A travel to dark sky places in the USA

Astronomer and natural night sky campaigner Andreas Hänel recently returned from the USA where he traveled 7600 km in order to see the sky at a number of pristine and polluted sites in the American Southwest.

Andreas wrote up his observations, so you can read about his trip (and see dozens of great photos) here (pdf).  When he got back to Germany, he took this great photo in the Black Forest:

Galactic center viewed from the Black Forest by Andreas Hänel
is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The view may not be as good as in the parks in the USA, but at least it's good to know that such views still exist in some places in the South of Germany. Maybe 30 years from now, better lighting will help clear the skies further towards the horizon.