Toward an atlas of the number of visible stars
Pierantonio Cinzano, Fabio Falchi

TL;DR
This paper develops a method to create detailed maps of the average number of visible stars across the sky, accounting for light pollution, atmospheric conditions, and observer capabilities, exemplified by a map of Italy.
Contribution
It introduces a comprehensive approach to estimate and map the number of visible stars in the sky, integrating satellite data, atmospheric models, and observer factors.
Findings
Generated a 1 km resolution map of visible stars in Italy
Demonstrated how sky brightness affects star visibility estimates
Provided a framework for site-specific star visibility assessment
Abstract
Modelling techniques for the propagation of light pollution in the atmosphere allow the computation of maps of artificial night sky brightness in any direction of the sky, involving a large number of details from satellite data. Cinzano et al. (2001a) introduced a method of mapping naked eye star visibility at the zenith from large areas based on satellite radiance measurements and Garstang models of the propagation of light pollution. It takes into account the altitude of each land area from digital elevation data, natural sky brightness in the chosen sky direction based on the Garstang approach, eye capability after Garstang and Schaefer, and atmospheric extinction in the visual photometric band. Here we discuss how to use these methods to obtain maps of the average number of visible stars when looking at the night sky hemisphere, finally answering, site by site, the question of how…
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