Hi, I've been in and out of this club since 1999. I live 30 miles north
of Spokane on a farm. The dark skies are better here at my house than at
Fishtrap. But the glow from Spokane still effects looking at the
southern sky and then there is Deer Park as well. Sadly I live in a
valley and I am surrounded by trees so I am stuck looking just straight
up. But I did like it better at Star Butte but it was an hour and half
to get to it. Driving home the same night wasn't an option after
standing up all night. We use to be able to go up on the flats above our
house but the property owner sold the place and now we can't use it.
It's still a drive for us to go to Fishtrap.
Suzanne Ruby
On 5/2/2017 7:01 AM, cave8@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
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
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*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 ??
