These Depressing Images Show What We're Not Seeing in The Night Sky

Depending on where you are, the night sky can range from a dusty glow to a dark expanse with thousands of stars.

Estimates suggest a couple thousand stars are visible to the naked eye on a clear night, but the light pollution glare of city and small town lights prevent us from seeing it.

The Bortle Scale is used to rank visibility from one to nine in order to describe light pollution. It was first described by John Bortle in 2001.

The night sky is classified according to the level. The Bortle Scale level can be found using the interactive map tool at lightpollutionmap.Info.

These images show the amount of stars you can see outside of cities and suburbs.

The moon, nearest planets, and a few bright stars are observable.

It can be found in New York City, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.

A sky with a lot of light pollution is orange-ish. Light pollution can affect human health, even though it isn't as harmful as other types of pollution.

Studies have shown that exposure to light at night can disrupt the body's biological clock, which is linked to health problems.

It may be possible to see some of the things that are observable.

It can be found in Boston, Massachusetts, Austin, Texas, and Indianapolis, Indiana.

Light pollution can cause the sky to be so bright that you can see it. Most stars will not be visible with the naked eye.

The star cluster M 44 is very indistinguishable, and the Milky Way is almost completely invisible.

It can be found in Seattle, Washington, and Salt Lake City.

The sky is light grey in color due to the light pollution in these places.

A study found that one third of the population can't see the stars.

It is only faintly visible.

It can be found in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Lincoln, Nebraska, and Bloomington, Indiana.

Clouds are bright and the sky is white. The light pollution is very bright.

The universe can look washed out.

It can be found in Burlington, Vermont, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Grand Junction, Colorado.

The Bortle Scale level is where most of us spend our lives.

Light pollution can be seen in most, if not all, directions. The sky is not as bright as it could be and the stars are not as bright as they could be.

The TriangulumGalaxy is observable.

Twin Falls, Idaho; Flagstaff, Arizona; and the Wind River Indian Reservation are where it can be found.

Light pollution can be seen in a number of ways. The sky background starts to look gray under these skies.

The collection of stars such as M4 and M5 are observable.

In the US, you can find it in the National Park.

The fine detail of the stars is gone. Overhead clouds are not lit in the direction of light sources.

It's observable that the stars and the clouds are the same.

Where to find it in the US is Cherry Springs State Park, Pennsylvania.

The human eye is able to see the stars. There is a haze of light from scattered light sources on the ground.

The observables are the Milky Way, the Andromeda, and the Orion Nebula.

In the US, it can be found in Big Bend National Park, Texas, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, and Alaska.

The view of the universe is comparable to that seen by Galileo. The night sky is full of stars. The sky is so bright that it can cast shadows.

The original article was published by Business Insider.