Is a dark site really worth the travel?

[DaveS]

M44 is easy routine naked eye from my back garden. Or even from the road outside my front door. No streetlights for at least 4 miles, possibly more.

[Stu]

1 hour ago, PeterStudz said:

Some nights, even with light pollution, are better than others. I do find observing from my own garden fun. It’s a bit of…”wow… I can actually see that from my house”. 

Very much so. When the skies are very transparent you get less reflected light back from the LP and so the skies are darker and you see more. A clear night after a heavy downpour is often very good as all the crud has been washed out of the sky.

[skyhog]

Definitely worth doing if you haven't experienced a truly dark sky before. Its hard to convey the beauty of a clear night under the darkest skies possible. And that's the issue here. There's a world of difference between a dark site and the darkest site its possible to have. I think I would have to camp or stay somewhere though. The prospect of driving home after a long observing session would spoil the experience for me. 

[jjohnson3803]

While I grew up and started observing in a Bortle 4 and my grandparents' farm was probably a B2,  it's a question on return on investment for me. 

My club has two B4 sites, the closest of which is a 45-minute drive one way.  Even with weather permitting, I have to consider how much time to load, travel, unload, set up, and how much time I'll be able to observe.  I drove out once when everything aligned and there were massive harvesters roaming around with headlights like airplane landing lights, so there can be surprises.

I've never felt unsafe and I prefer solitude, but I understand why some might not feel comfortable alone at a dark site.

My suburban home sky is B7/B8 so my most memorable observing has been at campgrounds or rural AirBnBs.  Again though, one has to factor in time, travel, expense, and so on.  Hopefully, a trip to B1/B2 skies in June will be successful, but if not, at least I'll be well away from the disgusting city that I live near.

[scarp15]

Travel to a dark site is an occasional treat. It's not though either or, setting up in the backyard, for a good lunar phase or planetary alignment, when a cold beer is close to hand and interaction on the forum, should it be required, is convenient becomes very relaxing. 

Locating a good and reassuring place to go dark sky observing around one hour distance from home, takes some time and research. When you discover such a place, the effort to get there and set up, can be very memorable and more often than not, your eyes and optical aids whether binoculars or telescope will surprise.  

[ollypenrice]

I love living at a dark site (SQM reaches 22) and not just for the astronomy, though that was the main reason for coming here. It's natural for it to be dark at night and natural to have the lunar cycle dominating life at night. And it isn't even slightly inconvenient, ever. You just keep a head torch by the door and in the car. When I go to stay with friends and family who live with round-the-clock lighting I realize how disturbing it is to be detached from reality in this way.

France just banned the outdoor gas heaters used by bars and cafés. Quite right too, a ridiculous idea to heat the outside world. It's only marginally less ridiculous to light up the whole of the outside world.

Olly

[PeterW]

France is a step ahead of the UK, though maybe Wales  (who seem hellbent on getting the whole country covered be IDA dark sky reserves), could make some headway.

 

Peter

[Franklin]

I lived in Devon for 10 or so years when the kids were young and we would go on weekend camping trips around the area. I consider myself to know my way around the sky quite well after all these years of stargazing but i will never forget one night, in late autumn near Dartmoor. It was raining and the camping trip was a wash out, however I awoke at 3 in the morning to clear skies and could not believe my eyes. It took me quite a while to find my bearings, the entire sky was awash with stars, so many that I just didn't recognise any of the usual constellations. This is definitely something I would like to see again.

[carastro]

Speaking as an imager, there are many targets l cannot image unless l can get to a dark location.  
 

Absolutely worth it.
 

carole 

Edited April 5, 2022 by carastro

[jjohnson3803]

35 minutes ago, Franklin said:

[...] I awoke at 3 in the morning to clear skies and could not believe my eyes. It took me quite a while to find my bearings, the entire sky was awash with stars, so many that I just didn't recognise any of the usual constellations.

I had a similar experience at a B2 rental in rural Wisconsin.  I'll always remember how Cancer actually looked like a crab as opposed to being mostly invisible.  I didn't even use the 80mm that I had brought along, just my eyes and my 10x50 binos.  The binos revealed so many clusters and bright nebulae that I didn't know what objects I was looking at.

[ollypenrice]

11 hours ago, Franklin said:

I lived in Devon for 10 or so years when the kids were young and we would go on weekend camping trips around the area. I consider myself to know my way around the sky quite well after all these years of stargazing but i will never forget one night, in late autumn near Dartmoor. It was raining and the camping trip was a wash out, however I awoke at 3 in the morning to clear skies and could not believe my eyes. It took me quite a while to find my bearings, the entire sky was awash with stars, so many that I just didn't recognise any of the usual constellations. This is definitely something I would like to see again.

I've had plenty of guests react in this way, disorientated by the number of visible stars. I've also had folks step outside and say, 'Just my luck, there's a band of cloud,' because this was their first proper view of the Milky Way.

As a backpacking student in Greece, fifty years ago, I fell asleep on a dock waiting for a night ferry. I woke up to see a sky so starry that I thought the end of the world was coming: I'd seen nothing like it. On telling my father about this he understood because he'd lived through the blackouts of WW2 when living in the Lake District.

Olly

[powerlord]

First time for me was aged 20, travelling around the states. I camped out in White Sands, New Mexico (where first nuke detonated so miles from anywhere for a reason). At night it was truly amazing. Possibly more so having consumed the better part of a bottle of tequila.

Talking of which - we woke up the next morning both saying we remember things crawling around our sleeping bags during the night (tent left open)... on exiting tent the ground around the tent was streaming with rattlesnake tracks.

Edited April 6, 2022 by powerlord

[bomberbaz]

23 hours ago, skyhog said:

Definitely worth doing if you haven't experienced a truly dark sky before. Its hard to convey the beauty of a clear night under the darkest skies possible. And that's the issue here. There's a world of difference between a dark site and the darkest site its possible to have. I think I would have to camp or stay somewhere though. The prospect of driving home after a long observing session would spoil the experience for me. 

This certainly does come into play with myself. I recently shy'd away from going to my lake district site (B2) and opted instead for the B4 site much nearer to home.

The forecast was slightly ambiguous and with a total 2 hours extra driving for the B2 site I decided for the closer one incase the skies were not playing ball.

[estwing]

Completely agree old bean.

[scarp15]

On 05/04/2022 at 18:39, ollypenrice said:

I love living at a dark site (SQM reaches 22) and not just for the astronomy, though that was the main reason for coming here. It's natural for it to be dark at night and natural to have the lunar cycle dominating life at night. And it isn't even slightly inconvenient, ever. You just keep a head torch by the door and in the car. When I go to stay with friends and family who live with round-the-clock lighting I realize how disturbing it is to be detached from reality in this way.

France just banned the outdoor gas heaters used by bars and cafés. Quite right too, a ridiculous idea to heat the outside world. It's only marginally less ridiculous to light up the whole of the outside world.

Olly

Quite right they are ridiculous. They ought to be banned over here to. I believe that they were also linked and discouraged by scientists, when people were predominantly sat outside cafes and bars, as these outdoor gas heaters contribute to spread the virus.  

Garden centres are a core offender in promoting the 'trend' for outdoor lighting. Never really first hand experienced this, until a recent visit my my parents. Took a telescope as there back garden is usually quite good, close to the river Wyre in Lancashire. However new neighbours have illuminated their back garden into a 'grotto', ignorance is pervasive, not just brightening up their own bedroom, but my parents to. Beehive was still nice though.    

[wimvb]

Astrophotography, like real estate, is about three things:

location, location, and…

location

[Guest]

Unfortunately here in Ohio we don't really have any dark sky sights.  I have been to the John Glen astronomy park and it isn't really any better then home.  The other possibility is 2 hours away in the north east corner of the state, but that is a bit far away to take a chance on with the current cloudiness of our skies 

[900SL]

I'm part of an astrogroup here in Riyadh. We head out every new moon 200-300 km for a camp. 

It's challenging at times, involves off road in sand to get to the real dark sky areas, and summer is a killer heat, but worth it. Bortle 1-2 is like diamond strewn black velvet.