That light pollution link is super Jay, thanks for posting. I note that is for 2001 (I wonder how much has changed) A site I like (42 minutes from my house) up Brown's canyon overlooking Kamas is in a green zone. Interestingly, SPOC is in a yellow zone. Nice to know. If the west desert sites weren't so far away from my house(southeast part of the valley) I would problably try them. Your new site sounds exciting, BUT I have a low riding car and the ruts would ruin it. Now if they graded that road over the winter or next spring... Still, I would like to check it out for myself, at least once. Maybe after the 17.5 is built .... BTW I saw a news report about the slide on SR 14 and they said it won't be ready until June of next year (after the annular eclipse). Knowing how things just take longer than expected, it might not even be ready by then. I guess it's the backside Panguitch route for me :( ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jay Eads" <jayleads@gmail.com> To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Friday, October 21, 2011 9:42:26 PM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Thursday's Report/ Observing this Weekend Lakeside is very good,but this new site rates darker than Pit n Pole though it is 15 miles farther west and about 25 minutes longer to drive. Technically, if you use the most current Light Pollution Map which can be found at this link: http://sites.google.com/site/3davel/home/light-pollution/lp2001/gmap On this map it goes in order of worst light pollution, white, red, orange, yellow, green. blue, grey and then black, black being the best. 1. Pit n Pole. You will find that Pit n Pole is in the Green, bordering on Blue. Not a bad site in terms of LP but you are somewhat impacted but the time and space for those in Utah Valley or in southern Salt Lake Valley is hard to beat. It's the humidity in the fall and spring that brings the temperature down at this site. I've seen the Horsehead here twice in the winter, along with splitting Sirius. I would rate this as a 4/5. I use this site in the winter, and it has been dry and steady. Just don't go out there right after a large snow storm or a 2 to 3 day rainstorm in the spring. Both this site and Lakeside can get very muddy. 2. Lakeside: Is located in a blue zone with a green zone right on the other side of the mountain to the east due to a processing plant (?) some type of plant in the area. Great site, great location but not the only one in the area. Fantastic for those living in the northern portion of the Salt Lake Valley or the southern portion of Davis Co. as it takes only an hour to get out there. If your in the southern portion of Salt Lake Co., in Utah Co. or northern Davis Co. count on an hour and a half to get there. Very dusty at this site but a very good site. I rate this site 4.5/5 for a local site. 3. Lookout Pass 1 that I was at last night is deep in the blue zone bordering on the grey zone. Warm, no humidity because of the elevation the only impact is the road, lights of cars coming up the Pony Express Road (which went down as the night went on). I'll be back to this site but I recommend going with 1 other person in case the road gets to a tire. I would rate this site as a 4/5. 4. Vernon Reservoir. This is in a grey zone, at 5200 to 6000 feet depending on where you go. There are 11 camping spots that are rough near the reservoir that is 20 acres in size. Rather low humidity at this site, like Lakeside it sits around 50% to 55% and it is somewhat milder than Pit n Pole with tonight's low around 43 degrees. Lights from Vernon are to the north. Here is a link to directions from Herriman: http://utah.hometownlocator.com/maps/distance-directions2.cfm?vernon%20reser... Mileage is about 63 miles for me from Herriman or around 1 hour or so to the site. I recommend if your not camping and fishing (no power boats allowed in the reservoir, similar to Grantsville Reservoir) to set up away from the campground area so any campfires don't impact. This site is open year round. Again I think the weekday might be better than a Friday or Saturday but I haven't tried a weekend yet . . . I would rate this site as a 4.75/5. Finally, next spring or early summer I would like to check out Little Valley Campground which is further down the forest road and to the west looks to have a nice open area to observe from. There is also a possible site down the Forest Service Road from the turn to the campground to the south. Here is a topo map of the Little Valley Campground area and you can move it up to see Vernon Reservoir. http://utah.hometownlocator.com/maps/feature-map,ftc,2,fid,1442799,n,little%... No rating on this site. 5. South Park Parking Lot. This is located up Provo Canyon on Hwy 189 off of S. Fork Rd. Some will be going up there for a school star party next Friday. This is a yellow zone, okay viewing but the canyon walls do impact views except at zenith. Also the light dome from Utah Valley/Provo does impact the site but overall, not bad and easy access. I would rate this site a 3/5. 6. Wolf Creek Pass (summer into early fall). One of my favorite sites and on the Sky Quality Meter it has had the best reading of all the local sites. I would rate this site 4.9/5. 7. Notch Peak. Located about 3 hours away and west of Delta but not as far as Great Basin. Mat and I went there and there was no local sources of light and the only light you could see was a faint dome to the northeast from the SLC dome and then another fainter dome to the southeast from the St. George light dome. This is a 5/5 site and I am looking forward to going back there. It is a dirt road getting out there and you have to find a spot to set up in but it is just outstanding. That's enough. On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 6:18 PM, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> wrote:
IMO, Lakeside is hard to beat, from a strictly darkness, and proximity to my personal dwelling standpoint. The ground dust (and/or mud) is another issue. But for dark skies without spending gas money I don't have and driving to Great Basin, the Wedge, or Bryce, it's hard to beat.
YMMV. Really, it will!
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-- Jay Eads _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php