Meteor Showers

[ted262]

Anyone have good spots in the Seattle area (say within a 30-45 min drive) to watch and shoot from? The Lyrids are next weekend and I'm hoping for clear weather.

 

[squirl033]

best bet would probably be east of Snoqualmie Pass somewhere... if that's too far, there are a couple stretches along SR 410 east of Enumclaw that have no light pollution to speak of... there's a gravel pullout just east of the turnoff for Mud Mountan dam, on the left side eastbound... it's actually the entrance to a gated logging area, but the gate's always closed, and there's plenty of room to park well off the road. not a ton of traffic to contend with, either, especially late at night.

 

[robarooni]

Lake Kachess State Park, up in the Snoqualmie Pass area, if you can get to it. I shoot the Milky Way up there, and the lake is usually mirror flat on a clear evening.

 

[ted262]

Thanks guys. I'll do some checking on the map and see what seems the most feasible.

Now if only the weather will cooperate!

 

[KenKruse]

Light Pollution maps

Below are a few links of light pollution maps, I have also seen instructions somewhere of how to overlay an LP map over Google Earth. The second of these links is no longer being supported while the first appears to be a few years old. If possible go to the darkest area (of course) but there are also other marginal areas probably more accessible.

http://www.blue-marble.de/nightlights/2010

http://www.jshine.net/astronomy/dark_sky/

Hope this helps

Also doing a google search is bound to turn up many more, I believe most all gather the data from the same place, NASA I think.