44 replies to this topic

[Rickycardo]

I'll be spending a week in Puerto Villamil in the Galapagos this summer. Population 2200, limited infrastructure, in the Pacific ocean 600 miles from the coast. I expect it to be pretty dark at night.

I'll report back.

[mountain monk]

RLK1,

 

I do not have the knowledge to make that judgment, but I certainly believe you.

 

Dark skies.

 

Jack

[RLK1]

RLK1,

 

I do not have the knowledge to make that judgment, but I certainly believe you.

 

Dark skies.

 

Jack

And you don't have to take my word on it; as noted in this detailed and technical review:

 

"A key point to know is that the solar cycle drives the airglow..."

 

https://link.springe...159-021-00138-3

 

 

And we have been and are at solar max:

 

"We are currently experiencing Solar Cycle 25 and as it stands, predictions from the World Data Center for the Sunspot Index and Long-term Solar Observations (SILSO) at the Royal Observatory of Belgium indicate a maximum between mid-2024 and the end of 2025."

 

https://www.space.co...the end of 2025.

[mountain monk]

Thanks. Very interesting.

 

Dark skies.

 

Jack

[FirstSight]

Southern Utah has always been my home away from home and there are still lots of dark sites. As for towns… I would nominate the town of Boulder, Utah. Very dark and it has a a Clear Sky Chart. You can drive to 9,000 feet on Route 12 slightly above town where a pull-off and some two-tracks give you 22.00 mpsas. I recall that you have been there.

Dark skies.

Jack

Yes but you may have to share Boulder pass with a large herd of free-range cattle (and their um, pies) that have been around near the road the times i have gone over Boulder pass. Might need to watch your step on the dark.

[mountain monk]

If I have to worry about free-range cattle I would lose my much loved local sites. And it’s not just cattle! Moose, elk, deer, pronghorn, horse, bear… Grizzly scat shows you clearly where you are on the food chain!

 

Dark skies.

 

Jack

Edited by mountain monk, 20 June 2024 - 12:33 AM.

[KD5NRH]

Grizzly scat shows you clearly where you are on the food chain!

I think I'll stick with the brown bears in the High Chisos, though the only mammals I've had turn up in camp there were deer. 

 

Just wish I had the energy to lug a good scope up there, because waking up around 2AM on a clear, moonless night, miles from any road, with Jupiter rising over the desert floor 3,000 feet below camp is one of those things that makes you wish you could just pause the world: there's too much to see in one night even with just a pair of 8x30 binos.

[mountain monk]

Indeed, and well said.

 

Dark skies.

 

Jack

[Elkastro]

Silver Cliff, Colorado definitely one of the darkest towns in the US. I own land not far south from there in Costilla County, Its Bortle 2.

Edited by Elkastro, 07 July 2024 - 08:08 PM.

[GTom]

Seychelles, La Digue island. No street lights whatsoever, Paradise at its finest!

[scrufy]

I just spent a few days/nights at a cabin in Yellowstone National Park last week and I've never seen suck inky black skies and color in the milky way with naked eye.

I only brought my 80x20 astro binocs but even with them things like the trifid nebula were so easy to see, in fact the main trouble I had was finding my reference stars because every single view had hundreds of stars and gas clouds I've never seen with binics from my home in Southern Cali.

Gotta be close to darkest levels. I was on eastern part of the park and from the dark skies map it looks to be the lowest bortle.

Edited by scrufy, 09 July 2024 - 10:13 PM.

[repm]

I started looking at the light pollution maps for eastern Oregon and Nevada since these are the last best places for dark skies in the US.

 

I was surprised at the light pollution growth in Nevada over the past decade.  Some of it appears to be either wildland fires picked up by satellite or lighting for large mines.

 

Gerlach, doesn't look that dark anymore.  Looks like there are light domes in several directions.  I have not been in Gerlach for decades.

 

I do drive central Nevada every year.  The area north of Hiko, looks to me like it might be the darkest skies in the US.  I measured 21.99 just 10 miles south of Alamo and only a small sliver of sky showed the light dome from Las Vegas.  Farther north from Hiko I suspect the light dome would not be visible.

 

There is a new subdivision in Hiko and the satellite photos do show an increase in sky brightness in the past two years.  It still is very dark.
 

Yup. Hiko is where I head to for dark skies. I love Basin and Range National Monument. And only about an hour and a half from where I live in Overton. I feel blessed to have such dark skies so close to me.

[Silent_Light]

Silver Cliff, Colorado definitely one of the darkest towns in the US. I own land not far south from there in Costilla County, Its Bortle 2.

I'm in alamosa county, 3 miles south from the dunes. Very consistent b1/b2 skies. Our little neighborhood has a min of 15 miles all around with nobody at all.

[Rickycardo]

I'll be spending a week in Puerto Villamil in the Galapagos this summer. Population 2200, limited infrastructure, in the Pacific ocean 600 miles from the coast. I expect it to be pretty dark at night.

I'll report back.

So while our trip went well it was cloudy at night with rain frequently so no night skies. I did discover that in August they open the Sierra Negra volcano summit to overnight campers for the Perseids meteor shower. You can book a tour to camp there. Its a caldera whose summit (3,688 ft) is above the cloud deck and clear skies are possible. Unfortunately our travel plans didn't allow for that. I will know this next time.
 

[jokrausdu]

This place might be it. "The Pacific island of Niue is the world’s first whole country to become an International Dark Sky Place. It has received formal accreditation from the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) as an International Dark Sky Sanctuary and International Dark Sky Community, thus covering the whole country with Dark Sky protection and recognition and deeming it a ‘dark sky nation’."

 

https://darksky.org/...dark-sky-place/

 

Middle of nowhere in the Pacific Ocean. That would be dark.

[Don W]

You can have very dark skies with a lot of particulate matter or moisture affecting your view. 
 

Best skies I have ever seen were in Coonabarabran, Australia near Siding Springs Observatory. 
 

Cleanest air I have ever experienced.

 

 I have just relocated to Cottonwood, AZ. It is one of a dozen or so Designated Dark Sky areas in Arizona. Pretty hard to beat.

[Ron359]

South Pole Station, Antarctica.  Home to 150 people + amenities.  Thousands of miles to a "LP dome.'  Dark 6 months of the year. No equatorial mount needed.  Sky completely free of mega-constellation Satel-light pollution. 

[triplemon]

Any "town" in SE Oregon's Lake or Harney counties, short of Burns or Lakeview.

They're all Bortle 2 surrounded within 2-3 miles of town by Bortle 1. The whole area is also now an certified IDA Dark Sky Sanctuary. The local IDA folks worked with farms, mining or other industrial ops there to curb light output further, so I expect some of the Bortle 2 spots in the map to return to Bortle 1 with the next survey.

 

https://darksky.org/...-sky-sanctuary/

 

For sticklers wrt mpsas rating and being an official town I specifically propose 

 

https://en.wikipedia...nchglen,_Oregon

Its in the middle of there, has a K-8 school, post office, fire station, gas station. mercantile shop or whatver else anyone might need to be a bona fide "town", and a lovely hotel to boot. I did stay there once - its an amazing experience. Population 12 (human) residents and officially Bortle 1 right overhead on main street, I measured 21.8 mpsas in 2016.

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Edited by triplemon, 11 September 2024 - 09:38 PM.

[Refractor6]

 The few little towns on the west coast of Vancouver Island have excellent dark skies. Myself where I'm now situated is heading out of town towards the rural and quiet boonies.....further you get the better the night skies.

 

 Since I've been here just over a year I've never seen the Milky Way in the night sky so rich and clear since I was a child   .

 

Forget the lower mainland around Vancouver. The huge light dome it creates covers the whole wider area now with no hope of seeing all but the brightest stars  . Fortunately that huge glow doesn't make it this far west.   .

Edited by Refractor6, 25 September 2024 - 06:22 PM.

[vsteblina]

I just spent a few days/nights at a cabin in Yellowstone National Park last week and I've never seen suck inky black skies and color in the milky way with naked eye.

I only brought my 80x20 astro binocs but even with them things like the trifid nebula were so easy to see, in fact the main trouble I had was finding my reference stars because every single view had hundreds of stars and gas clouds I've never seen with binics from my home in Southern Cali.

Gotta be close to darkest levels. I was on eastern part of the park and from the dark skies map it looks to be the lowest bortle.

The darkest sky I have ever seen was just west of Yellowstone National Park on the Beaverhead National Forest in 1996.

 

M33 was naked-eye as DISC and it was just clearing the eastern horizon at about 20 degree altitude.  I had to look it up in an sky atlas, since I had never seen it as disc before.

 

It did help that I had perfect dark adaption.  Falling asleep in a LaFuma recliner and then opening your eyes after a three hour nap, insures perfect dark adaption.