UIAS Home Page

UIAS Dark Sky Site

What is it?

The dark sky site is a place where club members can go to get away from some of the city's light pollution. It provides a southern sky dark enough to easily view the Milky Way. When you go there, you realize that there really are more than 20 stars in the sky.

The club owns a 12.5" dobsonian scope which has been refigured, recoated, and rebuilt by club member Mike Lockwood as of early 2004. The 12.5" scope has an excellent quality mirror and can provide stunning views when it has been allowed to properly cool down to ambient temperature. No eyepieces are currently stored with the scope, so you'll have to make sure you bring your own, or pick up the UIAS eyepieces from the observatory on campus before venturing to the dark site.

The site is colocated with the ECE Field Station, and is still in use by ECE and posibly others, so it's not just our site. We are allowed to use the small building at the site, which has a limited amount of electrical power and water services. The club has a single key to the main ECE Field Station building. Contact the club officers if you wish to have access to the field station while observing.

Observing Forecasts

A great place to check for observing conditions is the Clear Sky Clock page for C-U:

Where is it?

Click Here for a Map. The dark site is marked with an X.

These are the easiest directions if you are going there from campus. The trip takes about 20 min:

Get on Neil St. going south
Take Neil out of Champaign and through the Village of Savoy (Neil becomes Rt.45)
Past the Airport, take the next Right, which is Monticello Rd.
West on Monticello Rd. 4 Miles (cross over I-57)
Left on county rd. 700 E
1/2 mile south on 700 E, turn left on gravel rd.
gravel road takes you straight to the building
don't go too far on 700 E or you will end up at the CUAS Observatory

An alternate route is to take I-57 to Monticello Rd.

Other Info

Phone number at the dark site: 333-2221 (campus phone number)
Note that if someone is outside they might not hear the phone ring.

Latitude: 40.01806 N
Longitude: 88.32741 W

Back to UIAS Home

This document was last modified on Tuesday, 21-Sep-2004 09:50:52 CDT