Anybody here live in Colorado near Colorado Springs?

wrote:
Thinking of movnig out there. What are local skies like? Milky way
seen near the city at all? Thx.

I live in Salida now, about 80 miles west of the Springs, but I grew up
there and became interested in astronomy there (even worked for an
astronomer-another story). In the early 80s the Milky Way could be seen
from the east side of town. There's been *A Lot* of growth since then,
so that area is no longer "the east side of town" and the Milky Way
isn't as obvious.
IIRC the Springs area has a half million or so people and all the light
pollution that goes with them. On the plus side, 20 miles to the east
(plains) or west (mountains) will get you to fairly dark skies. 50
miles out its even better. The further you get from Colorado's heavily
populated Front Range, the darker. Also, the weather is conducive to
astronomy, clear many nights, and not as brutally cold in the winter as
the Midwest for example. On the down side, lots of convection in the
summer and turbulence related to the jet stream in winter does have its
way with seeing quality.
On a completely off topic subject regarding The Springs. The politics
and "religious" persuasion of some of the population is pretty over the
edge. Just be aware of these sideshow freaks. They're loud and mean
spirited in intent, but not representative of the community at large.

Shawn

On Wed, 13 Oct 2004 16:19:20 -0700, "
wrote:

Thinking of movnig out there. What are local skies like? Milky way
seen near the city at all? Thx.

Bad light pollution in town, and a generally silly local government that is not
likely to do anything to improve things (although there is an effort afoot).
Once you get out of town, however, it gets dark pretty quickly. I live about 40
miles away (as the crow flies) and have some of the darkest skies in the
country. But the skies over Colorado tend to be turbulent, so the seeing is
often poor. Great transparency, though, especially in the central mountains. It
declines a little to the east (over the plains) and to the west (over the
Western Slope).

As Shawn noted, the city is a center of the religious right. Focus on the
Family- probably one of the nastiest and most intolerant groups in the country,
is headquartered there. The local paper prints more stories about churches and
morals than any major newspaper I've seen. So if your own beliefs don't swing in
that direction, it can be a frustrating place. There is, however, a healthy
alternative community if you know where to look.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com