Star Party report for August 1997

August was a busy month for us. We attended the SMURFS party and the Nebraska Star Party, then a week in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

We headed up to SMURFS on Wednesday the 30th of July and it was clear all that night. Unfortunately we arrived about 11:00pm and I had to set up the camper first, and then the scope went up. By about 1:00am I finally put an eyepiece in the 20" to start observing. After a full day of work and all that traveling, setting up, etc. I was pretty tired. I looked at some of the easy stuff, and then turned in about 2:30.

Thursday it was clear and we walked around and talked to people most of the day, looking at their scopes, and revisiting friends from last years star party. If I recall correctly, it was actually cloudy Thursday night, and Friday was supposed to be more of the same, so we left Friday morning for the Nebraska Star Party. From what I have heard it cleared up late Friday night, about 1:00am Saturday morning. And it stayed clear Saturday night.

I found out later I won CCDSoft from Software Bisque. Now I'll have to get a CCD camera to use it with.

Meanwhile we journeyed through the Upper Peninsula on Friday, and stayed at a motel in Wisconsin. By the time we arrived there, it was clear. We went to bed early because we had a long day ahead of us. Saturday morning we left about 6:30am and drove all the way to Valentine Nebraska. On the way we noticed hundreds of motorcycles heading west with us, and later realized they were heading for Sturgis South Dakota for the annual motorcycle rally. As we got to our exit to head south into Valentine, we noticed a huge storm south of us. While heading south we chased this storm all the way into Valentine. We later found out the park where we were going the next day, had gotten dumped on with 60 mph winds. I was glad we decided to stop. About 10:00pm we arrived at a KOA there, and slept . Of course after the storm rolled through it cleared that night too.

The next morning, we headed to the park about 30 miles away, across more prairie land, which we had been driving through most of the day before. This area is quite hilly, so as you crest a hill, you can see for many miles. There are very few trees in Nebraska, which allows for great views of the surrounding landscape.

After checking in at the parks entrance, we drove another 8 miles to one of the camping sights near the observing field. We found a campsite on the lake about 1/8 of a mile from the primary observing field. There were about 50 people there already, with scopes setup. There were many dobs and SCT's there. We got the camper setup and the kids headed for the beach. Their big discovery were the frogs that were all over the place. The lake is many miles long but rather narrow, and the water was pretty chilly. There were many fisherman out on the lake each day, and one of the star party contests was, who could catch the biggest fish. The winner was a couple of campsites from us, with a 7 lb something or other. I'm not a fisherman.

Sunday night was cloudy, but Monday it cleared off, and the sky was great. It was quite humid though, and the dew dropped almost immediately after dark. This ended up being the best night of the week, except for the previous Saturday, which was clear and dry. The dew got to my scope within 2 hours, so I was done for the night, since I don't have any dew fighting equipment for the field.

Tuesday was cloudy. Wednesday and Thursday were clear with haze, and very windy ( 20 - 30 mph). This made for difficult observing, since star hopping requires checking the field on the charts and then going back to the eyepiece. By the time I'd get back to the eyepiece, the wind had moved the scope to another part of the sky. It makes a great weathervane. So, I didn't get any serious observing in.

The star party had a beach party one day, and tubing down a river another day, and on Friday the talks and the prize giveaways. My daughter won a pair of binoculars. And my wife won a very nice astronomy book. I won some software, which runs on a Mac, so I gave it to a Mac user.

At the Beach party, they had many activities for both children and adults. Kite flying, volleyball, tug-of-war, water balloons, cookout, sandwedge shot for the golf fanatics, and the 3-legged race. My wife and I won the 3-legged race for the adult division.

Saturday was cloudy so we headed for the Black Hills in South Dakota. Apparently most people left the star party on Saturday.

One of the pieces of data I overheard, was a list of telescopes was accrued by one of the organizers. I didn't get an exact count, but there was one 36", I think two 26", one 25", three 24", six 20", and many in the 12 to 18 inch range, and a ton of 8 and 10" scopes there.

The star party was fun for the family, but the weather didn't do us any favors for the week. However, I am planning on going back next year, because this location is so far from any major city, that the sky is black all the way around the horizon. The one good night we could see milky way from horizon to horizon. If the moisture had been less, these skies do rival the famed skies of the Texas Star Party, which I went to last year.

I also met a few people from Michigan at NSP. Notably Tim from Traverse City, who will be attending the October star party in Cadillac this fall.

The week in the Black Hills brought 2 nights of clear weather, with a bright moon, but I set up on one night and showed some of the neighboring campers a few things.

In addition, we went horse back riding, swimming, and saw Wind Caves, Rushmore Caves, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse monument, buffalo, long horned sheep, mountain goats, elk, deer, Needles highway in the mountains, and the Badlands. The family really enjoyed this trip.

All in all it was great fun, and I'll be back.

See ya next time.