The Darkest Skies
in Oregon

"Marginal site on a turnout with a view toward Crescent City but east almost enitriely blocked by trees and hillside. As time progresses trees to the west will block this view. However, on this date a reasonable monitoring site for Crescent City impacts. Seeing very good, transparency good. Sky is significantly impacted to the zenith because of proximity to town, but still fairly dark with good visibility of faint stars. Observer sick with chills and flu-like symptoms, no visual observations made."

"Site on a bluff of lava, short walk from dirt road. Seeing good, transparency fair but improving as clouds dissapear, 25% first set, 5% along horizon 3rd set. Airglow low, very dark sky background. Klamath falls light dome to 15 degrees, glare of Tulelake causes unnatural land illumination on ridge tops, zlm 7.3 fairly easily, 7.6 glimpsed. Faint but large light dome west of Klamath falls near Mount Dome, Dorris?, very faint city to south east, maybe Alturas, early light bouced off clouds from city south of Mt. Shasta, quite faint. Bortle 3 mainly because of Tulelake. SQM 21.65 during 3rd set."

"Site on ridgeline northwest of fire lookout, accessible by foot on lookout road with small cross country hike to ridgetop. Outstanding location for astronomy, perfect monitoring site. Seeing excellent, transparency good. Very dark at zenith, small light domes from distant cities to north and east, main light dome from Eureka to southwest, bright but extends only to about 15 degrees above the horizon. The rest of the sky is essentially pristine. ZLM 7.2. Problem with camera all evening, finally connect but produces horizontal bands throughout. Unfortunate on such a perfect night. Some inversions visible along the coast, but no fog on land this night."

"Site on summit of Hillman Peak, highest point on Crater Lake Rim, small area to set up instrument. Seeing very good transparency good. Fire smoke in many quadrants in the distance may obscure sky glow from distant cities. On this night no areas of the light domes are bright enough to hinder dark adaptation. Klamath Falls and Medford most obvious, but light domes do not extend beyond 10 degrees above the horizon. A nearly pristine sky."

"Very clear night! Cloud free, but fire smoke visible to the south and east from N. Calofornia fires. Possibly some smoke to the north low along the horizon. No visible light domes in any direction and only one or two single glare sources in the valleys below from ranches. Exceptionally bright Milky Way with rich detail from Sagitarrius Star Cloud to Cygnus. Easily visble from horizon to horizon. M31 easily visble with naked eye. SQM readings probably a little low due to Milky Way being almost overhead. Milky Way casting shadows with no problem. One of the best nights skies this observer has seen."

"Some smoke on horizon, but no noticable light domes or any light pollution. Slight brightening to NW. Began the evening with some clouds to the south and east which receeded. Smoke layer along horizon to south/SW and some to the north. Clear overhead. Slightly hazier than last night. Airglow may be prison to the northwest and southeast. Milky Way is easily seen with wonderful detail spans from southwest horizon below Sagitarrius overhead to northeast well beyond Cassiopia through Persius to horizon. Great rift is well defined, prancing horse is visible. Star clouds are bright! Milky Way is 23 degrees wide at Sagitarrius."

"Moderate winds with occasoinal gusts, combined with high humidity caused some unsteadiness. Otherwise a very clear night. Only small light domes directly visible, with Klamath Falls and ??? Being slightly obscured by cliffs and trees. Fine detail visible in Milky Way, including Prancing Horse near Saggitarius. SQM: 21.47 (1st), 21.41, (2nd), 21.44 (3rd). ZLM of 6.7 in Lyra. Brightening on horizon to SW is a light dome, not the Milky Way, but is obscured by cliffs. I believe a hint of airglow was visually noticeable."

"Smoke around horizon and some cloud to the south, clouds increasing as night progresses. A few glare sources visible in the distance, both HPS and metal halide, otherwise virtually no light domes."

"Sky quality measurements were recorded at Burroughs Mountain in Mount Rainier NP on 8/13/2007. The site demonstrated a scientific darkness reading of 21.28 SQM."

"Considerable detail visible in Milky Way, including dust lanes of Cygnus. M31 an easy averted, but difficult direct vision object. Faint shadows are cast by the light of Seattle/Tacoma. High humidity visible in valley below (settling into a very thin fog). Coastal cloud wall evident to west. ZLM of 6.4 seen in Auriga. SQM: 21.12 (1st), 21.08 (2nd), 21.17 (3rd)."