For amateur astronomers, 'star parties' are the antidote to light-polluted skies

An amateur astronomer points in the direction of a celestial object under exceptionally dark skies at Cherry Springs State Park in northern Pennsylvania earlier this month. (Wassana Laisukang)

COUDERSPORT, Pa. — Up a winding road that cuts through the Allegheny Plateau, hundreds of amateur astronomers in campers and pickups stream into northern Pennsylvania each spring and summer in search of one thing: stars.

It's something they can't get enough of in the halo of light pollution that surrounds most cities. By contrast, Cherry Springs State Park, located about 135 miles northwest of Wilkes-Barre, is one of the very few truly dark sky sites in the entire eastern United States.