Its a clear summer night and the waxing crescent moon is but a sliver in the sky over Jenny Jump State Forest. Thats good news for the more than 40 amateur astronomers who have gathered here because the fuller the moon, the harder it is to stargaze.

When you have a dark sky, youre trying to get a good view of very faint things. And the moons light spoils that, says Dale Gary, a radio astronomer and professor of physics at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Even the moon is boring when its full. At least when its a crescent, theres some interest in looking at the moon itself you can see the shadows of the mountains and craters.

There are about 10 observatories in New Jersey. In most cases, regional amateur astronomy clubs own, operate and maintain the telescopes, while leasing a property to house their equipment on college campuses, state parks and elsewhere. And club members are eager to share their love of astronomy, often offering free programs for families, scouting groups and other members of the public to view the wonders of space.

The nice thing about the stars is that they keep changing. So, to see all of the stars, you actually have to observe every season, says Gary, 59, a Berkeley Heights resident and past president of the United Astronomy Clubs of New Jersey (UACNJ). Theres not really a best season (to view), but I would say that summer and winter are both somewhat more interesting because the Milky Way is up during those times.

Sure, you can go out in your backyard or to a park where, depending on the weather, you can spy with the unaided eye certain stars and constellations, maybe even five of the eight planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. (Lest you forget, Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet status in 2006.)

But theres nothing quite as spectacular as a formidable telescopic view of a deep sky object that is millions of light years away, keeping in mind that one light year is a distance of about 6 trillion miles.

When you look through a telescope, youre really looking through a time machine, says Gil Jeffer, 59, a retired research scientist from Hope and a UACNJ member. When you look at the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, youre actually looking at light that left there four-and-a- half years ago. And most of the nebulae and galaxies that we see through our telescopes are much, much older than that. So we may see light that left there a billion years or more ago when multi-cellular life was just beginning to evolve on Earth. Youre seeing far, far, far into the past.

Jenny Jump State Forest, near Hope, is home to UACNJs observatory. (Since UACNJ is a consortium of 13 astronomical clubs in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York, all of its members belong to other amateur astronomy clubs, as well.)

On this particular night, with the help of the groups 16-inch Newtonian telescope, Saturn appears flawless, bright and close enough to touch.

I learned that (Saturn) has rings. And I saw the rings, says 6-year-old Marco DeLeon, of Hackettstown. That was pretty cool.

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Astronomy clubs are Jersey's window to the galaxy