View Milky Way in Oregon: Tips for Naked Eye Viewers

[Smartoad]

I live in Oregon on the coast, so not only do clouds get in the way, but so does light pollution (though I am sure light pollution is just about everywhere you go). Anyways, if there are any frequent viewers of the Milky Way through the naked eye out there, do you know of any places in Oregon that would make viewing the Milky Way easier?

 

[mathman]

I am not acquainted with Oregon (I'm in NY) but I suggest mountains away from the large cities.

 

[jnorman]

pretty much anywhere east of the cascades...
pretty much nowhere near the coast...
i would suggest you might try the top of the highest coast mountain peak near you, and also suggest you might try a pair of 80mm objective binoculars.
where are you on the coast?

 

[turbo]

Step out on my back deck (central Maine) on any clear moonless night. Even without any dark-adaptation, the MW, the Great Rift, etc, are immediately apparent. Andromeda nebula is easy naked-eye, too.

I have spent a lot of time in light-polluted places in my work, but I am always so happy to be back home at night.

 

[Smartoad]

well, I live in coos bay, and we have some mountains near us, or what seem to be just realllly tall hills compared to the three sisters that you can see in Bend (a city) but i may be able to get as far up as I can sometime soon, I've heard that winter evenings are the best for this kind of thing, but this years winter is a La Nina winter, meaning a lot more storms and a lot more rain. So not only will getting up there be hard, seeing as I am only 15 and trying to get on a mountain at night, but a clear night will be abnormally hard. If any of you know of mount hood, do you know if it rests above the clouds? because if it does then I could just make the trek to the top of mount hood and staying there a top priority on my list of things to do before I'm at and hopefully do that.

 

[Integral]

In Coos Bay (my sister taught school there for 20+ yrs) you should not have any trouble getting way from lights. I would think your western horizon should be very good, after all there are very few lights in that direction. I think of the Milky Way as being a summer time view, mainly because here in Oregon that is when we get to see the stars. But if you get a clear night in the winter you should be able to see it nicely. Refer to a star map so you know where to look.

 

[TopuLEDlight]

its very glad to know all of you here, i m chinese, but i do hope to go abroad for widern eyesight...
hope we can be good friends!

 

[DaleSwanson]

http://www.jshine.net/astronomy/dark_sky/index.php"

That is a very good resource for finding the light pollution of areas around you. It covers the entire continental US.