Places — Where observers actually go

The darkest measured sky in the lower 48, and almost nobody is there.

1,462 mBest: WinterExpedition trip

A Bortle 1 sky three hours from Las Vegas, with nothing above you but dry air.

-58 mBest: WinterModerate trip

Eight thousand feet of dry Utah air, and rangers who run the telescopes.

2,408 mBest: SummerEasy trip

The eastern seaboard's only genuinely dark sky, and a field built for telescopes.

701 mBest: SummerModerate trip

Above the inversion layer, at the latitude that opens the southern sky.

2,804 mHard trip

Six hundred thousand acres, and one valley actually worth the drive.

Not the darkest sky — the darkest sky twenty million people can reach on a Friday night.