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My Stars!

© Sue Barton

When I was about two or three years old, I watched Romper Room every day, My favorite song had a series of exercises and went like this:

Bend and stretch
Reach for the stars
There goes Jupiter
Here comes Mars

I loved looking up at the stars, wondering who else was out there. I grew up in the Space Age watching Star Trek, Lost in Space, and Buck Rogers. Some of my favorite books were about a little old lady named Miss Pickerell and my favorite of her books was the time she went to Mars. I watched manned space capsules come back to earth and when man walked on the moon, I was glued to the news. The astronauts had practiced for their moon adventures by walking on the nearby lava flows caused when Mount Mazama blew her top and became Crater Lake. I absolutely knew that we could go into space and it's been on my "life list" of things to do for 10 years now.

When I started dating my husband, one of our favorite date sites was east of Bend in Central Oregon -- out in the "boonies." Even though Bend had laws restricting "light pollution," we'd drive out far enough to be away from all the city lights and then just pull the car to the side of the highway and sit there in the silence watching the stars twinkling, comets streaking, and meteors falling in the velvet black sky.

Today, visitors to Central Oregon can get an even better experience than when we dated 25 years ago. The Pine Mountain Observatory is located 26 miles southeast of Bend (out in the boonies) off of Highway 20, atop 6700' Pine Mountain. Check out the observatory's website for detailed driving directions. It is open for visitors on Friday and Saturday nights from Memorial Day through the end of September. If you have a group of eight or more, you'll need to call ahead for reservations (Phone: (541) 382-8331). There is a fairly primitive, free (first come, first served) Forest Service campground across the road from the observatory. After a late night up watching stars, you'll want to sleep in.

This is the only observatory in the state and is owned by the University of Oregon, which is located in Eugene. When you go, remember to pack plenty of warm clothing. It is very chilly at that altitude even in the middle of summer heat. You'll also want to make sure that you have enough fuel, food and beverages to make it back to town since there is nowhere to replenish supplies out there (remember -- boonies?). According to the observatory: