2012 is fixing up to be a good year for astronomy

Coming from NM, I can vouch for the dark skies. When I was a kid, I used to be able to go out to my backyard at a certain time of year and without looking, point directly at the andromeda galaxy because I had seen it so many times. That was until the biggest walmart in the entire city was put in three blocks away. Now, if I’m at my parent’s house, I have to drive about 15 minutes north to get comparable skies to what I used to have.

Darkest skies, though? Eastern Sierra, west of Lone Pine at about 10000′. The milky way was casting shadows. I could see the gegenschein-I don’t even know anybody else who has seen that. Mauna Kea summit with no moon rivals that-the problem there is that you’re so oxygen deprived, your eyes are less sensitive, and the volcano throws up a surprising amount of light pollution in one particular direction.

A very close second is back in the eastern sierra west of bishop near Lake Sabrina. Bishop is bigger, so you can certainly see the light dome, but there’s a little dirt road off the main pavement called “Starlight Drive” which is a great place to do some stargazing.

Dammit. Dave doesn’t know how to work that. I wrote a post, previewed, left the page before mashing go. :shootme:

You guys are leaving me jonesin’ for a summer astro trip. I say we converge on Loki’s or Yoyo’s and overrun the place with photog-geek strangers 😆

I’ve got 2 weeks reserved in July, first week is going to be in Pocatello, ID. Not quite NM skies, but planning on a couple nights at 10kft outside of town. The nearest LP source to the south is Salt Lake City, 150 miles away. Second week (or a few days at least) will be near Paonia, CO at a friends cabin at 7-8kft. It’s a long way from city lights, but it’s in the Rockies so the air tends to be a bit turbulent. I’m gonna try to image anyway, and see how it turns out. Aside from the twinkling, the skies are beautiful there for gazing. . I showed my friend the Andromeda Galaxy there for his first time, and it’s easy to spot. Also, you kind of need to be armed… the place is lousy with bear, big cats and the ocaisional rutting elk. It’s remote and incredibly beautiful.

If we do, people, please don’t shoot the snakes… I know, they’re scary, but they keep the hantavirii down.

I’m all up in the get-together thing, if we can make it happen. Been fighting the futile battle to get my wife to go along, but she’s not at all into long drives and wilderness (damn shame, that). I’ll drive 12-16 hrs on a 4-day each way to spend 2 days in an interesting locale. Not at all afraid to abuse the jeep, either. 4-wheel trails lead to interesting places, might as well take advantage of them since I love scenery devoid of human influence. You have a lot of wilderness out there, and it’s not all that far out of my way coming back from Idaho… would love to have a group, preferrably of the wilderness camping mindset so a few days around the campfire could be arranged.

That’s a good scene, there. My 50lb-pack-and-10mile-hike days are behind me. I want to park at the fire 😆 Wood is easily doable, and a couple coolers can easily keep meats and eggs fresh for a couple 3 days.

I know, it’s “car camping”, but that’s not really a bad thing. Packing some potatoes, peppers, carrots and onions in addition to some stew beef and chicken and some spices goes a long way with some tin foil and firewood. Throw in some bacon, sausage, eggs cracked and sealed in containers and some coffee and we’d have breakfast covered. Hell, I’d cover food as long as others cover intoxicants (what fun’s a fire without an attitude adjustment?) and I can do some tasty campfood. Camping near the vehicle has it’s advantages.

I’ve got a couple of 2-ppl tents, and a thermarest and an air mattress along with a few sleeping bags; plus I can scare up 1/2 dozen flashlights and I have an inverter for powering lappies to dump images to. Safety gear is limited to a 12ga shotgun (and I apologize to anyone who’s uncomfortable with firearms, but you just don’t set up camp outdoors without one). I also have a basic GPS unit I could load up with maps if needed and a couple of compasses if anyone wants to roam.

heh..you should let us twist your arm into a night or two of sleep on the ground. I’d even let you have my air matress LOL…

The horses and burros at the hot springs are about 20 miles away, close to Goldfield Nv. There is an alkali lake bed nearby and a bit down the same road is a lithium mine and Silver Peak Nv. the last time I was there was this last summer but the critters live there all year round from what I gather. the exploring sounds like lots of fun to me. I have a 22 pistol and a Ruger 10/22 rifle and just for kicks I could even bring the cap n ball 44 with loading supplies for a dozen or two shots.

Well, according to mapquest, Tulsa to Tonapah is 21+ hrs. That may be out of driving range for a 2-3 day campout, and the need to bring camping gear pretty much rules out a flight. I’ll have to ponder on this one and see how it goes. Given enough warning, my schedule’s pretty flexible other than the week around July 21 where I’ve already got another trip planned.