Regular Club Meeting Site

Our regular meeting site is at St. Peter Celestine School, 402 N. Kings Highway, Cherry Hill, NJ, 08034. The school building is behind the church. Click here for map.

From NJ Turnpike:  Exit 4 to 73 North.  Take 73 North about a mile to 38 West.  Go approximately 1/2 mile and take 41 South.  Follow 41 past the Church Rd. traffic light (about 1 mile, cemetery far right corner).  Pass the Lukoil gas station and then the Greenward Townhouses.  Next driveway on the right is the entrance to St. Peter Celestine.

From Ben Franklin Bridge:  After crossing bridge, stay in left lane and take 30 East.  Follow signs to 70E/38E.  At fork, bear left and continue about 2 miles on 38 East.  Make right onto Chapel Ave. (Italian Bistro on corner). Pass Cherry Hill West High School and JFK Hospital to traffic light at Rt. 41 (Kings Highway).. Take a left and St. Peter Celestine will be 1/4 mile on left.

From Tacony-Palmyra Bridge: Follow Rt. 73 South about 5 miles. Just past Maple Shade Mazda, exit to Rt. 41 South. Follow 41 past the  Church Rd. traffic light (about 1 mile, cemetery far right corner).  Pass the Lukoil gas station and then the Greenward Townhouses.  Next driveway on the right is the entrance to St. Peter Celestine.

From Betsy Ross Bridge:  After crossing bridge, stay in left lane. Take Rt. 90 to Rt. 73 South for 2.5 miles. Just past Maple Shade Mazda, exit to Rt. 41 South. Follow 41 past the  Church Rd. traffic light (about 1 mile, cemetery far right corner).  Pass the Lukoil gas station and then the Greenward Townhouses.  Next driveway on the right is the entrance to St. Peter Celestine.

From Rt. 295:  Exit 34 to Rt. 70 West.  Follow Rt. 70 West approx. 1.5 miles to Rt. 41 North (Kings Highway). Take a right onto Rt. 41. Church is approximately. 1.5 miles on left, about 1/4 mile after the Chapel Ave. traffic light.

Bass River State Forest - NJ

PARKWAY NORTH - Exit 50. Follow Rt.9 North, through New Gretna and over the bridge. On your left will be an ice-cream/pizza place, make that left onto East Greenbush Road. Follow until you come to a stop sign and make a right onto Stage Road. The park is about one mile on the left.

PARKWAY SOUTH  - Exit 52. Make a right off the exit onto East Greenbush Road. Follow until you come to a stop sign and make a right onto Stage Road. The park is about a mile on the left.

PHILADELPHIA OR CHERRY HILL - Take Rt.70 East to Rt.72 East. Make a right onto 563. Follow about 14 miles and bear left onto 679 South. You should start seeing signs. Go up about 6 miles and turn left onto Stage Road. Stay to your left on Stage Road for about 2 miles - the park is on the left.

BERLIN/HAMMONTON - Take Rt.30 East to Hammonton. Just after Kessler Hospital, make a left onto Rt.542. Continue about 9 miles past Batsto until you come to a large metal bridge. Over the bridge, make the first left onto Leektown Road. Go straight through the first stop sign. At the second stop sign (Pilgrim Lake is on the left), go straight, crossing over Stage Road. At the third stop sign stay to your left. Go over two wooden bridges, bear to your left and the park is about one mile on the left.

ONCE AT THE ENTRANCE - After the stop sign at the booth (which closes at 5:00 pm, so there's no fee for the Star Watch), go straight across the intersection and follow the winding road for about half a mille to a fence on the left. The opening in the fence leads to a parking lot and our Lake Absegami setup area. Here's a satellite view of the observing site. GPS Coordinates.

To check with the Bass River State Forest office for weather cancellation, call 609-296-1114 after 3:00 pm.

Atsion Field

Atsion Field is in Wharton State Forest, on the east side of Rt. 206, just north of the junction of Rt. 206 and Atsion/Quaker Bridge Rd. It is about 10 miles south of the Red Lion Circle (the junction of Rt. 70) and 8 miles north of Rt. 30 in Hammonton. Here's a satellite view of the field. GPS Coordinates.

Coyle Field

Coyle Field is an informal observing site frequently used by WAS members (and a number of other area astronomy clubs). It is a vast open space in the West Plain Pygmy Pines of the New Jersey Pinelands. Here's a link to its Clear Sky Chart.

To get there from the west (Philadelphia or the nearby New Jersey suburbs), take Route 70 east to the Four Mile Circle, which is the junction of NJ Routes 70  & 72. Take 72 east off the circle (towards Manahawkin / Long Beach Island). Go 10.5 miles, and at the 10.5 mile marker, slow down and be ready to pull onto the the right-hand shoulder when you pass a service building set back on the right. You'll see a "Prevent Forest Fires" sign near the right shoulder (it used to be a Smokey-the-Bear sign, but Smokey himself vanished in late 2007). About 100 yards past the sign, take the sand road that veers off at a 45-degree angle (not the sand road that turns off at a right angle just after the sign). The 45-degree angle sand road is marked with a small government warning sign that everyone ignores (but remember, we have no formal permission to be there and observing could be preempted by military or fire fighting operations). Go down the sand road about 1/4 mile and it will curve sharply right onto the field. We usually set up perpendicular to the edge of the grass on the right hand side a couple hundred yards down.

Here's a road map showing the general location of Coyle Field, a satellite view and a view of the field with the entrance road and set-up spot marked.

The sand shoulder on Route 72, the sand entrance road and the sand runway where we usually set up are all firm and are not a problem to negotiate with an ordinary automobile (four-wheel drive is unnecessary). The shoulder, and the transition to the entrance road can be a little bumpy, so take it easy. Also, where the main path of the sand road curves right onto the field, a narrower branch goes straight -- don't go down there, it turns into sugar sand and you will need 4WD!

Click here for GPS coordinates of our observing sites.