Chicago dark sky? (Yeah, right)

[acmespaceship]

If you were expecting, say, a meteor shower and if you lived in the Chicago area and did not want to drive all to heck and gone, where would you go to find reasonably dark sky to the North?

And where's the nearest 24-hour diner, preferably with cherry pie and coffee?

I should have asked this two days ago.  But clear sky, who knew?

Comments

[whl.livejournal.com]

Well, growing up, the first place I remember seeing the milky way was about halfway to Richmond, IL, out Rand rd.

Are you sure you don't want to try northern Indiana?

Recently someone did an overlay for Google Earth on light pollution. Looking at that, thanks to Milwaukee, North is NOT good. (Well, NOTHING is good, but maybe out I-55 to south of Gardner.)

[whl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, between I-55 and I-57, there is a zone, but I think the closest is Il 49 south out of Kankakee, until you get to US 52

[acmespaceship.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Bill. It's true that Northern Indiana would be our best bet thanks to Lake Michigan. But it's such a pain to get there. Our old spot in Waterman is not as dark as it used to be, and it was better for looking South. Maybe we just bomb north past O'Hare and see what we find. Or take our chances with the local light pollution and get some sleep.

Probably best not to hack into the power grid. But sometimes I'm sorely tempted.

[whl.livejournal.com]

Yeah; most of my memorable power outages didn't have clear skies, so I never think of that.

For reference, here's the overlay in easily loaded form:
http://astronomy.santa-cruz.ca.us/node/9167