Stargazing in Pennsylvania’s Dark Sky Country … and beyond

I couldn’t determine the exact moment when Saturday became Sunday to make me a year older. Lighting up your phone to check the time when you’re in the company of avid stargazers is a no-no. The ambient glow would only have detracted from my birthday gift: a night-sky show in deep-dark northwestern Pennsylvania featuring more stars than I’ve ever seen, splayed like sparkling diamonds across black velvet, with a few extra bits of bling courtesy of Elon Musk.

Let me back up, though, from that midnight moment, when my view stretched 31 million light-years from Earth. Planning a stargazing trip to Coudersport, Pennsylvania—one of the darkest places in the East and a worthwhile destination for serious, amateur, and simply curious astronomers year-round—presents a few challenges in the spring and fall shoulder seasons, when the reward of long-lasting night is offset by the risk of anything-can-happen weather.

My friend, Mickey, and I initially planned to camp at Coudersport’s Cherry Springs State Park, which has surged in popularity since 2008, when it became the second place in the U.S. certified as an International Dark Sky Park. But the seasonal rustic campground was fully booked on weekends months in advance, and we shied away from the first-come camping sites on the Overnight Astronomy Observation Field.

The field is the domain of serious astronomers, where campfires and all forms of white light are strictly prohibited, red lights must be used judiciously, and you can’t move your vehicle between sunset and the end of quiet hours at 9 a.m. Quiet is more like silent, save for an occasional slewing telescope.

As we drove toward Pennsylvania for six hours through pounding rain that seemed like it wanted to become sleet, I was relieved we’d booked shelter instead at the Laurelwood Inn and Steakhouse, one of the closest lodging properties to the park. It’s easily been a decade since I paid less than $65 per night for lodging, and the room was cleaner, the bed comfier, and the shower hotter than we expected or deserved at that price.

I would have liked to have a birthday dinner at the onsite restaurant out back but, without a reservation, there was no getting a table on this Mother’s Day weekend. So Christine Herzig, who owns the property with her husband, Paul, sent us down the road to the Sweden Valley Inn for satisfying steak and garlicky shrimp. The next morning, she erased any lingering sense of disappointment with a surprise slice of chocolate cake, candle included.

After dinner, with temperatures in the low 30s and falling, we set out on the 15-minute trip east on US 6, then south on State Route 44, passing the green “Highway to the Stars” road sign. That name, coined by night-sky photographer Curt Weinhold and officially bestowed by the Pennsylvania legislature in 2018, recognizes Route 44 as the gateway to wide-open clear skies, a rare phenomenon in our light-polluted world.

Earlier in the day, during a brief span when the rain let up, we met Natural Resource Program Specialist Tim Morey for a walk around Cherry Springs State Park and an insightful conversation about this remote place’s trajectory from obscure campground to top stargazing spot.

The Pennsylvania Lumber Museum was Potter County’s main attraction until the 1990s, when astrophotographer Gary Honis and other avid stargazers discovered Cherry Springs. The park occupies an elevated plateau surrounded by the 262,000-acre Susquehannock State Forest in a county nicknamed “God’s Country” and populated by just over 16,000 people. It isn’t an exaggeration to say it’s in the middle of the middle of nowhere. In fact, only one potential source of light can detract from your experience. “Avoid the full moon at all costs,” Morey cautions.

Morey’s description of the park in fall, when trees turn crimson and gold, migratory birds alight, and the Milky Way is visible end-to-end when conditions are just right, had us dreaming of a next trip, even before we’d seen a single point of light in the sky. The Black Forest Star Party, an annual fall highlight for amateur astronomers, returns this October 1–3 after a 2020 hiatus.

Now on this spring evening, rain clouds gathered once again as we pulled into the surprisingly full parking lot beside the park’s Night Sky Public Viewing Area, where those who don’t intend to camp overnight can set up their own mini observation stations at no charge. Morey was just beginning a program in the field-side outdoor classroom, and we would have liked to stay as dusk gave way to dark. But we didn’t want to chance missing Greg Snowman’s Potter County Stargazing Tour, given that the Clear Outside website’s helpful forecasting tool predicted total cloud cover for the following night.

A former environmental education specialist at Cherry Springs State Park, Snowman is also, apparently, a miracle worker. At 9:30 p.m., as cars began converging at a designated meeting spot not far from the park, the clouds suddenly started moving. We followed our optimistic leader to a deep, dark plot on his family’s farm, and by the time we sat down on wood benches, so many crystal-clear constellations had appeared that the inky expanse looked as though it had been encrusted by Swarovski crystals.

Part one of the tour introduced us to the night sky’s most famous inhabitants: Orion, the Great Bear (Ursa Major), the Little Dipper (part of Ursa Minor), and zodiac constellations. Snowman guided our eyes with a steady light beam that stretched to the heavens. His stories, from ancient mythology and Native American tradition, kept us enthralled. At “halftime,” we fetched another blanket from the car.

A string of lights that looked like Morse code in the sky elicited one of the night’s biggest choruses of “oohs.” We learned these were Starlink satellites, a product of Elon Musk’s SpaceX intended to provide internet access. These night-sky intruders were outdone, though, as Snowman zoomed his 8-inch Celestron telescope toward deep space. Faraway galaxies magically appeared on a trio of computer monitors, giving all of us a far-better glimpse than if we’d individually squinted into a viewfinder.

It took about 30 seconds for the focus to sharpen on these worlds so far away that we were seeing light that began its journey to Earth in the days of the dinosaurs. The “ahhs” reached a peak as Messier 51, better known as the Whirlpool Galaxy, filled the screens. You’d know it too if you saw it: Hubble telescope pictures have made it feel familiar, even though it’s 31 million light-years away.

As we absorbed the enormity of that distance and contemplated the universe’s mysteries—how vast is space, really? does it have an outer edge?—Snowman wrapped up with a reminder that I found particularly timely on my birthday. Here, on our home rock hurtling through space, we’re born with gifts as infinite and extraordinary as anything that lies out there, including our two eyes: the only equipment you really need, he says, to view and marvel at the stars.

1. Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky

Best known as home to the world’s longest cave system, Mammoth Cave National Park is a perfect place to compare and contrast the worlds that lie below us and above us, seen here in crisp focus thanks to the park’s remote location in the Kentucky woods. Ranger-led programs at the amphitheater-like night-sky viewing station make astronomy accessible for all.

2. Observatory Park, Ohio

The interpretive trails and planetarium at Observatory Park, an International Dark Sky Park, invite you to explore and appreciate the totality of our known universe—from the ground beneath us to galaxies beyond our own.

3. Green Bank Observatory, West Virginia

The Green Bank Observatory operates the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope here in the Allegheny Mountains, scanning the night sky for the as-yet unseen. Tours, programs, and events give the public a look at not only the stars but also the leading-edge research that just might save our collective bacon from asteroid collisions and other space threats. Before you leave, be sure to grab a bite at the Starlight Café and buy a souvenir from the Galaxy Gift Shop.

Creature comfort–loving Taurus Kim Knox Beckius is the New England and New York State travel expert for tripsavvy.com, a contributing editor at Yankee Magazine, and the author of seven books.