As much as I enjoy taking my telescope out to the driveway and shooting some pictures, there are a number of objects that I have recently added to my gallery that are nearly impossible to image from my location with the equipment that I have.

The Whirlpool galaxy was one of those objects. I had tried numerous times to get some good exposures, but they were all washed out by light pollution from the city. Even after stacking all of them together, I didn’t have anything that I would want to show.

An extremely bright LED street lamp illuminates my driveway and while my dew shield provides some protection from glare, there have been a few times where I’ve accidentally pointed my scope at it, leaving me seeing spots and using PG-13 language.

Dark sky sites such as the Lennox & Addington  County Dark Sky Viewing Area are located far enough away from light pollution to enable you to take pictures of fainter objects that would otherwise be washed out by city lighting. It is also a place to learn from other similarly inclined astrophotography wizards who are normally more than willing to share their knowledge.

If such a site exists in your region, it is well worth checking out. If you own a telescope, you’ll feel like a kid in a candy store, but there is still plenty to see even without magnification. The sky looks very different here. It’s astonishing just how much of the sky is obscured by city lights. You don’t really realize just how much you’re not seeing until you experience it for yourself.

Just make sure you bring bug sprey or be prepared to make hundreds of tiny involuntary blood donations to the local insect population.