Kim, I hav cut and pasted the draft below. You may want to cut and paste it into word if you plan to do any editing and forward it back. Thanks Rodger Bryce Canyon National Park 2008 Astronomical Festival Bryce Canyon National Park is located 200 miles south of Salt Lake City, Utah in the high-mountain Paunsaugunt Plateau of south central Utah. The park has landscape of breathtaking proportion formed by the pink and red sedimentary rock, deposited millions of years ago, which have been deeply eroded by water, ice and wind to form spectacular spires and "hoodoos". As the sun sets, the red glow shinning on the cliffs is awe-inspiring. But the real beauty of the park occurs when it undergoes a dramatic metamorphosis at nightfall after the sun sets and the clear, dry-mountain air together with the remote location, offers star viewing with unparalleled beauty never before experienced by most visitors. The park is situated at an elevation of 7,800 feet where clear, dry air prevails in the early summer months. Management of Bryce Canyon National Park recognized the unique beauty of the park at night and the potential to generate interest in viewing the night sky. This encouraged them to start hosting an annual Astronomy Festival about ten years ago. This event is scheduled near the new-moon cycle in June annually. The Bryce Canyon Park Staff team up with the Salt Lake Astronomical Society (SLAS) who provides volunteers with their telescopes for the celestial viewing. This year's festival, held between June 25th and June 28th, 2008 was a resounding success with over 7,000 visitor contacts including travelers from far points of the globe and members of the local population. Some visitors as far away as Germany had scheduled their trip to coincide with the Astronomical Festival. The kick-off to this year's festival was on the evening of June 25th when Story Musgrave, space shuttle astronaut and Hubble Telescope repairman extraordinaire, spoke to about 700 visitors that had gathered in the nearby town of Panguitch, Utah (25 miles west of Bryce Canyon National Park). His farm-boy countenance and approach to resolving problems with the Hubble Telescope and life in general, for that matter, went over well with many of the residence in this small farming community of about 1,500 people. After the lecture, the visitors viewed the sky through about fifteen telescopes that had been set up by SLAS volunteers in the parking lot adjacent to the building. The community had asked for a voluntary lights-out (including city street lights) during that time to aid in the star viewing. This enabled viewing of many of the brighter deep-sky objects to the delight of the visitors, many of which had never viewed a nebula or galaxy through a telescope. The next three days (June 26th-28th, 2008) included events within the boundaries of Bryce Canyon National Park. During the daylight hours, solar telescopes, both white-light and hydrogen-alpha, were set up near the visitor's center for public viewing along with posters explaining about our Sun. Lectures were also provided in the visitor's center during the day. They provide lectures designed to educate visitors about the effects of light pollution not only to astronomers but to the environment as well (plants and animals alike). About 6:00 PM nightly, SLAS volunteers began setting up their telescopes in a parking lot a few hundred yards from the visitor's center that had been specifically reserved for night-sky viewing. About 35-40 telescopes ranging in size from 4" refractors to 24" dobsonians were set up. After setting up and prior to dusk, the volunteers settled into a ritual of relaxation and visiting with fellow members discussing the new equipment each member had purchased as part of the on-going telescopic arms race that exists in every club world-wide. Some members listened to relaxing music provided by the SLAS president, Bob Moore, playing his didgeridoo accompanied by Cindy Foot (co-discoverer of an exo-planet and SLAS member) playing an American-Indian wood flute (all to daunt the few clouds on the distant horizon). Park visitors, many of which were attending the three nightly lectures on the night-sky and telescope etiquette, were directed into the parking lot beginning at 9:45 PM and were amazed at the view of Saturn and the Hercules Globular Cluster. At the direction of the park staff, half of the telescopes were centered on Saturn and the other half on M-13. This enabled the volunteers to quickly accommodate the initial rush of visitors totaling about 200 people. The park staff also encouraged each of the volunteers to explain what the visitors were viewing in terms of its size, distance from earth, genesis and its role or setting in the Universe. After the first 30 minutes and after the twilight glow had diminished, each volunteer directed their telescope on their favorite object. The parking lot was filled with the sound of "oohs" and "aahs" as the visitors viewed the numerous nebulas and galaxies, many for the first time. Kevin Poe, park ranger, known as the "Dark-Ranger", conducted constellation tours from the parking lot for the visitors. The viewing continued for about three-hours each night with a line of about ten visitors at each telescope anxiously anticipating their turn to view the celestial jewel that awaited them. After the guests had departed, about 1:30 AM each morning, the volunteers began in a non-declared telescope war to see who could get the most dramatic view of their favorite deep-sky object or who could split the closest binary star. This friendly war usually lasted until about 3:00 AM when the volunteers were totally exhausted because they had spent the entire previous day exploring one or more of the spectacular canyons of the park. The viewing on Thursday and Friday nights, June 26th and 27th, 2008 was very clear and dark, with exceptionally transparent skies present on Friday night that amazed even the most seasoned amateur astronomer. On the last day, Saturday June 28, 2008, intermittent clouds moved in forcing the volunteers to select targets between the clouds challenging the viewing. This presented a test for the volunteers but didn't spoil the fun for the visitors or volunteers. The event came to an end at 12:01 AM Sunday, June 29, 2008, when the parks staff treated all the volunteers with their famous "Star-B-Que" including steaks, salads, country beans and plenty of pie. As the event drew to a close, the volunteers felt a sense of gratification for the number of people they had introduced to the joy and beauty of observing the celestial bodies. They also marveled at how astounding the celestial wonders reveal themselves in exceptional dark-sky conditions such as provided at Bryce Canyon National Park. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kim" <kimharch@cut.net> To: "'Utah Astronomy'" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2008 12:59 PM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Bryce Festival
Rodger, The attachment didn't come through - maybe something to do with list filters. I'd like to see the draft, though. Is there another way to share it? If you wish, you could send directly to me a pdf file or an editable Word version (for minor comments only, of course). Anyway, I'm glad you had the time to do this. I think S&T and our amateur brothers nationwide/worldwide should be aware of just how much public outreach SLAS is responsible for.
Kim
-----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Rodger Fry Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 5:28 PM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Bryce Festival
Kym, Attached is the draft that I have come up with. I used 7,000 visitor contacts. This is what the NPS uses as official count but they recognize that one individual can attend more than one event and be duplicated in the count.
Make any changes using the track change option and email back to me by July 4th. Send any photos that you might have. I am looking for some that are better than the ones I took.
Thanks,Rodger Fry ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kim" <kimharch@cut.net> To: "'Utah Astronomy'" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 5:15 PM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Bryce Festival
What number will you use for attendance?
-----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Rodger Fry Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 1:56 PM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Bryce Festival
Kim, I appreciate your insight to the number of visitor contacts made. I am almost done with a draft and will send this to Kevin and Chad when done for their review.
Thanks Again and I too thought this years event was fantastic.
Rodger Fry SLAS boardmember
----- Original Message ----- From: "Kim" <kimharch@cut.net> To: "'Utah Astronomy'" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 1:48 PM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Bryce Festival
Park Ranger Chad Moore actually reported 7,000 "visitor contacts," not 7,000 visitors/attendees. If I understood Chad correctly, a visitor contact is defined as one person participating in a specific event. At the astronomy festival, these included persons attending a lecture, observing through a telescope (night or day), or taking part in the model rocket construction and launches. Theoretically, one visitor/attendee could account for several visitor contacts. Anyone wishing to prepare a news release of sorts or contact S&T should first speak with Chad to get a clearer definition of the numbers. I'm curious to know if the Park has anyway to track just how many people actually participated.
BTW, I thoroughly enjoyed this year's festival and renewing friendships. It gets lonesome sometimes her in Sanpete.
Kim
-----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of diveboss@xmission.com Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 10:02 AM To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Bryce Festival
I've been to a couple of these and I'm thinking the '7000 visitor' figure might be a little off. If not, and there were really 7000 visitors to this star party, then I am announcing here, today, the opening of my all night 7-11 just outside the park. ;)
Fabulous report, Rodger. Did anyone get pictures? I am thinking - an article in S&T perhaps. What other astronomical society gets 7000 visitors to an event?
-A
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