Night Sky? (Bath, Freeport, Rockland: home, camping, living)

[OutDoorNut]

Can you give me some idea what the night sky is like in some or all of the following towns?

Deer Isle the town and Deer Isle Island(s) as a whole?
Phippsburg
Camden
Boothbay
Cushing
Georgetown
Friendship
Owls Head

Thanks.

[hlmagan]

Originally Posted by OutDoorNut

Can you give me some idea what the night sky is like in some or all of the following towns?

Deer Isle the town and Deer Isle Island(s) as a whole?
Phippsburg
Camden
Boothbay
Cushing
Georgetown
Friendship
Owls Head

Thanks.

Usually dark....sometimes starry.....

[retiredtinbender]

A lot of towns that do not have streetlights have magnificent skies. Not sure of your list but have lived in paces up here that you can see the Milky Way almost perfectly across its whole expanse. I didn't get to see much of that for 20 years living on AF bases. All those stars can make it difficult (at least for me) to pick out most of the constellations.

[Maineah]

Phippsburg gets a bit of a skywash from Bath. The rest of them should be no problem as long as you get away from the immidiate down town area. We get a bit of a skywash here in Freeport from the lights at LL Bean. Even with that I had no trouble finding stars, planets, and most of the Messier Objects from my back yard with an 8" Schmitd-Cassegrain. Winter is best....nice and dry.

[Kristin85]

Deer Isle would be a great place to see the night sky without needing to drive inland. Over the summer I was camping at Acadia (just a skip and a jump away from Deer Isle by boat) and at 7-8 PM I could see the Milky Way very clearly (as retiredtinbender said) until the full moon rose and created enough light pollution to wash it out. That being said, Friendship is probably also a good place to watch the stars. Owls Head (getting light from Rockland) and Camden will have a little more light pollution, but not a lot.

[retiredtinbender]

How about Brooklin?

[AustinB]

Originally Posted by retiredtinbender

How about Brooklin?

The lights from Super Wallyworld, Lowes, and Home Despot, almost make it impossible to see the sky. Thank God for all the fast food joints, or it just wouldn't be worth living here.

[OutDoorNut]

Originally Posted by Kristin85

Deer Isle would be a great place to see the night sky without needing to drive inland. Over the summer I was camping at Acadia (just a skip and a jump away from Deer Isle by boat) and at 7-8 PM I could see the Milky Way very clearly (as retiredtinbender said) until the full moon rose and created enough light pollution to wash it out. That being said, Friendship is probably also a good place to watch the stars. Owls Head (getting light from Rockland) and Camden will have a little more light pollution, but not a lot.

Thank you.

I've heard the west side of Mount Desert Island has a great night sky, and so I thought Deer Isle likely does, too (or at least the side of Deer Isle nearest Mount Desert), but I wasn't sure.

Just found the following: Light Pollution Map of Mt. Desert Island


.

[deerislesmile]

More inclusive map of areas of dark skies in Maine (and elsewhere...no wonder my family from CT gets "freaked out" by it being so dark in Maine!).

Dark Sky Finder

[chaosX5]

Originally Posted by deerislesmile

More inclusive map of areas of dark skies in Maine (and elsewhere...no wonder my family from CT gets "freaked out" by it being so dark in Maine!).

Dark Sky Finder

What a great sight! It does look as if there's a lot of "dark sky" in Maine.....