David
When I joined the club in 1996 and for many years our dark site was on Starr
Butte. We had an agreement with the family that owned the property we
maintained it by cleaning and mowing. But because of continued expansion of the
Casino in Worley the sky glow to the South East was getting bigger and every
year it seemed the houses that were out
there were putting up the big lights. I can't remember what year we started
looking for a new sight. And we found Fishtrap and the BLM agreed to put a
porta potty out there during the summer months.
Debbie
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Luders" <LudersDG@xxxxxxx>
To: "sas" <sas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, May 2, 2017 6:33:30 AM
Subject: [SAS] Goldendale "State Observatory Loses Dark Sky Listing"/ Fishtrap
Site and Others SAS Have Used
This story appeared on Page 5 (Northwest Section) in today's Spokesman-Review
newspaper:
"State Observatory Loses Dark Sky Listing"
"GOLDENDALE, WASH. - Things have been looking up at Goldendale Observatory
State Park.
"A $1.5 million renovation is set to begin next month, and the observatory has
a newly-reconfigured telescope that give visitors much better views of the
night sky.
"But the Yakima Herald-Republic says the observatory was quietly dropped from
the International Dark-Sky Association's list of Dark Sky Parks late last year.
"The Dark Sky Park designation, bestowed in 2010, made it unique in Washington.
There are no other Dark Sky Parks in the state, and only 33 others in the
country.
"But the park was obligated to include educational programming about light
pollution, maintain approved lighting on its grounds, and file annual reports
to the association. There are questions about whether its staff has lived up to
those obligations."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Having viewed the night sky at SAS's BLM Fishtrap site, and having seen the
archival photos of SAS's past sites (McCroskey State Park and others), is there
a TRULY dark site near Spokane? Over the decades, has the SAS dark site been
moved around for reasons of dark skies, public access, closeness to Spokane, or
??
