Clear Sky Clock: Light pollution overlay

Clear Sky Clock forecasts when in North America your nights might be clear enough for some good sky gazing. Such forecasts are highly local, which means there is an obvious opportunity for a geosavvy solution here. And indeed:

You can drill down on your local region using a Google Map; each area has its own home page, for example for Vernonia, Oregon, from which you can additionally get a light pollution map. The very cool thing about the light pollution map is that you can also get it as a KML image overlay. This way you can find the darkest spots with precision.

Clear Sky Clock’s features don’t stop there — there are plenty of links from each local area’s home page to other astronomy resources, all geared towards letting you know what’s happening in the sky near you. You can even have news of propitious viewing conditions sent to your email or mobile phone. (Via the Baltimore Sun’s Maryland Weather blog)