I'm just sitting on the sidelines watching these threads go by... A couple of years ago there was an article in S & T about an amature astro club that bought some land in Oregon, as I recall. They put up a few small out buildings to get in from the cold and to house solar cells & batteries. Seemed like a pretty styled-out set up for them. I don't recall if they had and lavatory facilities, but there are alternatives like composters or portables that would do the trick. Merry Happy- Joe Borgione Joe Bauman <bau@desnews.com> wrote: Hi all, I agree we should have open and uninhibited discussions about a dark site (and any other dang topic that comes up!). My personal view is that it's hard to get concensus on anything with a large group and that battles are inevitable when too many are involved -- so if concensus can't be reached, a subset who are serious about it should contribute money, time and effort toward developing the right place. As Chuck said, important aspects are dark skies, security and conveniences. I think we need power and some sort of bathroom facilites. It would be nice to have a level concrete pad to set up on. The tower location was so attractive because it had security and power. If we were to purchase a plot of state land down south somewhere, it probably would be a huge expense to bring in power; I doubt Utah Power would volunteer to put up poles and lines for a bunch of nice astronomers. Of course, a generator would be a good alternative. But I also think SPOC is a wonderful observatory and its value should never be downplayed. SPOC is close enough to SLC to be a haven for the public and the views are great there. -- Joe _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Find what you need with new enhanced search. Learn more.