The Darkest Skies
in Maine

"Clear, calm night with good transparency. A slight haze visible over the low horizon to the north. Seeing is fair. Fine detail in the Milky Way, with several easy deep-sky objects readily visible. The core of the Sherbrooke light dome is blocked by Mont Notre Dame and Mont Megantic creating a dark bowl like effect, excellent for visual observing. The light dome from Quebec city was visible low on the north horizon, parially blocked by trees, but still evident when dark adapted. No light dome was so bright as to interfere with dark adaptation."

"A very good site for night sky observing, with clear views down to the horizon from the south almost to the north. Slight blockage from trees to the east, but no more than 10°-15° above the horizon. Almost no perceptable light domes or sky glow anywhere, and just a few single source unshielded lights on the south shore of Millinocket Lake (almost 10 miles distant). Lots of clouds throughout the day from a passing cloud front, but skies cleared completely by 7:00pm and lack of wind made for good seeing. Very high relative humidity contributing to slightly higher extinction along the horizon. The Milky Way is very bright from south to north and good detail visible in the Sagittarius and Cygnus star clouds and M31 easily visible to the naked eye. Lots of meteors throughout the evening, but not many overflights. Vehicle headlights brightened images 44 & 45 (at the zenith) in set #1. Banded airlgow fairly prominent in sets 2 & 3. The best night sky this observer has seen anywhere east of the Mississippi River outside of the Northern Great Lakes. SQM reading of 21.52."

"Setup on the road in the clearing at the "Katahdin Viewpoint" site on the loop off of American Thread Road. This site does not quite have the big open views found at the Overlook in the SW section of the park, but does provide an easier access site for public viewing events. A fair amount of cirrus clouds along the horizon to the north and west before sunset that slowly dissappeared by the end of astronomical twilight. A few persistent clouds remained during data collection, including some distant clouds over Quebec City (130 miles to the west) that enhanced the sky glow from the city. Aside from that location, there were no light domes or single sources visible from this site. Humidity was again very high this night and created higher extinction values towards the horizon. Still very good night sky observing possible from this site and good detail visible in the Milky Way and other features in the sky."

"Sky quality measurements were recorded at Jordan Pond House in Acadia NP on 3/16/2010. The site demonstrated a scientific darkness reading of 21.3 SQM."

"12 sec exposure for first and second, 6 sec exposure for third. First successful night after many tries. Conditions getting darker as night went on (probably due to extinction). Beautiful night, estimate conditions in top 20% of air quality conditions. Bangor-Ellsworth brightest glow, but Bar Harbor light visibly extends high into the NE sky. Surprised Portland and Augusta not visible. End out tourist season, therefore some business lights may not be on that would be on during summer. Difficult to get limiting magnitude estimates with wind blowing, but estimate 6.1-6.2, possibly 6.4 with less wind. This is clearly an excellent east coast site. A handful of lights visible on island probably account for 5% of total light flux. Sky Quality Meter 21.22 darkening to 21.29."

"When arrived, pilgrim lights were on. Bad glare from monument lights in town and also from airport and visitor center. Airport lighting is particularly troublesome. 21.30 SQM during first data set. Transparency seems uneven, perhaps some faint cirrus. Seeing is good. Milky way to the west when started, but could barley see faint knot in Auriga at 0245 UT. Monument lights went out at 0310, between second and third row of first set."

"Fog in field lowland, possibly some patchy fog. Bright site"