|
I received a request from a fellow amateur astronomer to try and create a represntation of what Perth would look like if you removed the light pollution which clouds it's skies. It is of course impossible to truely show this, but I have created what I think is a fair reprsentation, within some limitations.
To create this image I have combined a photograph taken of the City from Kings Park together with a photograph taken of the Milky Way rising as seen from Kokerbin Rock in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia.
This image shows the Milky Way rising in the east, behind the CBD of Perth, as viewed from Kings Park. The field of view of the foreground city photograph and that of the background Milky Way are almost exactly the same. The position at which the MIlky Way is rising and the angle it is rising is also a true representation of what would be seen.
The street lights, car lights, building lights and other foreground light sources shown in the city scape are retained to provide perspective and a nice overall image. In reality if the sky were as clear as shown, then in all likelyhood those foreground lights would need to be sufficiently sheilded and re-directed at the ground that significantly less would be visible of the buildings and such.
The Milky Way image used has been darkenned from that actually photographed in the Wheatbelt to try and form a more accurate representation of what might be seen when considering the eye would have some foreground lights distracting it, and the city would still have a layer of smog/pollution in general obscuring some of the night sky.
To the unaided eye in such a situation the night sky would appear somewhat different but no less impressive. The birghter stars and sections of the Milky Way might actually "feel" brighter and closer, and the observer would perhaps not see so many of the fainter stars, be it due to perception or actual light strength. As anyone who has sat out under the stars in the Wheatbelt for an evening would know, the Milky Way rising in the east can be like a full moon rising from below the horizon - it is a bright area of sky clearly visible which has a definite impact on what you can see right in front of you on the ground it illuminates. So to see as much as is illustrated in this image would not be unreasonable.
To conclude, this is not a scientifically accurate representation, but I feel it gives a good overall indication of what might be visible.
|
