We're a lucky lot really.

I had to drop my son off at his scouts weekend away in Lough Dan, about 5km from the village of Roundwood in Wicklow. Once there I took a few moments to look at the sky, the moon was out and there were was broken cloud. Still, there were plenty of stars to see and even with the moonlight they were numerous and brilliant. On the drive home this got me to thinking, reading in some of the American magazines some observers report having to drive for miles from cities such as Los Angeles or New York to get to a dark site. Yet here we are, no more than thirty minutes from home, a light polluted area between Dun Laoghaire and Bray, and you are under the most wonderfully dark skies. I can imagine with some of our American cousins would give for such convienience.

We complain about light pollution, and quite rightly so, but for us it doesn't take too long in the car to get away from it.

Now all we need is California weather. :lol:

Hope to see some of you at Clon Wood on the 20th.

Paul

I didn't realise that Lough Dan was still open! It was slated to close last time I was involved in scouts (never volunteer to from venturers to cub leader!).

Nice spot alright. Not a great view to the south unfortunately.

I think it is all 'relative' Paul. Visually, for the area you were at, it may have seemed 'perfect', but for an astrophotographer (particularly a film-based one), it could have been Hell, being so close, relatively, to Dublin.

I moved from a capital city in Australia to a place three hours distant.

It is a daily wonder that now from the front porch I can look over the town, but from the back I can see the southern stars in all their brilliance.

My hope is now to see them from the desert.

My hope is now to see them from the desert.

Thats also on my agenda - to get over to the Outback and see the Large Magellanic Cloud from there! :shock:

Any good spots over there Diane?

If you can see the bottoms of the clouds then there is light pollution.

In a truly non polluted sky you can see the stars of the Milky Way disappearing as invisible clouds cover them up.

You can see the silhouette of the cloud in the star fields.

Thats not what I ever saw in Wicklow.

You can see the glow of Dublin reflecting off the clouds from all over Wicklow and far beyond.

There are places in the West of Ireland which are not yet polluted.

But they are few and far between.

And getting rarer.