How far do you drive to a dark site ?

[kirkster501]

Just idle curiosity.....?

In my case about six miles takes me to the best I am going to get without heading out dozens of miles. And that gets me about twice as good as I'd get at home.

What about you?

Cheers, Steve

[benjii]

I drive 21 miles to Dartmoor, it's vastly better than the area I'm in.

[imarcs]

1 hour. Incomparable to my back garden.

[Matthew]

About 5 minutes,im lucky my site offers me a 360 degree view of the horizon with perfect easterly views ( with minimal light pollution ).There are better places to go but i would have to travel a long way to beat it.

[Moonshane]

I'd need to travel about 25 miles to get decent-ish skies or about 1hr 20 to get awesome skies. in truth I rarely bother and observe mainly from home mainly as the weather is generally so unreliable.

[Anweniel]

I'm quite lucky to be within a couple of minutes drive of Barr beacon which was recently designated a 'dark sky discovery site'. Not the best viewing point in the world being so close to town but a great vantage point and a good deal darker than my back garden!!

[Antscope]

30 miles to the clubs dark site/observatory mag 6.5 sky

[estwing]

15mins tho it's not bad at home..

[SamAndrew]

only been out of my back garden once so far, 35 miles (40 mins) which was a significant improvement, but i'd happily drive to exmoor for a weekend if the weather was looking reliable (about 170 miles)

[Astro-Nova]

using a LP map and comparing it with google maps, 30-45 minutes for me

Im in a proper red zone here . as i got not a lot of money for petrol majority of observing will be my back garden

[Simms]

45 mins drive - about 30 miles away - but well worth it.

[NAFK]

I found a great dark sky site a few weeks ago. Twenty minutes drive away.

First night I went up there, it was absolutely cracking. So I made another trip up. This time there were three cars parked up in the car park (which is usually for hillwalkers, so should be dead at night). It was too dark to see them until I had driven into the car park and they were brought under the illumination of my headlights. It felt a bit weird so I just did a 360 to get back out of the car park entrance and go further up the hill - with the intention of finding a quiet lay-by. On the way out I noticed that the three cars were populated, but they were sitting there with their lights out. This just made me feel even more creeped out and uncomfortable.

I mentioned the incident to a friend, who subsequently forwarded me a link. The car-park, it turns out, is a notorious ******* site.

It's a shame that the same geographical conditions are so suitable for two largely incompatible hobbies...

[MjrTom]

My back garden is pretty poor with NELM of 3.5

To get to decent skies it's 40 miles to near welsh border or 120 miles to stunning skies in the lake district

[Andy McK]

About 5 minutes,im lucky my site offers me a 360 degree view of the horizon with perfect easterly views ( with minimal light pollution ).There are better places to go but i would have to travel a long way to beat it.

Same site as Mat. 40 mins for me though. Worth every mile.

(see you Saturday Mat?)

[Hypernova]

About 20 seconds/10 yards to my back garden. I do not have a car so travelling anywhere is no no as I haven't yet bought a cargo trailer for the cycle. To get to reasonably dark skies a drive of around 20 minutes is required and takes me to the countryside west of Nantwich where the skies are about 0.5 to 1 mag darker than home where I get about 4.5 on a good night.

[kirkster501]

Wow guys, and you all do that on a work day too? So drive 45 mins out, observer until goodness knows when, drive back, unload car...... What time you getting to bed to go to work following day? !!!

[wired2moon]

Dark is a relative term! If you mean dark enough then for me 2 minutes to the playing fields at the village edge - can see loads on a good night. That said, must take a drive to investigate where's even darker - could imagine something similar to aperture fever kicking in (darkness fever)! Hopefully darker skies shouldn't be far as I'm pretty much in the sticks

[MjrTom]

Wow guys, and you all do that on a work day too? So drive 45 mins out, observer until goodness knows when, drive back, unload car...... What time you getting to bed to go to work following day? !!!

Dark sky trips are a weekend activity for me, usually staying up to nearly dawn.

Week nights I have to make do with my back garden

[umadog]

1 hour to dark site. There's a darker site 3.5 hours away but for that I camp and I rarely go as I have to be sure the weather will be good and it's hard to get away for that long.

[182570]

About 5 minutes,im lucky my site offers me a 360 degree view of the horizon with perfect easterly views ( with minimal light pollution ).There are better places to go but i would have to travel a long way to beat it.

i hate you:evil6:

[laser_jock99]

How far do I drive?

The view from my front drive.

[bish]

How far do I drive?

The view from my front drive.

You could do with a few street lights:D

[Squagnut]

I mostly use me back garden, but I'm in Cumbria, so I'm spoilt for choice once I leave town. I often stay with friends (and their nice caravan I can use) about 15 miles away, but there are great dark sites all round. For stunning dark skies, the Galloway Forest Park (about an hour away) is very hard to beat - in fact, I find it harder to navigate the sky when it's so full of stars, but this is a good problem to have.

[wired2moon]

I find it harder to navigate the sky when it's so full of stars

My heart bleeds for you

[firstfloorfront]

As I'm still scopeless the problem has not come up yet, however, I know where I shall be going. I've visited the site and the access has been sorted out. Driving time from home about 10 minutes.

Peter