The Darkest Skies
in Alabama

"A very windy night with strong gusts. FWHM definitely affected, probably by vibrations of the observation tower itself. Light polltion sources visible both in foreground and at horizon. A thin layer of haze evident to east, possibly part of approaching clouds. First data set virtually cloud free. Sky free of contrails. Limiting magnitude found in Pegasus. Andromeda galaxy visible, M15 requires much effort. Milky Way detail easily detectable near zenith. Sky appeared noticeably brighter than previous nights, possibly due to some airglow. I also think it may have to do with the atmospheric clarity. All other nights contained some amount of possible light absorbing clouds. The second set of images from this night do contain some clouds, but the first set is clear."

"A very calm, humid and clear night. Dewfall occurred during data collection, however dew heater prevented lens fog. Multiple light domes evident from site, as well as a continuous glow along horizon in all directions. Airglow was present. Andromeda galaxy easily visible, Beehive (Pegasus) visible with medium effort. Prominent dust lanes in Milky Way visible at zenith, but not below ~50 degrees. Limiting magnitude found in Pegasus."

"This was a very clear night. High humidity. Trees covered all of horizon from this site, but light scatter was evident to the north and west especially. LZM found in Pegasus. Moderate Milky Way detail was visible. M31 easily visible, M33 a difficult averted vision object. Airglow likely strong."

"rerun of the site data with an updated zero point. Clear, cold night at Bon Secor. Vacation homes nearby were not illuminated besides one floodlight. Beach was noticeably smaller than 2022 visit and resulted in being closer to the dunes. Had to mask out some denser clumps of dune grass from the image."

"On Petit Bois island, west end. Setup on the flat sand spit due west of the weather station and signal lights structure. Transparency is good with some smoke to the northwest from earlier activity in the ship yard area of Pascagoula. Some visible haze over the Chevron plant to the north. The horizon is busy with visible lights. 6 ships are visible inthe gulf as they wait to come into port. Transient lights of fishing and shrimp boats are visible as they moce through the channel between Petit Bois and Sand island. There is one oil rig visible on the southern horizon. The ship yard in Pascagoula to the northwest and the Chevron plant to the north create the largest and most intense light domes. THe CHevron refinery light dome extends at least 15 degrees along the horizon. Milky Way is still easily visible, especially at astronomical twilight when it is over the gulf. DUst lanes visible. Milky way begins to fade 5 degrees above the horizon in the south. In the north it fades out much higher due to light domes, just past Cassiopeia."

"SQM of 20.47 at 2035 local time. Only fair transparency and seeing. Some fast moving clouds. High humidity. Milky Way visible from 20 degrees above north horizon. Great rift visible, Saggitarius cloud not easily visible, Scutum cloud not visible. Milky Way about 10-12 degrees wide, but faint and no fine details. To the NW a blue white light dome easily seen. Due East is the Clarksville lightdome almost 25 degrees high and 15 degrees wide. Core is bright. Adjacent to the light dome is a spotlight (which we determined was coming from the cemetary here in FODO park). To the West and Southwest is another lightdome fainter than Clarksville, but brighter than the Milky Way"

"Clear skies and calm winds. Site accessed from Moblie St. parking. Setup east of the boardwalk to add a buffer from the private homes. Atmospheric conditions were good, but degraded after set one to parially cloudy skies. Milky was was easily visible as a band overhead, but lost to skyglow in the northeast and southwest. No significant details visible however, just a luminous band contrasting with the overhead sky."

"Setup just south of the end of the road along Perdido Key. Adjecent to a sea turtle nest. Large lightdome(s) to the North and Northeast. Almost 40 degrees tall in the center. Dunes are sillouetted against the skyglow. Hotels visible due west along the key producing direct light and skyglow. Several direct glare sources north and north east along the inner harbor, reflecting off the water. Attempted to block these direct light sources with dunes and vegetation, while still capturing the light deoms. Transparency was good overhead, but noticable haze along the horizon. Stars visible at 7 degrees above horizon. Noticable extinction to east and west, with stars visible 4 degrees above horizon in east. TO north light dome washes out stars until 12 degrees above horizon. Milky Way is visible, but no fine detail. Some dust lanes visible in Cygnus region. M31 visible naked eye."

"The night started with clouds overhead but quickly diminished to just a low line of clouds over the sound and mainland. Average transparency and good seeing. Bright sources of light from the Portofino hotels to the west. Light domes from the hotels and Pensacola Beach over 40 degrees. To the north, a bright line of skyglow. Looking east there are no direct sources of light, but light domes from Nevarre and other communities reachong 25-30 degrees high. The gradient of light from north to south is very conspicuous, with light pollution visible almost up to senith, then falling off sharply towards the gulf. Pretty dark over the gulf, but this window of darkness is just a small wedge between scattered light."

"First night of data collection on our May GUIS trip. Setup went smoothly with a few clouds low on the northern horizon. Very high humidity but the lens stayed clear of moisture. Clouds to the north caused image 14 to misalign at first, but Jeremy manually placed it and processing was smooth after that. Pensacola light dome dominant to the west with the combined Destin/Fort Walton light dome to the east. Clouds moved in later. Only one set is usable."