I have to agree with Chuck in the sense that sharing of dark sites doesn't mean many people flock to those sites. I have a google map that shows all the sites, well almost all the sites that I observe or others observe. Kurt Fisher also has one. What happens? Once in a while someone shows up and wanting to learn how to use their telescope. Happened last Friday at the Pit. Mat and I went and while setting up, 3 great people showed up with their 10 inch dob. The owner had just recently ordered a Howie Glatter laser collimation set and since I had one, I showed him how to use it, and he then collimated his ten inch with the tools he had ordered. Mat had brought his 8 inch dob for friends of Jeff P. to use but due to conditions, they didn't do the drive from Salt Lake which was understandable. After finishing my own set up and collimating and aligning, we spent time on Saturn and then using our binocs. After astronomical twilight ended, Mat and I ended up showing the owner, Dave, his nephew Jeremy how to use an atlas like the Sky Pocket Atlas, a Telrad or Rigel, a finderscope and eyepiece to find objects. They found M22, M8, the Trifed and such and worked their way up Sagittarius. After this I showed their niece how to use my own scope to do the same thing. By the end of their evening they had captured M22, M13, M8, M20, M24, M16, M17, M11, M51. We showed them M57 and also how to find the Veil Nebula. They left after 11:30p.m. Here is what Dave shared over on the forum about that evening: "Hi Jay, it was great to meet both you and Mat as well. I can't tell you how much fun we all had, Jeremy told me on the way home that he HAD to have a scope of his own now but he couldn't decide whether to buy one or make one like Mat's. Emily is a little bit shy and I was a little surprised that you got her to do some star hopping with your scope, but she loved it and was talking about it all the way home. We will definitely try to come out again soon. My thanks to both of you, Dave" I share it because that is one way to grow the hobby. It's not the only way but it is one way. I'll point to the night on June 1st that we spent with Dion and I think Dion learned a lot and had fun also. To get people to take their equipment out under dark skies and not be shown objects, but to be taught how to use their equipment is one critical way to get them hooked. It's not the only way, and I admit that because the hobby is big enough for a variety of interests and ways to get involved. There isn't just "one way" to get people involved in the hobby. For me and where I am at in my own progression, I'm young enough still at 48 that I still enjoy the trips to a dark site, observing there and doing my thing there. For others, I realize, that is not their way of enjoying the hobby and they have their way of getting people hooked. There is more than enough room for everyone. It's that old notion of give a person a fish, you feed them for a day. Teach a person to fish and you feed them for a lifetime. I use that analogy in another way. Show someone an object, they are happy for the night, and you may even catch them. Teach them how to find the object and you have a greater chance of getting them involved in the hobby. Do it under dark skies and you just may hook them. YMMV of course but I have no problem sharing in this way. For me, this is my outreach, it's what I've done as an educator to get kids caught up in the hobby. I remember the night that Steve Fisher (where is he by the way?) spent working with a young kid teaching them to use their new Orion 8 inch scope. It was an awesome write up and engagement he did I thought. In truth, as Chuck alludes to, MOST amateurs don't drive the 45 minutes to an hour and a half to the semi or real dark skies we have around the area. So put my name on the list, I'll share the sites and welcome someone to come with their equipment and learn how to use it. I willingly give up my own planned night of observing to do this as we need young people and newer people to get involved in the hobby as much as they want and can. SQM isn't everything, but I have taken multiply readings of the major dark observing sites and know which are the darkest and by how much based on the SQM-L.