Shooting nightscape at stub Stewart?

Trip recommendations, current conditions, and other trail related Q&A
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cgibsong002
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Joined: May 11th, 2018, 12:18 pm

Shooting nightscape at stub Stewart?

Post by cgibsong002 » June 16th, 2018, 4:57 pm

Thinking of heading to stub Stewart tonight to try to catch the milky way. Anyone here ever done so? I've never been there and just want to know if there's anything I'm forgetting before making the 45 minute drive at 11 tonight. From what I've seen it looks like i basically just park and shoot from right off the parking lot. I searched Instagram and found some milky way shots there. Only thing I'm unsure of is if the day use area faces the milky way (West) or if there's any hiking or anything i need to do to get to a proper West facing location.

Webfoot
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Joined: November 25th, 2015, 11:06 am
Location: Troutdale

Re: Shooting nightscape at stub Stewart?

Post by Webfoot » June 17th, 2018, 7:02 am

Please pardon my pessimism, but I really don't think anything that close to Portland is going to have a decently dark sky. I went to Lookout Mountain east of Hood a couple of weeks ago, hoping for a dark sky, and it was quite disappointing.

cgibsong002
Posts: 14
Joined: May 11th, 2018, 12:18 pm

Re: Shooting nightscape at stub Stewart?

Post by cgibsong002 » June 20th, 2018, 9:34 am

On the dark sky map it isn't perfect but decent conditions. They hold astro 'parties' there all the time, so i think the conditions are at least decent.

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romann
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Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm
Location: Vancouver, WA

Re: Shooting nightscape at stub Stewart?

Post by romann » June 20th, 2018, 1:42 pm

It also depends on air humidity (a lot). Even as far as Goat Rocks, sometimes I see nightglow taking up 1/4 or 1/3 of a sky. But when the air was dry, I saw no nightglow at all, looking in the same direction.

That said, anything closer than 1 hour from Portland I don't expect to see perfect night sky under most ideal conditions. Maybe looking east...

Webfoot
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Joined: November 25th, 2015, 11:06 am
Location: Troutdale

Re: Shooting nightscape at stub Stewart?

Post by Webfoot » June 21st, 2018, 10:03 pm

They also have star parties at Rooster Rock and I think the viewing is terrible. Maybe I just need to try harder, i.e. wait for an ultra-low-humidity day, but I don't think so. Decades of increasing light pollution in this area largely killed my enthusiasm for the night sky. This spring I got to camp near Bryce and Natural Bridges in Utah and the sky was amazing, and I remembered why I once loved stargazing. I wanted to continue with that and headed for Lookout Mountain on a clear night but it was nothing like I hoped for. I don't think I'll bother with anything closer than Ochoco NF after this.

For reference Rooster Rock is listed as Bortle 4.5 and Stub Stewart is listed as Bortle 4.0. Lookout Mountain is given Bortle 3. A properly dark sky is Bortle 1.

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