The Darkest Skies
in Michigan

"Sky quality measurements were recorded at Little Sand Bay West Jetty in Apostle Islands NS on 9/18/2012. The site demonstrated a scientific darkness reading of 22.06 SQM."

"Cloud free, but hazy/humidity visible along the horizons. Some stars visible to 85° zenith angle. Transparency good overall/ fair just along the horizon. Stars starting at 5° above horizon. Milky Way good detail - 12° wide to the south, arches from 4° south to 12° above borth. Great Rift, prancing horse slightly visible."

"Some clouds to the North/Northeast otherwise very clear. Strong aurora in the north. Transparency is good with stars visible to the horizon. Milk Way easily visible with good detail in dust lanes and star clouds very bright. Visible from south horizon past cassiopeia breaking up in perseus. Mott island dock has 4 ground bollards agains t HQ and maintenance buildings. The maintenenace shop has flourecent tubes and droplights inside that remain on all night and cast bright light out onto the dock and onto the terrain. Glare forms a bright reflective column on the water. We posiotioned the caemras behind dumpsters to block the direct glare, and after the glare row we covered to bollards as well."

"Sky quality measurements were recorded at Outer Island Sand Spit in Apostle Islands NS on 9/14/2012. The site demonstrated a scientific darkness reading of 21.59 SQM."

"Cloud free, but moisture/haze visible along the horizon. Stars visible to 83° zenith angle. Good detail in the Milky Way with good contrast and dust lanes/Great Rift visible. Cygnus dust lane visible. Sagittarius star cloud visible, as is the Prancing Horse."

"Sky quality measurements were recorded at Grand Sable Dunes in Pictured Rocks NS on 9/15/2012. The site demonstrated a scientific darkness reading of 21.48 SQM."

"Direct Glare from the HQ building, Maintenance shop, and ground bollards. The dock area was illuminanted and bright compared to the surroundings. The sky was cloud free but humidity was very high at 90%. Zodiacal light was strong and easily visible. M31 visible naked eye. Milky Way was visible but not well defined. This site could be very dark, but direct glare is very distracting and limits dark adaptation."

"Set up about 50' from the water in a depression in the sand dunes. Local glare from the western most home in the "1933 Century of Progress" homes. Other glare sources from the power plants to the SW and NE along the lakeshore are easily visible but did not saturate the camera sensor. A clear view across Lake Michigan to the Chicago skyline, though clouds and haze never completely cleared away. I suspect the industrial developments from the Port of Indiana all the way around to Chicago has a significant impact on aeresols and local cloud development. Even so, at 35 miles distant, the illuminated buildings of the Chicago skyline were easily visible to the naked eye on this evening. The light dome of Michigan City (5 miles to the ENE) was very bright, but the dome from Chicago all the way to south of INDU is by far the greatest source of skyglow. The Milky Way was visible from 15° above the horizon at both ends. Not a lot of detail was visible in the Sagittarius or Cygnus star clouds. M31 was barely visible to the naked eye without using averted vision. Comparitively, for the region, this is not too bad a place to view the night sky. If not for the local glare sources, it would be fairly quick to dark adapt and be able to see many celestial features. Was able to see 6.2 LM in Ursa Major (which was over the lake to the darker north)."