Picnic Point
Stargazing Guide.

"Few high clouds to the west and north, remnants of fire smoke to the northeast. Direct glare from many very bright lights on Vancouver Island and a few Port Angeles lights, otherwise the high ridges of the Olympic Mountains effectively block any other glare from the Puget Sound area. After moon sets, the zenith is quite dark with the Cygnus Milky Way very detailed, but a broad and fairly bright light dome toward Seattle and Puget Sound dominates the eastern sky. Excellent site for monitoring. Perhaps an area 30 degrees in diameter near the zenith offers reasonable visual observations. Otherwise the sky is very modified by light pollution. ZLM 6.9 with difficulty, the eastern sky must be shielded by the ridgetop to achieve this as it definitely affects scotopic vision. The treeless ridge is easy to navigate by the light of the sky. Milky Way easily seen near the zenith,but loses its character rapidly approaching the horizon."

"Light domes all around, Victoria brightest and largest. Class 4. Hazy, fog to the south, high humidity, seeing very good, transparency fair. Sky at 30 degrees altitude and lower much poorer than other parts, airglow cannot be discerned because of light domes and haze. No Zodiacal light, even in AM. Evening hours better, Cygnus milky way at Zenith well displayed but later the entire band looks washed out. Dark adaptation difficult. Port Angeles and Port Townsend visible in early evening, lost in fog late. Puget Sound light dome subdued, Victoria light dome bright but cut off vertically to the south, presumably because of fog. Data sets 1-3 OK, 4th has problem with wire pulling out of camera, no good. 5th incomplete and no good."