Cherry Springs State Park Astronomy Observation Field — Hotel in West Branch Township

The stars here on a clear night will take your breath away. I'm not a spiritual guy but I felt more connected to the universe and the earth than ever, staring up at the heavens at literally hundreds of stars and the Milky Way! Cherry Springs is in a valley and far from any major sources of light pollution. No lights are allowed to point at the sky for miles, resulting in a view of the sky that best compares with being out in the middle of the ocean. Go on a moonless night (or crescent moon) for best results. The campsites are not too big but not small, with one picnic table with benches, and a movable fire pit, and shaded with lots of trees and bordering the edge of the forest. They are close together but people are there for one thing, seeing the stars, so you will usually get very respectful and quiet neighbors. There are plentiful sources of well water through easy to operate pumps. Don't you dare go to sleep until at least an hour and a half after sunset (when the sky gets truly dark and the stars pop). Be a kind camper and don't drive around or idle your car with headlights on and only use red lights in the dark to not disturb everyone's night vision. If you take masking tape and a red sharpie with you, you can very easily stick a temporary piece of tape over your phone LED or flashlight and color it red with the sharpie, and you won't ruin your own or others' night vision. If you don't have or can't bring a telescope, people around are generally very nice and excited to share. If you're just going for the stars and not camping, it's completely free (unless you go to the astronomy field for an electric hookup for your gear or to be with all the hard core astronomy buffs 😊). One gripe is the bathrooms are a bit nasty (no plumbing, so they're more outhouses than bathrooms).

I highly highly recommend Greg Snowmans private guided astronomy tour group (Google "Greg Snowman Cherry Springs"). My kids and I loved his memorable tour and will go back for sure! For about $20 a head (half for kids), you get a two hour presentation (starting an hour or two after sunset) chock full of stories about the stars and constellations from cultures around the world (he points to stars with a green laser, the effect is quite spectacular), and then views of galaxies, globular clusters and beautiful nebulae from his fancy telescope (with video on monitors for everyone to see). His tour is on his private land, about 8 miles from the...

It was a wonder to come here and observe the night sky in all it's glory. The tree line is surrounding you and protecting you from light, as best as it can at least. I think that the light fence needs some updating as you can see the headlights of cars passing by and headlights of cars parking in the public viewing area. Not enough to blind but noticeable (can even tell from one of my timelapse photos). When we went on 9/28 there were only a couple other people in the astronomy field, but even then there was one disruptive guy turning on his headlights every so often (red flashlight strobe towards him made him stop). I think we got lucky with the lack of people as I'm not sure if everyone will abide by the no light rule. Maybe some larger signage and threat of a fine?

But those are honestly small complaints, the whole experience was wonderful and I will be coming back, on a weekday to avoid the crowd. Don't forget your red flashlight!

Another thing to note, the Milky Way is gorgeous, you will need pretty perfect conditions to see it and either a new moon or a moonset during the night. Saw Andromeda, the rings of Saturn and a moon, and the eye of god through binoculars (couldn't find it on the telescope). This place is HEAVILY weather dependent, if there's bad cloud cover you won't see what you want to see, keep...

As long as you go on a clear night during a new moon it is pretty great. I would recommend getting a group and having a guide. They bring a telescope and have a very nice presentation. Great for family's with kids. I think you need 18 to get the group rate but they do smaller groups as well. It would be nice if they could block the light from cars, but I understand that's impossible anymore. I did grow up in the area so it's a little less impressive as I can go to other spots in the area for the same experience as far as the darkness is concerned. Hence why I recommend the tour. Also if you do go please don't be the loud people pointing their flashlights everywhere. There is a restroom on site and while it it basically just a porta potty...