The limiting magnitude downtown is around 3.0 on a
good night. In Richmond Hill it's about 4.9, and you can almost convince yourself you can see the milky way. Realistically this is the difference between seeing the little dipper and half of it.
Probably be best downtown to pick say Finch or where I live and ride northeast, or from downtown go east past Kingston. Or close to it. Driving one hour in any of these directions will yield fairly dark skies already, so adapt to fixie parade speeds.
Originally Posted by Joe Bent
I was surprised to hear a friend tell me that she has seen the Northern Lights from as far south as Wasaga on a number of occasions. That's on the list of things to do/see before I check out.
Yep, several times i've seen it up here in R.H, once during a tour night as well. You can actually see in real time when these things happen thanks to the internet. If you go here:
http://www.sec.noaa.gov/ace/ACErtsw_home.html
You can access the soloar wind velocity data and if you suddenly see a giant spike in the chart: Look outisde (within an hour or two). There's also
www.spaceweather.com which issues alerts/predictions based off this data.
Edit: Free planetarium program for teh multiple Os'es -
http://www.stellarium.org/
PS: My frame is finished powdercoating today! Woot!