Recommended Observing Sites

This page lists recommended locations for amateur astronomers to go for observing. Some sites will be specifically geared for observing (e.g. club dark sites), and others will be areas typically away from or shielded from city lights and recommended by fellow amateur astronomers.

Please note: some clubs do not like to publish/advertise the locations of their dark sites (e.g. to avoid theft or vandalism), so please do not add locations such as that without permission of the club officers (simply link to the club's webpage and note that the location is confidential).

North America

United States

New Hampshire

YFOS

Youngs Farm Observing Site - the official dark site of the New Hampshire Astronomical Society.

This site is on private land leased to the club by the owners of a farm in rural New Hampshire. The site has a roll-of roof observatory with a C14 on a Losmandy Titan mount, a warming hut, a chemical toilet, and one or two Dobsonian telescopes for member use. The site is open for member use most of the year, but may be closed due to weather-related issues, particularly during mud season in the late winter/early spring.

The site's skies are approximately 3 or 4 on the Bortle scale.

The specific location is confidential and available to club members only.

More information and photographs are available on the NHAS website.

Joppa Hill Fields

A site in Bedford, NH approximately 20 minutes (11-ish miles) from Manchester, NH. This site is frequently used by members of the New Hampshire Astronomical Society. The area used for observing is the dirt parking lot adjacent to the athletic fields. There are no streetlights of concern, but there is occasionally traffic on Joppa Hill Rd (and drivers frequently are using their high beams). The site's Bortle rating is between 4 and 5.

Google Map link: Joppa Hill Fields

Texas

HAS Dark Site

This is the official observing site of the Houston Astronomical Society and lies approximately 90 minutes (depending on traffic) west of downtown Houston, between Columbus and Weimar. The site has approximately 5 acres of cleared space surrounded by trees and well-away from city lights. The site's skies are approximately 3 or 4 on the Bortle scale.

The site's facilities include the main observatory building with 3 permanently-mounted telescopes and a climate-controlled chart room, two bunk houses (one designated for women and families), a restroom with showers, and a shed containing 2 Dobsonian telescopes for club member use. here are also 38 concrete pads for setting up observing equipment. Power outlets are available and all pads are within 50' of an outlet.

The society rents out spaces for members to keep trailers/campers/RVs at the site as well as 12' square plots east and west of the observatory building for members to construct private observatory buildings.

The exact location of the site is confidential and requires club membership and the completion of an orientation and quiz to obtain the location and combination to the gate (which changes annually). It is open to members and guests year-round, though occasionally inaccessible due to flooding on the roads nearby.

Three discoveries have been made at the site, including a comet, a supernova, and the first visual observation of a meteor impact on the moon.

Vermont

Stellafane/Breezy Hill

Situated approximately 3 1/2 miles west of the town of Springfield, Vermont is the site run by the Springfield Telescope Makers on Breezy Hill which is the location of the annual Stellafane convention. The site's Bortle rating is approximately 4.

Access to the site is available to members of the Springfield Telescope Makers club and to Stellafane convention participants (during the convention).

Google Map link: Stellafane