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Comment by davidw | Hacker News Reader

Well that's kind of cool to log in and see on HN. This is right next door to where I live in Bend.

A few suggestions in that part of Oregon:

* Close to Bend, you can visit the Pine Mountain Observatory, which is open to the public in the summer. https://pmo.uoregon.edu/visiting/ - at 6000 feet, and far from anything, the views of the night sky even without telescopes are amazing. And the staff there point the scopes at interesting sights and explain what they are.

* Further out, Steens mountain and that area is incredible. It's one of the most remote parts of the US outside of Alaska.

* The Christmas Valley area has a lot of interesting things like Fort Rock, Crack-in-the-Ground, Hole-in-the-Ground and the sand dunes.

View on HN

I nearly edited my comment below to add a mention of Pine Mountain but selfishly (…yes I’m sorry) wanted to keep it obscure in the hope that it’d be less crowded when I visit it myself periodically.

If I’m going be less selfish, I should probably mention that my next favorite stargazing spots are Star Valley, WY (yes, named for the celestial views); the high mountain plateaus (8,000-10,000ft+ altitude) between Bozeman, MT and Red Lodge, MT; and Central Idaho (Sawtooth or White Cloud Ranges).

I haven’t made it to Steens yet, thanks for the prompt ;)

Happy Stargazing!

I grew up in Bend. I had stayed up all night with grad students running the place… they would point their large telescopes at whatever we wanted to see. I have never seen the Milky Way like that before. You are on a mt in the desert in the middle of nowhere.

The odds that not commenting on some widely known thing will 'keep it a secret' are pretty low. It's been posted here for instance: https://visitbend.com/journal/stargazing-in-bend-oregon/

Feels like home.

Plus there's that pesky bike shop that keeps telling everyone about it

If you can't think of name for your new business in Bend, some popular choices are

* High Desert

* Pine Mountain

* Cascade

Love PMO, get there a day or two early on a moonless weekend and you can usually score one of the campsites.

>* The Christmas Valley area has a lot of interesting things like Fort Rock, Crack-in-the-Ground, Hole-in-the-Ground and the sand dunes.

Great list, I'd also add Summer Lake Hot Springs, Freemont Point Lookout, The Lost Forest, Glass Butte, the sunstone mines near Plush, pretty much all of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Crane Hot Springs, might as well throw in Painted Hills, there's so much!

Steens mountain is one of my favorite places I've visited. I found it when I was young by just looking at maps for what seemed like the most remote area I could drive to. Unfortunately it was humid in the summer when I went and the stars weren't as notable as I expected, but the vast emptiness, the epic landscape, and the pronghorn made it worthwhile.

If you haven't been, the "Hopservatory" at Worthy Brewing is also really cool to check out.

I've been there a number of times, but not to the observatory thing. Roger's a cool guy and does a lot of good things here in Bend.

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