Dark Sky Sites

Table of Contents

Introduction

Between Soap Lake and Moses Lake

Tim, Fred and I drove over to the property Maxine had found between Soap Lake and Moses Lake.

It took us a while to find a way to drive onto the property, but we finally made our way along the powerlines, and then cut over along some ATV tracks to get to the property.

During the day, and while setting up telescopes, the site looked promising. An awesome 360 degree horizon, and civilization looked distant.

Setting up just north of the powerlines.

Looking west, back at Soap Lake. Note the bright playfield lights: those turned off around midnight.

Looking north.

Looking north/north-east. There was a very bright light (mercury vapor?) a mile or so away.

Looking east.

Looking east again (Tim in motion).

Looking east again (Ephrata), with a sliver of moon in the sky.

Weird cloud formation to the north/north-west. Forest fires?

As it got darker, however, we noticed more and more lights coming out. There were a few bright individual lights to the north and north-east, but the biggest lights were in Ephrata (west and west/south-west) and Moses Lake (south-east).

More moon, and more lights from Ephrata.

Looking north again, more lights now.

Image of the moon (digital camera pointing at the eyepiece).

We saw an ISS flyover around 9:36pm.

By midnight, all traces of the sunset had disappeared. However, skyglow was significant from both Ephrata and especially Moses Lake. Even looking directly up, it wasn't particularly dark. We could almost make out some 5th-magnitude stars in the Ursa Minor, but that was it.

Lights from Ephrata at night. There was significant sky glow which my digital camera couldn't capture.

Lights from Moses Lake at night. The skyglow lit up most of the south-eastern sky.

So on the whole, we felt the site was not dark enough, and skyglow was significant.

22 October 2006: Near Royal City

I drove out during the day to inspect a 20 acre site near Royal City. Here is the approximate location: Google Maps entry (the plot is north of the town on Frenchman Hills Road)

Also, Royal City apparently has their own Wikipedia entry !

Here are some rough shots of the plot.

On the plus side, the site is the right size, and very accessible. I'm guessing it is dark but we'd have to confirm that. It was around 2 and a half hour's drive. The land was pretty flat.

On the negative side, there is a slight rise to the south which limits the southern horizon to anywhere between 10 and 15 degrees (my guess based on where we'd likely put up telescopes). Also, the site is at just under 1200 feet elevation, we were hoping it would be a bit higher.

I think light pollution from nearby cities wouldn't be too bad, except perhaps to the north (Moses Lake is 20 miles away to the northeast). My biggest light pollution fear is that nearby homes and farms will have bright lights.

There is a small house nearby, but I don't know how close it would be to the actual property.

Looking south, at the rise.

Looking north (pretty flat, Moses Lake is up there).

Looking east (this is the nearest neighbor, a couple of hundred yards away).

Looking west.