Southern African Dark Sky Guide

posted: 1829 days ago, on Friday, 2007 Feb 02 at 04:49
tags: astronomy, deep sky.

Contributer: Mauritz Geyser


"For some years now," Mauritz Geyser writes, "I've wanted some kind of map that would give me a indication of where I can expect dark skies."

Armed with his GPS MapSource software, and a high-resolution version of NASA's famous "Earth at Night" image, Mauritz used Micrografix Picture Publisher to merge the two maps to produce a wonderful resource for sky-gazers: a detailed map of Southern Africa (including most of Namibia and parts of Botswana) showing cities, towns, major roads – and areas heavily affected by light pollution.

"I see now that the site I went to, to take photos of Comet McNaught from the Magaliesburg on January 23rd, was probably not a good choice," he writes. "About 40km further west would have been better, I think."

Mauritz has generated four images and kindly made them available for download:

  1. Dark Sky Guide for Southern Africa (273 KB)
  2. Dark Sky Guide for central regions of South Africa, including Vryburg, Klerksdorp, Vereeniging, Newcastle, Welkom, Bloemfontein, Durban, Margate, De Aar & Beaufort-West (521 KB)
  3. Dark Sky Guide for northern and eastern South Africa, including Johannesburg, Pretoria, Vereeniging, Klerksdorp, Welkom, Newcastle, Mbabane, Polokwane, Maputo, Gabarone & Mmabatho (507 KB)
  4. Dark Sky Guide for south-western South Africa, including Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein, Queenstown, De Aar, Kimberley, Beaufort West, George, Mossel Bay, Swellendam, Wellington, Saldanha, Springbok, Aggenys & Stellenbosch (522 KB)

 comments

2012 January 02 at 12:31 by Gerry Higginson

Looking at Sky from Velddrif 9.30 Pm 2.1.2012 we can see half moon and just above is I think Jupitor - looking North. Looking West is a very

bright Planet ??? What is this Planet. Also is it possible to Download

Maps for this area ( Southern Africa ) for this time of year - showing

Stars/Planets/Galaxies ? Hope I am successful - Many Thanks

2012 January 06 at 08:54 by G.Higginson

Dear Mr Mulder,

I have down loaded that Planetarium File and it is absolutely fantastic

- it is so realistic and informative and virtually the same as actually looking at the heavens plus all the extra information given.

Many Thanks indeed to you and Mr Auke,

Kind Regards,

Gerald Higginson

2012 January 02 at 13:28 by KJ Mulder

Gerry, the bright planet to the West would be Venus. For maps you could try Heavens-above.com for general constellation and planet positions. There's also a great software program called Stellarium (http://www.stellarium.org/) which you can download and that will show you the planets, stars, constellations etc.

2012 January 03 at 03:54 by G.Higginson

Many thanks for your reply - the programme is a bit confusing as it kept on saying I should try again as I did not press the button after working out 4*6= etc !

2012 January 06 at 09:53 by KJ Mulder

It's a pleasure!

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