Camping with the Jeep

[Chupacabra]

So me and a few friends are currently working on an Engineering project for school, namely building a telescope that auto-tracks stars and can search for different celestial object in the night sky... What we want to do to get everything dialed in and tested is to get out of the city for a night, where we won't have any light pollution to deal with, and they realized I have a jeep. Any suggestions for some nice areas to camp out in? Hopefully get some good test data...

[morerpmfred]

Go to goose berry campground just north of Consort Alberta. about 300 + km to saskatoon , Regina , Edmonton or Calgary. About 200 + km from Red deer, llyodminster or Medicine hat . No light polution there.  Just do ,t go there during a rodeo weekend or maybe go during a rodeo weekend 

[FiEND]

Can't remember if this goes up to Canada or not, but worth a look

 http://www.jshine.net/astronomy/dark_sky/

[apeman]

Little Bow Provincial...only an hour and a half away...great night sky...nothing around for miles and miles...

[Knox]

Can't remember if this goes up to Canada or not, but worth a look

 http://www.jshine.net/astronomy/dark_sky/

that is really cool... looks like straight east of calgary, north of medicine hat, nice flat area with no light polution...

[apex]

blue rock campground is 25 minutes west of Turner Valley. Straight into the mountains and on the side of a valley. The entire campground rings a huge open field with an unbelievable view on the night sky. This is what I would recommend.

[cLAY]

How about the U of C observatory by millarville?

[Chupacabra]

Can't remember if this goes up to Canada or not, but worth a look

 http://www.jshine.net/astronomy/dark_sky/

Too cool! That is a very handy tool!

Ex-gf used to have a cabin out at little bow park actually! Very cool place, hadn't thought about it however 

We're currently in the process of finding some glass blanks to grind down into reflector disks, this is good info on test spots! thanks guys!

[FiEND]

The telus science center downtown has open nights on the roof on Fridays with astronomy clubs and personal telescopes.  Don't know if it is the summer they shut down cause it gets dark too late.  Some people there have built their own as well but not s.ure about the glass

[Shearcon79]

The telus science center downtown has open nights on the roof on Fridays with astronomy clubs and personal telescopes.  Don't know if it is the summer they shut down cause it gets dark too late.  Some people there have built their own as well but not s.ure about the glass

I hardly think you are going to get a very dark sky downtown. Just sayin!

[FiEND]

No, they tend to concentrate on larger objects for public viewing.   They do have experts and knowledge that this forum may lack.

[SwampSinger]

It's pretty dark in my shorts...here;s some knowledge for you mister!  

[FiEND]

Doubt they wanna track uranus

[Chupacabra]

Science center would be pretty cool for info, and Saturn is pretty clear right now, can make out good distinction in the rings... And seeing as it won't be there much longer, and is being moved, might be good to check out. There is also the fact that the actual camping part is important too haha

[w squared]

When are they scheduled to move Saturn?