Astrotourism: Camping Under The Stars!

I really like camping.  I really like the stars.  I have a big telescope with fancy eyepieces.  Combining these two interests of mine works out really well.  We can camp in some really amazing places!

Dates

Picking a date for camping under the stars has to be well thought out.  Visibility is greatly impacted by the amount of light in the sky.  Obviously weather needs to permit stargazing.  Additionally, being near cities is bad, all the light pollution from street lamps, homes, businesses, etc. reduces visibility greatly.  On top of all that, the moon is bad.  The moon, as you may not have realized, is the second brightest object in the sky (second only to the sun).  When the moon is out the number of stars you can see is dramatically reduced (not as much as when the sun's out, but hopefully you've noticed this).  So, for prime astronomy we want to pick a date during the new moon.

The 2017 new moon dates are listed here:

Lunation	New Moon
1164	Jan 27	4:07 pm
1165	Feb 26	6:58 am
1166	Mar 27	7:57 pm
1167	Apr 26	5:16 am
1168	May 25	12:44 pm
1169	Jun 23	7:30 pm
1170	Jul 23	2:45 am
1171	Aug 21	11:30 am
1172	Sep 19	10:29 pm
1173	Oct 19	12:12 pm
1174	Nov 18	3:42 am
1175	Dec 17	10:30 pm

 Source: https://www.timeanddate.com/moon/phases/

This year we actually have some great new moon options. I've marked the new moons which take place during typical camping months in bold.  May's new moon is on a Thursday, that might be a bit difficult.  June and July are Saturdays.  August is a Monday (doable, but not ideal).

We have an additional factor to consider this year.  If we want to have a astronomy weekend, there is a total solar eclipse which will pass over much of North America on August 21, the same day as the August new moon.  This might actually make a terrific extended astronomy weekend!  It would give me an excuse to buy a solar filter for my telescope!

Something like this.

Location

Picking a location is even more difficult than picking the date.  There are great online tools for mapping light pollution.  One of these is Dark Site Finder, it's a Google Maps style interface but with a light pollution overlay.  The trick is to pick a spot with low light pollution and a high altitude.  Low light pollution means less visibility interference from light refraction in the upper atmosphere.  High altitude means less of that pesky atmosphere between us and the vacuum of space.

Studying these maps last year I decided on the below location for our camping trip.  These appear to be some of the darkest skies in the pacific northwest (and aren't too far from Portland).

More or less the entire state of Oregon.

Last year I settled on a campsite outside of Service Creek, OR.  A location many people felt it was too remote (4 hour drive), and due to an firey explosion and train derailment on I-84 were unable to make the trek out.  You can see the campsite starred here:

Mule Shoe

The skies were beautiful, but considering the drive and the supposedly low levels of light pollution I was disappointed.  It seemed like an awful lot of time and energy investment for not much return.  There are places nearer to Portland that have higher light pollution but higher altitude and similar skies.  That's it!  I'd forgotten the other half of that equation: High altitude.  We were camped right on the river, so only at about 1600 feet above sea level.  Too much air was above us!

Additionally, as far as campgrounds go, it was loud and smelly.  The John Day highway gets more traffic than you might imagine and we were camped maybe fifty feet away.  It reminded me of camping on the Oregon coast, one of my least favorite places to camp, with highway 101 always reminding you of its presence.

This Year

So this year, as I'm planning this trip I pulled up two tabs, and lined them up right next to each other.  One with Dark Skies, the other with a topographical map of the region and was quickly drawn to the circled area.

New Idea

Circled is a small piece of the Umatilla National Forest with numerous access roads and lots of interesting topography.

Source: Google Maps

I see roads running through areas 3000-4000 feet up.  A few at 4800 feet.  Not bad.  There aren't really any formal camping sites in this area, but that's OK.  It gives us the opportunity to establish a "Hill's Gully" or "Hill's Hill" style camping site.  Something remote, quiet, and free!

This of course adds about an hour to the drive, and the exploration/discovery portion of this trip hasn't been done yet.  Discovering a site like this really requires us to drive into the forest and wander around until we find a site.  Then I'd have to mark the GPS coordinates, drive (probably 2 hours) back to cell reception and let you know where we're camping.

Another Idea

Another option is, to try going the other way.  Sacrifice slightly in regards to dark skies but get the higher altitude and a known park.

It's not perfect, but it's pretty danged good.

While we're camped there we could make a day trip over to Umatilla, scope out some potential sites, get a feel for the area, and mark GPS coordinates for future trips.

There are of course no formal camp grounds in this area that Google is aware of.  Heading down the freeway a bit we get to Bear Hollow/Shelton Wayside at about 2200 feet.

This of course would not be an option for the Solar Eclipse as it's first-come-first serve.  Their website explicitly states they aren't taking reservations for the solar eclipse (stop e-mailing us!), so it stands to reason they'll be busy that weekend.  I expect the stargazing quality would be similar to Mule Shoe, but they don't really appear to be much further from the freeway.  Bear Hollow is across the river, maybe that'll be enough distance?

Something Else Entirely

Of course, if I'm forced to compromise on light pollution, the possibilities open way up (see the first Dark Sky map above).  Moving further west into the Cascades we get lots of places where decent light pollution intersects with high altitudes.  Mt. Jefferson is a pretty good spot, right at the intersection of the high altitudes of the Cascades and the low light pollution of the area.

Mountains occlude the stars, so there's that.

Riverside Detroit and Breitenbush lake both pop out in this image.  Riverside Detroit is at 2400 feet (too low considering the light pollution), Breitenbush Lake is at 5,000.  It's about 2.5 hours from Portland, low light pollution, high altitude, and free to boot!  Google photos are also beautiful, and it's isolated, so I'm sure it's quiet.  Looks like there are some wide open areas; hopefully enough for stargazing, we may need to muscle our way into a spot near the lake.  Being this far west it would be preferable to go later in the summer, as this would ensure fewer clouds.