I can now report that Auckland's dominion park is only semi suitable for stargazing. It's about 2km from the city centre at it's closest and thus has a lot of light pollution above it.however I did still enjoy views of crux, canopus, akanar and managed to spy NGC 4755,the jewel box open cluster,in crux and split acrux with only an 8x25 monocular. Sadly due to them being low omega centauri and 47 tucana escaped me.sadly the dominion has roads open to the public and a lot of sports cars,to what purpose I can only guess!,are driven around dangerously and parked up in secluded spots.given the vast amount of roads for motorists to drive on perhaps Auckland city council could consider closing these at night?

 

You could still walk in!great views of the southern cross,false cross and alpha and beta centauri last night from my overnight bus Auckland Wellington. Strange seeing Orion upside down and our circumpolar star capella skirting the northern horizon!

 

Sadly I've never stargazed in Germany. It has the effiel(sic)mountains dark sky park near Aachen and another fairly close to Berlin. I'm going to speculate using my fairly poor Teutonic geography but the necker is down Stuttgart way? I'm sorry to say Germany is mainly a country I've passed through coming and going on trains to other places but have had looks around Berlin, koln, Aachen, Düsseldorf and by accident Frankfurt an de oder when I got thrown off a train that I didn't have a reservation for!it's not to be confused with the famous Frankfurt am main!

 

I think Europe is the only continent on earth where you can't, from any part, see the southern cross?I reckon that you'd need to be round about southern Algeria way for it to rise?however you'd stand a better chance with the star canopus, I suspect that about Athens, Palermo, Valletta and Gibraltar it must start to crawl above the horizon? I always love seeing canopus tells me I'm in more southerly climes.

 

No in the USA I'd guess some point south of about Durham, north Carolina, in the west San Francisco to see canopus even then it would be very low scraping above the horizon. From England it would be impossible as even the scorpions tail is on the horizon. That's what mystified me about those low m objects m7/6 etc,how messier managed to see them from Paris at 49 degrees north but of course there would have been no light pollution then.Paris is about the same latitude as Seattle and London a bit further up.the gulf stream gives these places a mild climate so we don't realise their high latitudes.

 

Now from Florida you'll see canopus but the southern cross?even Mediterranean Europe is at high latitudes in north American term Marseille lines up with Halifax Nova Scotia image Popeye Doyle in Canada! Rome with Boston, New York city with Naples, Italy. Although anchorage does manage a high one lining up with St Petersburg aka Leningrad/Petrograd which is the most northerly city on our planet with a population of over 1 million.

 

Plus it looks like the huge Larsen b ice shelf may break off Antarctica.

 

I've seen the film quite long and drawn out.I've read the theory that in the short term global warming will cause a cooling in the northern high latitudes I'd guess in the high (or would it be low?)southern latitudes too?this happens because ocean currents transporting warmer water all the way to places like Murmansk shut down. However I see no evidence for this yet only warming everywhere as the routes across the tops of Canada and Alaska and Russia open to civil shipping. Antarctica and it's northern smaller cousin, Greenland, seem to be shedding their ice burden. This will cause the land under them to rise.

 

Yes England can get quite hot,most people think it's weather is like that out of a Sherlock Holmes film,fog,rain,etc?but in fact it's rainfall is fairly low it's just that it is spread throughout the year instead of a rainy season so people notice it more.I'm guessing that the hottest part is the south east as it's nearest the continental land mass allowing high pressure to cover it in winter this could make it coldest too?archipelagos like New Zealand which are very far from any major land masses probably don't get very hot and should have a mild winter climate too.Japan is another one it's closeness to Asia and I think cold ocean currents give it a pretty harsh climate in Hokkaido but getting milder as you head south where eventually you'll reach 'southern cross island',sub tropical, yes the southern cross from Japan! Interesting the south west of England must be bordering on sub tropical for I was in Penzance, Cornwall, a year or so ago and it had lots of canary date palms and other exotic plants.as did Guernsey and sark when I went to the dark skies island.I was very lucky with the weather on sark,I think it was a January I went?,and had amazing views of the milky way. I used my naked eye there and an 8x30 monocular which I no longer own.