An article about light pollution

[Desiderata]

Hello all,
I have a scope for the first time in my life and drove around last night looking for a dark spot close to Brisbane. Not many to be found, but it reminded me of this article about light pollution (linked below) I had read in 2007 that is quite good and may be of interest to the members in this forum.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/20/070820fa_fact_owen?currentPage=all
Cheers,
Desiderata

[naskies]

About an hour+ drive north-west and south-west of Brissie would be your best bets for escaping light pollution. Overlaying a light pollution map on Google Earth (see this article (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-404-0-0-1-0.html)) would be the easiest way to go.

If you ever have the time to drive really far out west (4-6 hours), it's definitely worth it on a clear new moon. The naked eye views are jaw dropping, and the Milky Way casts a visible shadow.

[midnight]

When I used to live in Yarraman and later Kingaroy, I was mind blown with the skies around Cooyar. I would travel back from Toowoomba via Oakey to Kinga and stop at the T intersection to the New England Hwy (south of Cooyar - Wutul rings a bell??). I could not make out the Southern Cross easily the sky was inky black with the Milky Way flooding the sky and recessing the bright "burbs" stars into the rest of the sky.

Magnificent.

Darrin...

[OICURMT]

Here's a site for those of us who are in the USA...

http://www.jshine.net/astronomy/dark_sky/

OIC!

[Desiderata]

Hi Dave and Darrin,
Thanks for the suggestions. So far, we know of Clear Mountain, Mount Glorious, and Jolly's Point, all nearer to Brisbane, and planning to try the Glasshouse Mountains also. I do spend a lot of time in the US, so will keep OIC's suggestion in mind also.
Maya