After a turbulent year comprising a major move into a different area and various other hindrances, today I finally had the time to search for a suitably dark spot for astronomical activities. Within an 18 mi radius there are several promising spots. Some of those, however, are out before even looking at them because there are wind parks nearby. Those are not really much of a hindrance for ordinary observation, but at night, they have flashing warning lights on lest airplanes try to land on them, and those lights are rather detrimental to astrophotography.

To look for dark areas, I am using the Blue Marble Navigator; the data may be a little out of date, but still very useful. Comparing with two online map services and especially their satellite pictures, I find three places I’d like to have a closer look at. One is federal roads almost all the way–I want to check that one out. So I go a little past Meppen, then left into the landscape and a few miles onwards to see a familiar warning sign: there was something like that near Lübeck where I went for observations: a military exclusion zone including a firing range. Only for this one, there are light signals installed: don’t enter when the red lights are on. Behind those, there are fields and paved-over areas that look extremely usable.

I have a good look around, give my satnav system three places to remember and note that this place is practically perfect: no settlements above the horizon, depending on which spot I choose a free view in all directions, plus optional bushes for wind protection.

A few days later I am going through another candidate area I wanted to look at for totally different reasons; I do take a closer look though and find this area unusable. The third candidate area is a little closer by, but requires going down country lanes most of the way, so takes longer to get there. Looks like the exclusion area here is going to become my replacement for the one near my former home.