How To Find Nearby Dark Skies, No Matter Where You Are 55
StartsWithABang (3485481) writes "For those of us living in or around large cities — and that's most of us — we're completely divorced from dark, clear night skies as part of our routine experience. But even though our skies may typically rate a seven or higher on the Bortle Dark Sky Scale, that doesn't mean that significantly darker skies aren't accessible. Here's how to install an interactive light pollution map for yourself, and find the darkest skies near you no matter where you are! (North American-centric, but resources are provided for those elsewhere in the world.)"
Well, here's a screen cap of Montana (Score:5, Interesting)
When (if) you look at this, note the huge mess over in North Dakota. That's largely gas burn-off from oil wells. Luckily, I"m far enough west of them that I still have actual dark skies (little green plus marker, top right) but I think we're at severe risk of suffering the same light insult as them before too much longer.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/... [flickr.com]
Been shooting so as to take advantage of it while I can, examples:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/... [flickr.com] ...and...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/... [flickr.com] ...that's all camera work, btw, no telescopes, though I do have some moderately long lenses. ;)