Seneca Rocks Camping & Stargazing
The Perfect Weekend
On a cool September weekend, a big group of friends joined us for an incredible weekend, months in the making. The goal? To see the Milky Way in all its glory for the first time.
Aimee and I were inspired to do this by our nearly month long trip to Australia back in 2018. In the outback, we were fortunate to get a glimpse of the Milky Way, under less than ideal conditions. It was a little cloudy, and the night wasn’t completely moonless. so there was still too much light, even in the middle of the Australian Outback. Nevertheless, it was incredible. So, we got the bug, and wanted to see it under the best conditions, here at home.
After some research, I needed to find the perfect combination of conditions for us to have our best chance. Firstly, moonless night. We needed to find when the moon would be a “new moon”. We found that information on the timeanddate site. Then, we needed to reference the Milky Way Calendar to identify the best times to view the galaxy. In the northern hemisphere, that’s between The end of march and the beginning of October. The best time is between May and August, but because of obligations and scheduling, we settled on early September.
Next, we referenced a light pollution map to find a dark sky spot nearby. This pointed us to Spruce Knob in West Virginia. To make a weekend out of it, we decided to camp for the weekend at nearby Seneca Shadows Campground. It worked out great, it was a beautiful campground, with tons of privacy and is a short drive up the mountain to Spruce Knob for viewing.
We chose Spruce Knob due to it’s location in a very dark sky spot, but also because it has a fantastic observation platform, that’s perfect for viewing and also photography. Only downside, is that due to its height, there is little for the foreground of the pictures, except for the tops of the trees.
Across both nights, we had a fantastic time, camping, hiking the Seneca Rocks Trail, and viewing/photographing the Milky Way. It was a great trip and we look forward to doing again soon!
View photo gallery here: Seneca Camping and Stargazing
