In response to Chuck's comment of "Is it Lowell's position that the club should only conduct a star-party at a particular location if the sky is up to a certain high standard?", I have the following to offer: I openly and freely admit that I like going to Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef for two reasons. I enjoy showing things through my telescope to the public. I also like looking at very dark skies for my own personal viewing which both Bryce and Capitol Reef offer me. I can do both when I support both of these events. Back in the 80's, I was a key supporter and organizer of SLAS public star parties at Arches. I remember on more than one occasion when Brent Watson brought his huge 22" dob. down to support the events held at Panorama Point inside Arches itself. We chose Panorama Point as it has decent parking and fairly open horizons in every direction. The most successful event of all was a Comet Halley party co-sponsored by the University of Utah Physics Department. Panorama Point is a bit of a drive from both the campground in Arches and the public from Moab. Car headlights and traffic in general were always something we had to contend with. At both Capitol Reef and Bryce, people can just walk a short distance from the campground to the telescope field or in the case of Bryce Canyon, vacationers may also use a free shuttle from the Ruby's Inn area. I have greatly enjoyed star gazing from Arches over the years. The reason the star parties ceased were twofold. One, the participation from SLAS members started to decline as we would only get half a dozen or less scopes to actually show up. Second, the light pollution from Moab itself started to bother SLASers that would want to look due south towards Sagittarius/Scorpius. True, the public wouldn't notice or probably care about some sky glow in the south, yet those of us that like to also look for our own enjoyment after the public leaves would probably be annoyed by Moab's lights. Also speaking of Moab's light pollution, The current Astronomical League president, Bob Gent has personally met with the city fathers in Moab to discuss lighting ordinances and in particular demonstrate fully-shielded lighting. Bob has also been a president of the International Dark Sky Association (IDA) which the League founded and whole-heartedly supports. Moab is already in the IDA's sights to work with on light pollution issues. I think supporting public star parties at Arches again would be a worthwhile effort as long as SLAS will support it. We all have to think about have many of these national park star parties one club such as ours can effectively support every year. As Arches is geographically close to Grand Junction Colorado as well, their club that is also an Astronomical League member, may want to join SLAS is supporting an Arches event each year. I apologize for being long winded here, yet I felt like this information might be useful for those of your who look at this newsgroup site on a regular basis. I do look at the newsgroup site almost every day, yet I don't reply to it very often. Thanks. Lowell Lyon
I have been an enthusiastic supporter of national park star parties and I've both organized and attended public events at Zion NP, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef and Arches whenever it's been possible for me to do so. So, I have a few thoughts to offer to this discussion. In helping to organize astronomy events for any group or organization I've found that those who request our services generally fall into two categories. First there are those who contact us and say (in essence), "Here we are - please come entertain us." The other group says, "Here we are - what can we do to get the most from your involvement in our event?" If we do the organizing for the "entertain us" type of group, the attendance is invariably low and the experience is not what I consider to be a success. I dare say that we all prefer to assist those of the latter group. Those at Bryce Canyon NP who have organized the astronomy events there fall into the latter category and, of course, have become the most successful. It is a treat for me to work with organizers such as Kevin Poe and Chad Moore. My recollection is that there simply hasn't been anyone at Arches NP who has been committed to organizing a successful event. Like Ann, I too have spoken with persons associated with the Park who have expressed an interest in having us help with some event, but there has been no follow-through at their end. The last time I attended a "public" star party at Panorama Point I doubt that we had more than a dozen or so show up from the public. As I see it, the up-shot of all this is that we should provide services only to those who will organize their own event and invite us to join them, not the other way around. Regarding sky conditions, I don't mind holding public events at less-than-perfect sites. After all, even most of our preferred private star party venues have some light pollution. We can always help the organizers choose a specific date, time and site to optimize observing conditions. However, we usually get more involvement from our own members if we can promise dark skies. Now I'm getting long-winded - or should it be long-fingered? Anyway, my two cents... Kim
participants (2)
-
Kim -
Lowell Lyon