<story><title>Star observatories you can visit in the United States</title><url>https://matadornetwork.com/read/us-observatories/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>gnatman</author><text>Another cool spot to add to your roadtrip is Cherry Springs State Park, a dark sky preserve in Pennsylvania.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Astronomers and stargazers appreciate Cherry Springs State Park for the darkness and clarity of its skies, which make it &amp;quot;perhaps the last best refuge of the natural night sky&amp;quot; in the eastern half of the United States. The sky at Cherry Springs has been classified as a 2 on the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale, meaning it has almost no light pollution. Such &amp;quot;truly dark, starry skies are unavailable to two-thirds of the world&amp;#x27;s population, including 99 percent of people in the continental U.S. and Western Europe&amp;quot;. With optimum conditions, 10,000 stars are visible with the naked eye at the park, clouds appear only as black holes in the starry sky, and the Milky Way is so bright that it casts a discernible shadow.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Cherry_Springs_State_Park#Dark_skies&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Cherry_Springs_State_Park#Dark...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Star observatories you can visit in the United States</title><url>https://matadornetwork.com/read/us-observatories/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>megalomanu</author><text>If any French people happen to come across this thread, I recommend visiting the Observatoire des Baronnies Provençales. I went there this summer and really loved the experience. We observed various astronomical elements (the sun, planets, galaxies, stars, etc.) from 2pm to 2am. We used different instruments, from a large dome telescope to smaller ones, as well as a connected telescope for taking pictures—the eVscope, an amazing piece of hardware and software—and infrared binoculars. We also did other activities, like identifying an exoplanet with the astrophysicist in residence. Highly recommended for amateur astronomers.
Places like these are unfortunately quite uncommon in France.</text></comment>