CHERRY SPRINGS STATE PARK
Growing
up in Harrison, NJ, just across the Passaic River from Newark and less than 10
miles from the Holland Tunnel that leads to lower Manhattan, there were no
opportunities for stargazing. The only stars we could see were the running
lights of aircraft approaching nearby Newark Airport. There was always an
orange glow in the night sky.
Turns
out I am not alone. Few people have ever
seen a truly dark night sky. Light pollution from urban areas washes out the
stars and the incredibly beautiful celestial display, the Milky Way. It may be
there, but you can’t see it. The only Milky Way I ever saw was a candy bar.
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| Not what I'm looking for |
Janet
has! When she was on her excursion
through the Grand Canyon last summer she slept beneath the Milky Way nightly. I had expressed an interest in seeing the
Milky Way for the first time and the Captain of this ship made it happen. She
has arranged a trip to Cherry Springs State Park, just over 200 miles from our
home here in Collegeville.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO SWING FROM A STAR?
Cherry
Springs State Park is a “Dark Sky Park” and is perhaps the best place for
stargazing on the east coast. Depending on luck and cloud cover the full night’s
array of lights will be on display; not only the Milky Way and constellations,
but asteroids, meteor showers and perhaps the International Space Station! I am
truly excited for this opportunity. Park stats say that per year there are
anywhere from 60 to 84 optimum stargazing nights. On such great nights the Milky Way is so brilliant it can cast a shadow.
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| Cherry Springs State Park |
Cherry
Springs is isolated, surrounded by thousands of acres of the Susquehannock
Forest and at 2,300 feet above sea level the air is clearer. It is dark here,
with no light pollution or sky glow from buildings and since 1999, active steps
have been taken by the DCNR, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and
Natural Resources, to preserve this dark. Flashlights used by nighttime
visitors are required to have a red filter, which has the least effect on night
vision, and they are only to be pointed at the ground. The nearby Cherry
Springs airport was purchased and shut down in 2006 and several “star parties”
are held at the park a couple of times per year. At Cherry Springs it is
possible to see up to 10,000 stars with the naked eye. I’m “looking forward” to
this trip… pun intended.
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| YOU ARE HERE |
FLY ME TO THE MOON
For
those of you who have only seen the Milky Way as a candy bar, the Milky Way is
actually where we live. It is a barred spiral galaxy where our solar
system is located. It’s called “milky” because under optimum conditions it
appears as a band of light so thick at times individual stars cannot be seen by
the naked eye. In case you’re trying to get directions, our solar system is
about 26,000 light-years from the galactic center, on the inner edge of the
Orion Arm, a spiral-shaped concentration of gas and dust. What we are trying to
see when we go to Cherry Springs is the galactic plane where the majority of
the galaxy's mass will lie.
Light
pollution greatly affects one’s ability to see the Milky Way. The sky needs to
be quite dark and the moon below the horizon. We leave for Cherry Springs
Monday, July 23rd, and the moon should set around 3:30 am that evening.
I KNOW YOU’RE THERE…
An
interesting resource is STELLARIUM. It’s a planetarium for the computer that shows a realistic sky in 3D. Set your coordinates and you will see the stars as
they should appear with no sky glow. One night I found the Milky Way on
Stellarium, but outside in the streets there was nothing but the planet that
was also listed. The program also shows asteroids, meteorites and satellites
passing overhead at the time!
Thanks
for reading! Wish us luck in our search for the Milky Way while eating a
Snickers bar.
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