I couldn't agree more, OS.  It seems almost criminal that, at our age, we need to travel to the wilderness to re-live night-time skies that were quite common in our childhood.

I did a September trip to Burntside Lake a couple years back with some wonderful QJ friends.  Night-after-bug-free-night, campfire sparks and tales drifted skyward into a Milky Way which, mystically and majestically, reappeared for us, as if out of the memories and fresher air of our youth.

There was naught but the mechanical procession/intrusion of man-made satellites to remind us that those Times, indeed, have mostly passed.  Nevertheless, I am ever-grateful for those Dark Skies and the flickers of jaw-dropping memory and Hope they brought to Life again, even if only for a few nights.  A glimpse of what-once-was can add meaningful perspective to our assessment of what-now-is... and such glimpses are rare and ever-more fleeting these days.

A Dark Sky Sanctuary is a GOOD idea... a church for wilderness souls.  The notion makes me mindful of words of a QJer named "Akula" whom we haven't heard from in over a decade.  In my favorite-ever QJ post, he wrote: "By the light of a simple campfire, I can see all the way to Heaven." 

I second that emotion... and Old Salt's praise of Dark Sky Sanctuaries.  They are well worth the effort.

Jimbo   

There's something called the Bortle scale and I hope this link works.
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It helps visualize light pollution in the area defined by Ely, International Falls, Atikokan and Thunder Bay.

All I know for sure is laying on the shield for a while on a clear, new moon night ... always elicits a WOW or two. Always. It's worth planning accordingly and staying up late for.

And honestly, hitting it perfect is rather rare in my experience because I can only remember one night in particular. When you get lucky and hit it just perfect, it's another wow moment when you think that all that milky stuff is just more stars.

Also helpful to check the moon phase in conjunction with the Aurora forecast. New moon or waning moon preferably.

I got a late night call from a Q friend one night urging me to go outside and look. Yeah fine, you live in the country. Where I live, the night sky is always orange with maybe a star or two. He insisted so fine, I went out and looked.

He was right. I woke up the wife and kid and they were not impressed but they did see them, so there's that.

I wish they both could have been there for this.

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