I’ll leave you with one more idea for making stargazing a part of your camping adventures. Camp near an observatory and take advantage of high-powered telescopes to view the stars during public presentations. One such place is Goldendale, Washington, where Brooks Memorial State Park pro-vides a campground only 15 miles from Goldendale Observatory State Park. This designated Dark Sky Park is home to one of the largest amateur-built telescopes in the world, a 24 ½-inch Cassegrain reflecting model that’s used for study as well as public stargazing events.
Whether our goal is to pass on our love of observing the stars to the children, or to carefully chart the constellations, America’s dark sky parks are the perfect excuse to go camping. Make plans soon to discover how bright the night skies can be when you choose an RV campground with prime stargazing opportunities.
Great Basin NP is another Dark Sky campground. It’s in Nevada just west of Utah. I attended an evening program with ranger who provided larger scopes. Camped in nearby town & drove into park for program.
Marathon Motel and RV Park, in Marathon, Texas has amateur astronomers with a nice telescope. This was on the way to Big Bend National Park. We also stayed at the Maverick Ranch RV Park, in Lajitas, Texas,, which had a lights out at 9:00 pm policy for star gazing. This park is just outside of Big Bend. We were at both of these parks during the month of April last year and it was perfect.
Okefenokee Pastimes in Folkston, GA is also a dark park, they are working on their own dark sky certification. They are providing weekly Stargazing on Friday &Saturday nights for our Guests as well as the Public. Our facilities are also available for Star Parties and Outreach events (call the Office to schedule your event now). As many may know we are located in one of the darkest sky areas in the Southeast (no or little unnatural light pollution), we have decided that we would love to share one of the age old hobbies and offer an introduction to star gazing every Friday and Saturday night. With the dark skies in this beautiful part of GA it makes it possible, for all to gaze towards the stars and dream like so many other countless generations before have done. Admission for the approx 1-1/2hr is $5 per person to help offset the many thousands of dollars we have invested in the equipment and star facilities, each attendee will be emailed pictures taken at the end of the star gazing session for a permanent memory of what you saw that night courtesy of Pastimes Astrophotography (this is included in your admission charge, at no extra fee). For groups or those with their own equipment please call or email the office for your quote. We are working towards our own dark sky certification and will announce it when it happens. We will be accommodating those who are new to the hobby as well as amateur and professional star gazers, if you are interested in basic Astrophotography please bring your own equipment.
Two other National Parks certified as Dark Sky parks. Capitol Reef NP in Utah and Joshua Tree NP in Joshua Tree CA. We have attended programs at both parks and the dark sky viewing is awesome.
At Capitol Reef, programs are held during the summer usually at the Gifford House which is located next to the Fruita campground. Either check the park website or call the visitors center.
At Joshua Tree, there is a private observatory just outside the park entrance station from Twenty Nine Plams. We attended programs during the winter in January. I don’t recall the name of the group that runs the observatory. Call the visitors center at JTNP for information. Campgrounds are readily available in Twenty Nine Plams and JTNP.
Dark Sky RV Park in Kanab, UT offers up some of the darkest skies in Southern Utah! You can see the Milky Way just above, while you camp with billions of stars.