Find a Dark Sky Site Near You

Sooner or later, most amateur astronomers will realize that their once dark sky backyard is becoming more and more light polluted. As cities grow, they typically install more and more street lamps and other illumination. These lights are often poorly designed and waste copious amounts of light into the sky, ruining the view of the night sky. While this may seem trivial to non-astronomers, the absence of stars in the night sky has real effects on the non-astronomers' thoughts on our place in the universe. Even so, not all of our land is ruined by this light pollution yet. There exists state- and nationally-protected parks that are intended to preserve such natural resources as a dark sky, and you'd be surprised to find that the closest one to you isn't that far away! The following websites are great places to find information on dark sky sites near you!

• ObservingSites.com - This website contains a database of dark sky sites submitted by amateur astronomers across the US. If you know of one that is not in their database, submit it at their site!


• Clear Dark Sky - The same people who bring you the "Clear Sky Clock" also have data on local light pollution, also available as high-resolution maps of light pollution levels. A map for each continent is available for download as separate files. Just scroll down the page and select the region you want a map for, and download the appropriate file (these files are quite large and may take a long time to download).


• The Dark Sky Society has a "resources" page that contains info on local and state ordinances regarding light pollution, and what one can do about it.


• For those looking for the ultimate in dark sky sites, check out About.com's page on Soutwestern US dark sky tourism.


• Also check out this article at the National Parks Traveler.

Clear skies!