I am interested to hear of any good Dark Sky locations in the South Dublin region where you won't get mugged, run over by joy riders or accosted by junkies.
Yes you've guessed it, I been up above hellfire wood in the Dublin mountains and the B£$8££$s have taken over. It was a beautiful clear night in January and I was getting a beautiful view of the Orion Nebula, and lots of other deep sky good stuff when I had to give up and go home after being nearly run over several times.
So if anyone can let me know a good (safe) location or is looking for some company on their next deep sky jaunt please drop me an e-mail.

hi John,

sounds like a bit of a mad party up there in Kilakee!

the South Dublin Astronomical Society use Cloon Wood, which is a wide open car park on the Enniskerry to Glencree road (slightly closer to Glencree). You'll see it on Sheet 56 of the O.S. Discovery series just to the left of the word "Cloon" where some tracks extend south from the road. The car park itself is not marked but it's there! The site has a lovely southern aspect and can get quite dark. It can be plagued a little by its own microclimate . . . when the breeze is from the north or a similar direction some cloud may form in the lee of the hills. You can park the car and get around the Collite barrier to set up the scopes handy enough . . . the further down the track you are, the more shielded you are from lights of passing cars.

further afield there's Troopertown Wood near Annamoe or Turlough Hill which is extremely dark.

clear skies!

John

This might be of interest to folks. Its an google earth image of Dublin & Wicklow using the light pollution map that Mark Stronge put together.

That's pretty neat. How did you integrate the map onto google earth?

That's pretty neat. How did you integrate the map onto google earth?

Check out thelinks Mark posted at www.irishastronomy.org/boards/viewtopic.php?t=3272

Thanks Al.
Mark, those maps are great.

Thanks for everyone's input. I'll certainly give Cloon Wood a try, probably best to check it out in daylight first. Turlough Hill sounds good too. Those maps look good too.