Accuweather.com - 4/25/13, Mark Paquette
One of the biggest obstacles facing astronomy enthusiasts is light pollution. A majority of people worldwide live in areas where the glow from city lights obscures much of the beauty of the night sky. In order to really appreciate the night sky and see as many stars as possible, it helps to make your way to a place away from city lights and the glow that they create. The most obvious thing to do is to go to the most remote area you can get to easily. However, how can you find the most remote dark sky location close to you? When I started observing a few years ago, I found a number of resources that have helped to pinpoint the best locations.
The first site I check when looking for a dark sky location is the Dark Sky Finder. The site uses a Google Maps interface with a light pollution overlay that covers the continental United States. It also has a large number of known observing locations pinpointed, including many outside the United States. Before trying to navigate the map, I recommend scrolling down to the button that allows you to "Toggle Light Pollution" and turning it off until you have zoomed in to the state or region you are interested in. The light pollution overlay image is apparently quite large, causing the site to slow down or crash if you are zoomed out to the entire United States. Zoom in until you are showing no more than a couple of states, then toggle the light pollution on. Click on the pinpointed locations for more information and links to information on individual observing sites.
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