How far will you go for dark skies?

I was just curious as to how far most of you are willing to drive to dark skies. I have the luxury of my home being my dark site. There's a club an hour and a half away who's dark site is like being out in the full moon 8O compared to my home. Despite repeated offers both in person, in email, and in group postings, nobody has come out to enjoy my dark sky.

I used to have to drive 2 hours to a dark site that wasn't nearly as dark as I have now, and I never gave it a second thought. Just curious as to what most of you have to travel to get to a dark site.

As a reference, my site is the big cross hair in the middle of this link. The club in questions dark site is the small cross about an inch and a quarter to the right of my location (54 miles actually). http://cleardarksky.com/lp/DrrRnObGAlp.html

Clear Dark Skies!

Matthew
http://www.deerrunobservatory.com/

Presently our club has two dark sky sites. One is a 18 mile drive for me and the other is a 38 mile drive. We have recently found a third site with great potential. It is a 65 mile drive, but the skies will potentially be 6.5 to 7.0. Couple that with the terrific seeing we get here in Central FL and it should be great
Several of our members also travel to Chiefland a few times a year to observe, during their spring and fall events, and that is about a 150 mile trip. Those of us that are "hard core" really don't mind the drive, because we know what is at the others end. STARS! (My God, it's full of stars!)

Walt

Attached Image:

I live on the southwestern edge of a city of about 350,000 and the LVM off my deck is about 5.1 looking south and west. I use a 4" refractor and an 8 inch f/8 dob at home.

Our club maintains an observatory about 45 miles away where the skies vary from 5.8 on poor nights to about 6.4 on good nights - usually around 6.0 - 6.2. This is where I store my 12.5" scope.

There is a location about a 2.5 hour drive away with as little light pollution as possible in Nova Scotia. I have not been there yet, but fall skies beckon and I will make the trip at least once this fall. It's an overnight camp so it interferes with work hours. Skies, from people who have observed from this location, place the LVM at 6.8 - 7.0. Any weekend where I can lug my scope out there, I will be packed very quickly...so I am at least willing to drive 2.5 hours for dark skies.

Gary Weber

I drive between .75 and 1.25 hours for my dark sites. 50-75 miles.
I have a few nice sites to choose from with this distance. But not lucky enough to live in a dark site yet.
Floyd

Attached Image:

My NS9.25 on a set of wheeley bars in my driveway works for me most nights. I think nothing of driving 50-150 miles on weekends where I can find dark skies worthy of my 16" dob.

Randy

I typically drive one hour for magnitude 6 skies but with increasing overdevelopment in California, I suspect I will need to drive 2.5-3 hours for dark skies in a few years.

Here is a DarkSkiesClock of my newest site.
Floyd

Attached Image:

I live in San Diego, my favorite "local" spots are about an hour away.

We also like to travel to North-Eastern Arizona on the Navajo reservation for our vacations. Nice altitude (5000-8000 feet), very little light pollution (a Hogan at 15 miles) and very clear transparent skies....

No bugs!!!

Thats about 750 miles.

Jon