spread, not throw.
It’s regulated, this is important, street lamps and other things, as well as some RF stuff that can mess up the radio telescopes.
It is really quite an experience to see truly dark sky, that’s if your frazzled city eyes can cope.
And it would be very rude indeed to shine around an aggressive torch that meets some BLF ideas about “max power”.
I’ve officially lost interest in this discussion since apparently you mind is made up on who’s the blame for the high shipping cost you have to endure when buying directly from an US company like Digikey.
One useful piece of information I can contribute is, did you know Digikey has an EU presence just for folks like yourself?
Go to www.digikey.co.uk and enjoy free shipping for orders over £33.
Yes, that looks like well into the blue area of the dark sky map I linked. Similar to where I was a couple of nights ago. There are some parks I’ve been to that are a shade or two darker than the blue areas, but they’re a couple of hundred kilometers away so I rarely get there. I’d like to go to even darker areas, but those are a long way from civilization, mostly in mid-northern parts of Canada where you can’t even get to by road. I think there are some equally good areas like that in the deserts of the US, and certainly much easier to get to.
It’s a shame that most people in industrial parts of the world will never get to see the stars under a truly dark sky.
I live in a dark green area on that map; it used to be blue I believe but not in recent years. So for walking around home, some of the light is pollution. My astro shots suffer a color cast. But I’ve been to darker places; the part of the yellowstone area I visited was pretty good. I could still see by starlight, though it did take some adjustment time.
Besides the remote high country of Colorado & Wyoming I think the darkest area I have experienced is in the Gulf of Mexico.
It is hard to beat a night spent drifting a couple of hundred miles offshore in a sport fishing boat on a clear cool crisp low humidity fall night with no moon.
Turn off all the boat lights, darken all the helm gauges. Darken all the electronic screens…… leaving only the proximity alarms active on the two radars…….
I remember about 10 or 15 years ago, there was a power outage that knocked out most of north-east US and southern Canada. I think it lasted for at least several hours, and up to a couple of weeks in some places.
Did people in New York City look up at the sky, and wonder, “WTF is that?” Or, did they just not bother looking up, because there’s never any point in doing so?
I was stuck in Ottawa after the ice-storm and freezing rain that knocked everything out for a couple of weeks, it was lovely. Though I only intended to be there for two days. Walking across the frozen river was perhaps not the most sensible thing to do, should have stuck to skating on the Rideau canal. Still, I survived.
North Norfolk is also pretty good for dark skies (Burnham Market). I am privileged to have multiple choices, I think I would die very quickly in a city.
My main residence is quite close to where the Royal Greenwich Observatory re-located long-ago to escape the miasma from London. (Herstmonceux). But still close to the meridian.
Clean air, clear skies, the coast nearby, my boat on it’s mooring. My dog agrees too, if he doesn’t get a swim most days he gets even grumpier than me. The sea is warming up nicely now so I will be joining him.
For a truly stunning astronomical experience, try to catch a meteor shower. The Perseids are epic. Comet Hale Bopp was awesome, but that was a long time ago (or in the future).
Total eclipses are great too, seeing the moon shadow approach at 1000 mph is unforgettable. Even though I had to drive to Rouen to see the last one (it was worth it, and cheaper than flying to Lake Balaton).
It has to do with translations from different languages to English.
pepinfaxera is from Spain, where flashlight is said “linterna” (in portuguese it is “lanterna”).
Most common translation from our languages is “flashlight” despite “lantern” is also used.
In this case I just tried to help to clarify that there is no difference from both terms. So there is only the FW3A flashlight/lantern, not 2 different products to subscribe for!
However, lantern is a term associated to other type of lights. Please search for “Zanflare T1 lantern” - a recent thread - to see what the term may refer to
