What is a dark site ?

[Stub Mandrel]

11 hours ago, Charic said:

Same view as above, but two Months later, and the new street lights (LED) have made a big difference to my plot.
The original large sodium bowl is now a simple spot.
The 'runway' lights are just patio edge decoration, which can be switched off.

 

If I saw that one evening, I'd be looking for large circular burn marks on the lawn and counting my kidneys the next morning.

[maw lod qan]

My view from aprox 345 to 195 degrees is normally quite good. The distance across the state where I live is at the best 200 miles. Orlando 80 miles to the north, so I do get lots of glow on the horizon. Biggest problem in the trouble area is a fire department next door with newly installed LED floods on two sides facing me.

[Stub Mandrel]

3 hours ago, maw lod qan said:

Orlando 80 miles to the north, so I do get lots of glow on the horizon

?

I doubt there's any of mainland UK with the nearest city of 250,000 people 80 miles away outside the north-west coast of Scotland.

 

[maw lod qan]

With fall and winter coming up, hopefully my neighbor will shield those LED.

[GraemeC]

I remember being at Kielder Water for one of the dark sky camps....  some clouds came over later in the night and the only way to notice was that the stars were disappearing. otherwise, no discernable change.

[robbymain]

On 22/01/2018 at 15:31, Captain Magenta said:

This matches my experience of my first properly dark site a couple of years ago in furthest SW Ireland, a couple of miles from Baltimore. Walking back from the pub one evening, I couldn’t actually make out most of the constellations, they were just drowned out in a sea of stars such as I'd never seen before, it was incredible. It was at that exact moment I decided to re-indulge my interest in Astronomy. Having said that, I do recall the only one that WAS obvious was Orion, perhaps that's what was meant by "an Orion sky"  ?

Magnus

Well put CM! I had this same experience near Coldstream on the Scottish border when stopping for a wee on the drive between Newcastle and Edinburgh several years ago now... 

My wife and I plan to move to Plymouth later on this year where we will be 30 mins from the centre of Dartmoor ?

[DaveS]

I remember, when I was at a boarding school in Dorset, nights where there were so many stars that it was difficult to pick out the constellations. But that was the late '60s - early '70s, not a chance of that now .

[Demonperformer]

A dark site is the astronomical equivalent of a unicorn.

[Amateur1985]

Hi all. I do not know if this is the right place to ask such a question so if not, please accept my apologies.

I have a 130/650 Newt. What would be the limiting magnitude of this scope under Bortle 7.25 (I know there is no such a thing but my skies are not 7 or 8 but somewhere in between closer to the 7, probably). I have checked some websites where you enter the specs of the instrument you have and they mention something like mag. 11. Somewhere here I have red a very good article about the limiting magnitude with a formula and according to it it gives again around 11. For my binos (SkyMaster 15x70) the limiting magnitude is around 8. However, it seems a lot to me.

Can somebody share his/her experience?

Thanks in advance.

Edited June 5, 2019 by Amateur1985

[JOC]

On 14/04/2019 at 11:10, robbymain said:

I had this same experience near Coldstream on the Scottish border when stopping for a wee on the drive between Newcastle and Edinburgh several years ago now... 

I wonder if I was far from that described location when I had my milky-way experience.  That was probably 13 years ago now during a drive between Colchester and Aberdeen.  We were def. towards the North of England driving through moorland type landscape in the middle of the night and the sky was that spectacular we stopped for a break to view it.

[Nova2000]

I had gone for a camp in the Himalayas. Altitude above  4000mtrs above sea level . The best sky I've seen . The sky so lit by star that I struggled finding constellations and big empty spaces in the sky .

[PXR-5]

My wife and I took a trip by rail out to Glacier Park in Montana, USA back in 2008.

It was the darkest place I have ever been

 

However, it ruined astronomy for me for several years. All I did when I got back was planetary

 

But one evening there wasn't any planets to view, and the DSO bug bit again

[chan123]

Very good explanation. When I read this post, It's like I'm travelling on space.  You have great future. Thanks for your post. 

[Krushy]

A very informative post for my initial reading.

Its pretty much "dark" here, as described in the original post.

Thanks for the info! Appreciated.

[kev]

Dark - cant see your feet! 

which meant in my case i tripped on a rabbit hole

[TerryMcK]

I used to work for a well known British photographic film/paper manufacturer originally in Essex then moved to Cheshire in the 1980s. When you went into the coating machine, which was and still is in a building about 150m long 6 storeys high, when film was being coated it was pitch dark. Now that was a dark sky site! No stars of course but you can't have everything 😄

[MarcuSmythe]

Occasionally I will walk home from the pub in the next village through the fields. Being 3-400m from light sources with some hedgerows for screening; well it is day and night. If you are not in a city centre you may find with a little night walking somewhere better nearby.

[900SL]

Empty Quarter Saudi Arabia. The night sky is a bazillion diamonds on black velvet, the Milky way a frayed rope of light. There's so many stars you have trouble making out some of the constellations and they come right down to the horizon. And it's silent, like hear your own pulse silent

[Stu]

7 hours ago, 900SL said:

Empty Quarter Saudi Arabia. The night sky is a bazillion diamonds on black velvet, the Milky way a frayed rope of light. There's so many stars you have trouble making out some of the constellations and they come right down to the horizon. And it's silent, like hear your own pulse silent

Make us jealous, why not? 😂

Sounds incredible 👍

[Cleetus]

8 hours ago, 900SL said:

Empty Quarter Saudi Arabia. The night sky is a bazillion diamonds on black velvet, the Milky way a frayed rope of light. There's so many stars you have trouble making out some of the constellations and they come right down to the horizon. And it's silent, like hear your own pulse silent

I was in the Sinai Peninsula a few years back and we arrived at the dark sky location just before sunset. The sun goes down and it's not long before the sky is inky black. Someone comes up to me and says "that's unlucky, looks like clouds are rolling in". He had mistaken the milky way for thin cloud! That was an awesome starry sky with so many stars it was confusing. On another occasion I was near the equator in the Seychelles with a sea horizon. That was also special. Dubai was horrendous for light pollution and humidity. They have an astro group there but they have to drive into the desert to escape the lights.

[900SL]

I posted this in the imaging section but you might not have seen it 😜🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Bit heavy handed with the processing for some POW factor

[bomberbaz]

On 05/09/2022 at 05:44, 900SL said:

Empty Quarter Saudi Arabia. The night sky is a bazillion diamonds on black velvet, the Milky way a frayed rope of light. There's so many stars you have trouble making out some of the constellations and they come right down to the horizon. And it's silent, like hear your own pulse silent

In absence of the likelihood of me ever getting my large dob there I will happily settle for another few nights off the golf course car park in Monreith, Galloway.

It is touching B2 but the best thing is there was no apparent LP hot spots on the horizons due to the fact you are 50 M down behind a hill but the south is perfectly clear. 

What I would give to get to skies like those in the picture though, stunning.

[900SL]

That photo is not in the Empty quarter btw. That's from last weekends trip about 120 km from Riyadh, light on horizon is from Rumah, a local town. 

The main issue here is dust and thermal effects on seeing, any wind and you get a low level layer of fine sand and dust which really affects seeing

[DSviewer]

https://darksitefinder.com/ 

 

A good source

[starsailor70]

Here is another very good interactive map:

https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=3.58&lat=46.0357&lon=18.2110&state=eyJiYXNlbWFwIjoiTGF5ZXJCaW5nUm9hZCIsIm92ZXJsYXkiOiJ3YV8yMDE1Iiwib3ZlcmxheWNvbG9yIjpmYWxzZSwib3ZlcmxheW9wYWNpdHkiOjYwLCJmZWF0dXJlc29wYWNpdHkiOjg1fQ==

At my end, I am willing to put up with some LP, but Los Angeles, California, is a lost cause (Bortle 7-8 skies). As you can see on the map above, it is as bright as one can imagine. Even a subjective look above at night nets less than probably a dozen stars, and there's no way to dark adapt the eyes (at least where I live). In times like these, I really do feel good for those among you who have observatories built in your yard. I personally have to drive at leat two hours to good Bortle 2 or 1 skies; would definitely be more accommodating of LP if I had an observatory in the backyard. Then I would be able to try out filters over time rather than spend it packing for 2-5 hour drives to a dark site. That said, Death Valley and Mojave are pristine observing spots and I am grateful to know those areas still exist out in this neck of the neighborhood.