<p>The apparent magnitude classification was done arbitrarily by Ptolemy. His thought was to set the 20 brightest stars to the first position, the less bright stars to the second position and so on up to the faintest stars which were given the sixth position. After the use of Pogson's law we were able to give to stars not only natural numbers, but also numbers with decimal digits. When we started to use the first telescopes, we realised that the numbers which are greater than 6 have meaning. So the natural limit of naked eye is the apparent magnitude of +6. <a href="http://www.inquinamentoluminoso.it/dmsp/starvis.html">Here</a> you can find a nice work from the italian Light Pollution Science and Technology Institute which shows as the typical limit of naked eye compared to the light pollution of each area.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-07-12T21:41:56.473Z
2014-07-12T21:41:56.473Z
Chris Papageorgakis
<p>If you only read the question, you will answer: ''<em>That depends on the light pollution</em>''. Yes, it does, but if you are in the darkest night sky (Bortle class 1), what magnitude would have the faintest star? In the Wikipedia article about the magnitude, it's written that +6.0 would be the typical limit, but in the article about the Bortle scale, I saw the fainter magnitude +8.0. So, what is the real limit?</p>

<p>If the question has been already asked, please give me the link.</p>

<magnitude><naked-eye>
What is the apparent magnitude limit for the naked eye?
Archa
# What is the apparent magnitude limit for the naked eye?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-07-12)

If you only read the question, you will answer: ''*That depends on the light pollution*''. Yes, it does, but if you are in the darkest night sky (Bortle class 1), what magnitude would have the faintest star? In the Wikipedia article about the magnitude, it's written that +6.0 would be the typical limit, but in the article about the Bortle scale, I saw the fainter magnitude +8.0. So, what is the real limit?

If the question has been already asked, please give me the link.

**Tags:** magnitude, naked-eye


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2014-07-12. Score: 6 | Accepted answer

The apparent magnitude classification was done arbitrarily by Ptolemy. His thought was to set the 20 brightest stars to the first position, the less bright stars to the second position and so on up to the faintest stars which were given the sixth position. After the use of Pogson's law we were able to give to stars not only natural numbers, but also numbers with decimal digits. When we started to use the first telescopes, we realised that the numbers which are greater than 6 have meaning. So the natural limit of naked eye is the apparent magnitude of +6. [Here](http://www.inquinamentoluminoso.it/dmsp/starvis.html) you can find a nice work from the italian Light Pollution Science and Technology Institute which shows as the typical limit of naked eye compared to the light pollution of each area.


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