Last night I went hunting and surveying observation locations near my home that might be darker and suitable for future observations.
Based on this light pollution chart I live in the dark white area next to the bright red zone. Pretty bad light pollution combined with being surrounded by street and house light. Usually I don't need my red flashlight as I can see fine without it.
http://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html
So last night I decided to do a little driving and try out some possible darker areas along the North Shore of Long Island. These are beach park areas that are in the dark red zone, two shades darker than where I live.
The first had been fairly dark in the past but no more. They installed two enclosed soccer fields with stadium lighting. Oh well.
I tried a second beach area near a small strip of stores that face the beach. Skies are definitely darker than home but there was enough light that I decided not to set-up. But I could come back to this. The view to the North is clear and the sky is darker than home where the North is blocked by trees. The lights and buildings are to the South so this could be workable when I want to focus to the North and Northeast. And there is enough light behind me and activity that I would be comfortable setting up here alone.
I found another beach parking lot to the West with very little in the way of lights. I turned off the interior light of the car so I and had to use my red flashlight as I set-up, which is good. I also just purchased a back stage red clip light which was perfect for this. I clipped it on the hatch gasket of my Ford Escape and it provided enough red light to work with my things as I set-up. $12.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o00_s00
The location was fairly dark and the sky was dark. Some streams of clouds came through so I could not get a lot of good observation time but I could see that here the clouds looked dark on the underside where at home they are bright on the bottom. This is a good indicator of the lack of ground glow and the darker nature of the skies.
I surveyed the sky with my 10X50 binoculars. Binoculars showed a good view of Jupiter The Orion nebulae looked better than it does at home and the Pleiades was like looking at jewels in the sky. This site had real possibilities. There were significantly more stars in the sky than what I can see at home. Megrez, the dim star that joins the handle to the bowl of the big dipper was much more visible than at home. No averted vision needed here. I would guess visible stars may have reached Mag 5 both from darker skies and because it was dark enough for my eyes to become dark adjusted, something that I am sure never happens at home.
I had the ETX 80 with me as well as a new eyepiece, a Meade Instruments Series 5000 HD-60 4.5 mm. This thing is huge compared to my Plossl eyepieces. This will give me 88X in the ETX 80 without a barlow and 178 with a 2X barlow which should work for Jupiter, the moon and other planets but will likely be too high for anything else. In the XT8i it will give me 266 power without a barlow. I want to compare this to 250 with a barlowed 10 mm plossl.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o01_s00
I put the scope on the Orion Nebulae with the new eyepiece and it looked good except that I could not get it real sharp due to the wispy clouds. I had it on Jupiter and saw the moons in this configuration. . . . O . Again I was looking through a thin cloud mist.
I looked around a bit but the clouds where getting thicker so I packed up. I find these dark beach areas a bit spooky. As I was driving away a car passed me heading for that spot. I don't know if it was fishermen, lovers or vampires looking for blood but was glad that I had left. I fear the 2 legged bests more than the 4 legged. Too many crime shows I guess. II will return to this spot with some friends next time.
I checked out a turn around along another beach road. Two dim street lamps were not too bothersome giving me a feeling that his might be worth revisiting. This had a clear view in all directions but North and South were completely unobstructed while East and West were clear about 20 degrees. Binoculars showed good views. I did not set-up. The temperature was dropping and the open water had a growing breeze coming through. I moved on to another parking area.
This, my last stop, was in a beach parking area that had lights but a corner area was far away from the last light. If I set up my scope on the side of my car away from the light I could be blocked from it. The sky was fairly dark and there was a good view South, West and East. North was good above about 30 degrees. Again, clouds were rolling through and it was breezy with a nip in the air so I decided not so set-up.
The goal of the night was to find some darker areas near my home. In that respect it was a success. I only got in about 15 minutes of observation time but that was OK. I found some possible new observation sites when I am in the mood to pack up and head out for a 20 minute drive.
Looking for darker sites near home
