This is a question for anyone who has observed in a Bortle Scale level one area; On a pitch black night with no moon but clear skies, can the Milky Way appear so bright that you can see your shadow on the ground?
I was looking at these Bortle levels and thinking about Spring when I take my small son and our scope to Yosemite NP or Pinnacles NP and was wondering if the Milky Way in real time can cast a shadow that rods in human retinas can detect (I do not mean a shadow that some sensitive CCD sensor can detect or by some other astrophotography method). I have traveled to truly dark areas in the past with no human civilization nearby (in the Yukon, an uninhabited island in the South Pacific, during a reseach trip to a dry valley in Antarctica, etc....) and I remember the stars being bright there but not so bright that my shadow was cast on the ground. Is this really possible?
Edited by jayhall0315, 31 December 2014 - 03:50 AM.