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You can only bear to hear about something for so long before you have to see it for yourself. That was the case for me and the UACNJ Observatories at Jenny Jump state forest in Hope, New Jersey. Two members in my astronomy club (STAR Society) are also members of UACNJ and are always commenting on how great the observing, telescopes and people are up at the park. One Saturday night back in June, my father and I packed up the eyepiece case, the cameras, coats and some snacks and made the hour and a half drive North-West to the observatories.
When you arrive you have to drive up a very steep hill since the observatories (four so far, built by four different clubs) are situated at the top of the highest mountain around (about 1200' in elevation). The scenery is eye-catching and the observatory buildings (10' x 10' roll-off designs) seem like they fit right in. One observatory houses a 12.5" f/6 newtonian, another a 16" vintage Cave scope and the two other observatories are under construction and weren't being used that night.
Since we are friends with a member of UACNJ (United Astronomy Clubs of New Jersey) he let me use the 16" Cave newtonian all night long. What a scope! It is a MONSTER! It had to be about an f/5 since the tube was at least 5' long, but it moved so smoothly on it's Equatorial mounting (the counterweights weighed in at 250lbs!). I began the night observing by myself, but since it was public night up there the people slowly come out from the main building where a talk had been given. Since the 16" is the one scope up there dedicated to the public I had the chance to show everyone what was up there in the sky. There is nothing like the feeling of giving someone their first view of a globular cluster or galaxy; their eyes light up and the questions just start coming. Luckily I was able to answer most if not all the questions that were posed. I was able to keep my audience occupied for about an hour and half by showing them different deep space objects (the planets weren't up yet) until I finally exhausted my reservior of knowledge of star-hopable objects. After that people began to dwindle and I again had the scope to myself and poked around for another hour or so until the moon began to rise. We packed everything in, closed up the observatories and began the ride home. What a night! One of the best all summer!