[Anne Elk]

Is the Evening Sky Doomed? The reader comments are especially nostalgia inducing. Unlike global warming, we could control this very easily. I hope to visit an official "dark sky" area in the USA someday.

[Ski]

west side of the Olympic Peninsula in the various threads on the Perseid Meteor Showers (and other celestial events) other places have been mentioned: North Central Washington (Okanogan/Pasayten) down near Goldendale there are others, no doubt.

[Malachai Constant]

Easiest nearby area is Rattlesnake Lake not really dark sky like remote areas of Utah but ridge blocks most of the North Bend lights. Schools go there for astronomy classes. Of course all bets are off if there are any clouds.

[MtnGoat]

Dark Sky Map USA

[thunderhead]

Darkest skies ive ever seen were the summit of mauna kea. Great place to see stars.

[MtnGoat]

There is a battle between tribalism and science on the big mountain. One of the most advanced scopes ever designed is being protested. A 30 meter reflector...Palomar's is 5.1m. For a while it looked like orbiting scopes would be the be all end all. But then computing took some huge leaps, and correcting images for atmospheric motion became practical. For some stuff space scopes are still perfect, but they're crazy expensive, difficult if not impossible to repair, and have lifetimes limited by stabilizing propellant. Ground based stuff is far cheaper and you can modify it at will, for as long as you want to.

[Seldom Seen]

There's no such thing as worthwhile stargazing in Western Washington, sorry to burst your bubbles. It's too low in elevation, the humidity and % of time with cloud cover are too high, and there is breathtaking light pollution. Rattlesnake Ridge? You're kidding, right? Even if you're modestly shielded from North Bend, the sky glow from Pugetopolis washes out the sky in a big way. Not to mention the fact that it's cloudy 7/10 nights, and 2 of the other 10 are so humid there's noticeable distortion and loss of clarity. High altitude and low relative humidity are critical to good stargazing.

[thunderhead]

Yup. High terrain at desert latitudes. With road access. Tibet, atacama... hawaii to a certain degree.

[Malachai Constant]

[quote="Seldom Seen] Rattlesnake Ridge? You're kidding, right? Even if you're modestly shielded from North Bend, the sky glow from Pugetopolis washes out the sky in a big way. Not to mention the fact that it's cloudy 7/10 nights, and 2 of the other 10 are so humid there's noticeable distortion and loss of clarity.[/quote] You talkin about me? I said Rattlesnake Lake not Ridge. I also said NEARBY and that it is not really dark sky just one of the closest accessible by road. I also said forget it if cloudy. Best I have seen is Australian Outback far from cities. Are you serious or just trolling?