Best spots for night sky viewing
According to Hajjar, the most densely populated coastal area of Lebanon has a lot of light pollution, though the country’s high altitude plateaus help to mitigate the effect of the cities. “Lebanon is blessed with quite a large expanse of mountains above 1,800 or 2,000m. Satellite based maps of light pollution show the darkest areas of Lebanon are the northern parts of the Anti-lebanon Mountain range.” He recommends locations such as Ouyoun El Simane, Laqlouq and Ouyoun Orghosh for the best conditions, the higher the better. “Once you move out of villages, sky conditions are very nice. I often take groups to areas very close to Jezzine.” For Faissal, light pollution in Lebanon’s otherwise natural places pose the biggest problems, though a dark sky can still be found in areas such as Tannourine, Ehmej and Kfardebian.