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I think it's important to not get too caught up in what "color" zone you're in, especially as a direct correlation to what/how much you can see. The demarcations are blurry and suspect anyway, as Mr. Flanders keeps pointing out. I've seen the horsehead nebula from the orange--can't be too bad. I think if one can see the Milky Way at all there will be plenty to observe.

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I have found the "color" maps to be fairly accurate in my area. I'm close to red,orange and yellow zones. I observe fairly big differences in each zone. For each darker zone I see about 50% more and brighter stars and also more of the Milky Way. Although I haven't seen the Milky Way in the Red zone. That's probably due to porch lights and street lights. I also see a corresponding difference in DSO detail and brightness when going zone to zone. That seems accurate enough to me. I'm not hung up on colors-just darkness.

Don