Where is the 'darkest' part of Ireland?

I'm guessing somewhere in Kerry?

Pretty dark here on the Beara Peninsula.
However the council just installed three Natrium lights in the small harbour nearby. All in the name of progress!

Regards,
Jouke

Natrium?

Natrium, Sodium, Metal Vapor, its all the same: Orange glow!

The Innagh Valley in Connemara, which is surrounded by mountains is the darkest place in Ireland I have ever been to, now I'm not just saying this as am with GAC as I am a Mayo local. But recently when out there observing with mike redfern and others from NUIG he measured the limiting magnitude down to 22.5. The winter sky around Orion was simply spectacular with none or v little sky glow.

Ronan Newman

My bet is somewhere in Kerry although I havent gone observing there.
I suppose it would have to be as remote as possible, how about somewhere in the Aran islands?

R Newman wrote:

The Innagh Valley in Connemara,

I passed through it this summer Ronan and I marked the spot on
the sat nav!
The place looks amazing and I'd certainly say it's worth a look at night.
I had concerns though about the mountains causing standing clouds.
Other than that it's pretty darn remote and not that many houses for miles around.

I've been on the Aran a few times Galway is noticabe to the East
and although I didn't take much notice before
Judging by Google Earth, South is looking over the water to the coast of Clare.
Not sure...

What about somewhere down by Mizen Head in Cork?

Would the Burren region not be considered pretty good?

Without a doubt Neill but I'm sure there is darker.
I've done some astrophotography up there and you still pick up
glow from Galway, and some of the small towns nearby.
Now don't get me wrong, it's still excellent but
we all know the worst places,
maybe we should also on the other hand know the best?

Where ever it is...don't tell to many people, or someone will stick a street light there...
I find the skies over parts of Wexford are very dark and it's not to far from Dublin for me to travel too.

The darkest place I can remember was at Delphi Mountain Resort near leenane in Connemeara. My wife and I visited there for Valentines day last year. I can remeber walking outside on a clear night looking up at the night sky and nearly falling over with the view. I didn't bring my Grab and go Scope with me (It being Valentines and all that , but the view was just Spectacular as it was.

The Beara peninsula gets my vote, whenever I go home I pretty much live outside!I have mistaken the Zodiacal light for dusk before I realised what I was looking at, the brighter nebula take on a 3d quality as the background is beautifully dark, Ive only seen darker skies in the galapagos- and that was pitch dark

......When its not raining that is!

Hi all,

You may have all heard of these apps by now but I thought I'd leave this here just in case.

Two apps that can measure the Light Pollution/Dark Sky in your area:

For Android: 'Loss of the Night' scistarter.com/project/801-Loss%20of%20the%20Night?tab=project

For iPhone: itunes.apple.com/us/app/dark-sky-meter/id602989060?mt=8

Found in this article: blogs.plos.org/citizensci/2013/05/10/two...ure-light-pollution/

The data from 'Loss of the night' is sent to the Globe at Night project as part of their international dark sky campaign. But you can also follow the 5 steps on their website to contribute your dark sky reading: www.globeatnight.org/5-steps.php

There's only 5 readings on the Globe at Night interactive map for Ireland so far - so it'd be great to get more up on the map.

I measured a value of about 21 or limiting magnitude 6 using the Dark Sky Meter in Furbogh, Co. Galway. This is about 7 miles from Galway city. I also got a value of about 6 magnitude in the same location by counting the stars in the Constellation Hercules on August 21st, 2014 using the the Globe at Night method.