Darkest Sky close to Galway

rh5555

Hello everyone,

Always been living in cities or large towns with plenty of light pollution. For 2017 I plan to find a dark spot and actually try to see the Milky Way for the first time or at least more stars than you would see in a city.

I know there are some really good places in Kerry but I am living in Galway and was wondering if there are any good spots outside the city without going too far.

I found this map but I am not sure if you believe its accurate:

https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=12&lat=7038459&lon=-1025557&layers=B0TFFFFF

According to this I wouldn't need to got too far west for some pretty dark skies. e.g. Keeagh or somewhere around there which pretty much has no light pollution according to the map.

Not sure if anyone used that map before? Also, I wouldn't wanna go 100km further for a tiny bit of light pollution improvement. Pretty good is enough for me. I am not searching for the absolute darkest place in Ireland. Convenience is also a factor.

Thanks.

Mountainsandh

I live in one of the brownish areas, and I can see the Milky Way no bother, and more stars than you can imagine, plus satellites of course. So I'd say the map is pretty accurate.

I'm not an expert poster from this forum, so trust them rather than me, but I think it's easier to see the Milky Way in the summer : I think it's simply is more visible at that time, or at least you can see more of the image of it you have in your head, with the darker areas, and some brighter areas ; also, it's warmer so the experience will be more enjoyable.
I can see 2 problems with the summer however : more daylight means that if you want the best view, you really have to aim for 1am-3am darker skies (depending on what date exactly you're going out to night watch).
Also, and again the more knowledgeable posters might correct me here, I think the milky way is oriented South South-West, which means that for you near Galway, you would be looking towards the sea and the lit up Spiddal, and Galway on your left. Possibly if you're far away from the coast that might not be too much of a problem. You'd be well able to see it above you anyway, but maybe not as well near the horizon facing South.

I took this pic from my backyard in August, it's processed heavily to highlight the Milky Way, but if you look at the 2 other pics on my Flickr beside this one, they're not as heavily processed.
milky way 11 august 2015 (1 of 1)-2 by Anne L., on Flickr
Stellarium is a great app to download, you can choose a spot and a date, and figure exactly how the Milky Way is oriented at a certain time of the year and how much of it is visible. So you can plan your trip to the minute.

edit : if you scroll on my flickr to pic 4 of the same series (my house is on it with a lit up window), that's looking North East, you can see the Milky Way still, but the yellow near the horizon are the lights of Clonmel (roughly 20 km away) and Carrick-on-Suir (a good bit further !), and so it's less easy to see nice features in it. I think I caught a few satellites in this, but the most obvious one is the little line right above the lit window. To see a satellite with the naked eye it's usually easy enough : they look like a little star that travels pretty fast, you'd want to be staring at the sky a while to get your eyes used to looking at all the stars, and move as little as possible (otherwise you'll think lots of stars are moving ). They don't look like "falling stars" as they have no trail, just a little star that moves fast. The ISS is very very obvious, it's like a much brighter star. Check out stellarium for the date you go out, and "play" the timelapse of the sky say, looking South. You can take note of the times and directions satellites will be travelling.

Jan_de_Bakker

I think the map is ok, but a more detailed one is
http://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html

Regarding the milky way, in the summer it's just higher up in the sky, but it's still pretty high till October or so ... I found August a great time to see it on a moonless night, also the days are sufficiently shorter so no lingering light pollution from the sun, like you may get in June.

Mountainsandh

Oh that's why I was taking photographs at that time, I remember timing it with another guy in my photoclub, we were looking out for moonless nights.
I knew there was a reason it was start of August, just didn't remember what reason !

rh5555

Big thanks to both of you.

@Mountainsandh: Love the photos. I think even if I see 1/10th of the stars with naked eye (I have binoculars too) I would be happy enough already.

I am planning to go in the summer as you had already suggested. Only thinking ahead

Of course I may need to be quite flexible as this is Ireland after all and to have a clear night + New moon may not be easy.


@Jan_de_Bakker: I actually also came across the http://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html site but according to that site I would need to go a lot farther west to get dark skies compared to the lightpollution map.

I think I will try to go a bit further up North (e.g. Coolagh) which is still close but a bit further away from the ocean as Mountainsandh suggested.


Thanks again for the suggestions. Still some time until summer. Let's hope we get some clear nights (early mornings) close to New Moon but my expectations are so low considering what I can see in Galway city that I am sure I will be impressed in any case.

Mountainsandh

Good luck and clear skies for the summer Rh5555 !

arkrow

Tip up to ballycroy there, do croagh patrick on the way. Or croagh patrick would be a good spot as you'd be closer to it. You could nearly touch it.

Jan_de_Bakker

rh5555 wrote: »

Big thanks to both of you.

@Mountainsandh: Love the photos. I think even if I see 1/10th of the stars with naked eye (I have binoculars too) I would be happy enough already.

I am planning to go in the summer as you had already suggested. Only thinking ahead

Of course I may need to be quite flexible as this is Ireland after all and to have a clear night + New moon may not be easy.


@Jan_de_Bakker: I actually also came across the http://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html site but according to that site I would need to go a lot farther west to get dark skies compared to the lightpollution map.

I think I will try to go a bit further up North (e.g. Coolagh) which is still close but a bit further away from the ocean as Mountainsandh suggested.


Thanks again for the suggestions. Still some time until summer. Let's hope we get some clear nights (early mornings) close to New Moon but my expectations are so low considering what I can see in Galway city that I am sure I will be impressed in any case.

As far as I know Orion is still up, and that is stunning - the nebula there makes lovely viewing/photos.

Jan_de_Bakker

Actually also looking at the Stellarium (for some really annoying reason I can't take screenshots) , the milky way is still relatively high around 8.30-9PM ...
You could still get nice shots now ..

Mountainsandh

Good to know Jan, I'll check it out if the weather allows some evening !