On those VERY RARE OCCASIONS when my vacation time from work, clear transparent skies & New Moon week actually coincide- I travel to either of 2 favorite dark sky sites of mine, both here in Texas. Unfortunately for either place it is 7 hours or 11 hours on the road EACH WAY (not round trip) 😳
Absolutely no way would I do serious deep sky viewing from my DOWNTOWN location! The LED billboards, gas station convenience stores, strip malls etc light pollution at night is so EGREGIOUS that it is probably seen easily from the International Space Station during its orbit. Shielded light fixtures are not in place anywhere for perhaps hundreds of miles in ANY DIRECTION 😡
Fernando
