[Torplexed]

Originally Posted by Gargamel

The clearest skies I can remember seeing was on top of Upper wolfjaw mountain in the adrirondack park. It was midnight, we were 8 hours behind schedule, no food, no water, and 5 very mountainous miles to go. Oh and no flashlight, and no moon. We thought we were going to die, especially since it was mid october (those that know the park know how bad the weather can turn in that season, the 10th mountain div trains there), it was supposed to drop below freezing that night, and we had no cold weather gear on us, it was day hike and as I said, 8 hours behind. But the view from the summit was so awesome we stopped to take it in.

Sounds like an impressive sky. Stars always look brighter in clear cold weather if you have a moonless night. Of course, some of that may be due to winter constellations like Orion having brighter stars than summer ones.