Naked eye in astronomy

Naked eye in astronomy

The visibility of astronomical objects is strongly affected by light pollution. Even a few hundred kilometers away from metropolitan areas where the sky can appear to be very dark, it is still the residual light pollution that sets the limit on the visibility of faint objects. Such conditions are, however, the best observing conditions in reach of most people. Under such "typical" dark sky conditions, the naked eye can see stars with an apparent magnitude up to +6^m. Under perfect dark sky conditions where all light pollution is absent, stars as faint as +8^m might be visible.^[1]