Light pollution on the east coast of the US

[Beerdy]

I've been trying to plan a family vacation for this summer, and am having problems finding a good spot that has little to no light pollution on the east coast. You boys out west have it good.

Does anyone know any spots that might be limited on the night lights? Would like to do some star gazing with the family.

 

[vdeal]

Spruce Knob area of the Monongahela National Forest in WV


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[tgreening]

Northern Maine area. Unless you go back country it's not perfect, but pretty good for the east coast

 

[vdeal]

Check out the Dark Site Finder map. That dark spot right in the middle of the eastern US is the Monongahela National Forest in WV. Other dark spots include northern PA, Adirondack Park in NY, most of Maine and apparently a spot on the FL/GA border.

 

[hmmar]

Monongahela National Forest is really nice and such a beautiful spot for for natural beauty and travelling lovers. It is located in West Virginia, I ahve also visited there and enjoy photography there with my friends.

 

[PirateMcGee]

http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2014/05/using-google-earth-find-dark-sky.html

Where in NC are you located?

p.s. I work on this issue, hopefully it will bear fruit in the SE and we can get our night sky back.

 

[vdeal]

Downloaded the dark site image from the gearthblog site above and overlaid it onto Google Earth. Quite interesting though I think they overdo the effect of light pollution in a few spots in WV based on where I live but nonetheless still a cool application.

 

[PirateMcGee]

It takes a huge distance to be unaffected by light pollution. For example at Clingmans Dome, Atlanta has a pretty clear effect. Terrain shielding helps with glow on the horizon but light scatters off of pollution and water vapor. Dry and realllly far from exterior lights is the best bet. Anywhere out east there are too many lights and particulate matter in the air to get a pristine night sky. Closest pristine sky is probably the Colorado Plateau. That said theres still some pretty good stuff in WV, NC, and very southern FL.

 

[Bretthn]

Subscribed. Memorial weekend on the western Ridge of Linville gorge we were able to see the stars pretty well. It is not a dark spot on this map system but looks like one of the best options in NC other than Mount Mitchel.

 

[PirateMcGee]

This data might be newer: http://cires.colorado.edu/artificial-sky

 

[haven]

NPR has an article on the subject. East Coast not looking good in this map.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...rom-80-percent-of-north-americans-atlas-shows

 

[Calmont]

Cherry Springs State Park in Northern Pennsylvania is an official Dark Sky Park.

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/findapark/cherrysprings/cherrysprings-darkskies/index.htm

In June 2008, Cherry Springs State Park was designated as a Gold Level International Dark Sky Park, which is the highest designation given to a dark sky site.