Use the Dark you Have

There is little that can match a fully functional telescope on a perfectly dark night. In fact, you may decide to just put your telescope aside and do a naked eye observation. Unfortunately, as you correctly stated, those "perfectly" dark nights can be hard to come by. Don't let that restrict your viewing pleasure though. Even when some exterior lighting exists, celestial objects down to magnitude 2.0 can still give you a great view.

Here are just a few of the celestial objects and their magnitudes.
Venus -4.3
Jupiter -1.9
Sirius -1.6
Canopur -0.8
Arcturus -0.2
Vega 0.1
Capella 0.1
Rigel 0.2
Procyon 0.4
Altair 0.8
Saturn 0.9
Spica 1.0
Pollux 1.2
Deneb 1.3
Regulus 1.4
Mars 1.5
Polaris 2.0
Castor 2.0

And last but not least, the Moon.

Enjoy the sky,
Kerry