- Astronomy Magazine

Astronomy Insights
A Digital Supplement to
Astronomy Magazine
America’s
Dark-Sky
Locations
How to Choose an
Observing Site
March 2016 • Astronomy.com
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Amateur astronomy
20
best dark-sky
sites in the U.S.
Searching for a place to set up your telescope? A top-notch location might be closer than you think.
by Michael E. Bakich
D
ie-hard amateur astronomers aren’t the only ones who
want a dark observing site. It could be that you
recently purchased your first telescope, and you’re
dying to know how well it can perform under optimal
conditions. Unfortunately, you live in a metropolitan
area where just catching the Moon in the sky is an accomplishment. Take heart! As this map shows, you’ll find great observing
locations throughout the contiguous United States.
Some are the sites of star parties, three- to nine-day annual
events where amateurs — as well as the public — gather under a
dark sky. Others are sites managed by and for local astronomy
clubs. Become a member and you’ll gain immediate access to a
dark site. Still others are communities set up specifically for amateur astronomers where you can lease or purchase lots.
Whichever location you choose, you will experience a great
limiting magnitude (the faintest star you can see) and good seeing
(the steadiness of the atmosphere above you). Just remember to
check the weather forecast before you go. No site is good enough
to overcome clouds.
1 Cherry Springs State Park
Location: near Galeton,
Pennsylvania
Open: year-round
Hosts: the Cherry Springs Star
Party; the Black Forest Star Party;
Music and Stars programs featuring concerts followed by an hour
of stargazing (requires admission
fee); free public programs
Note: The International Dark-Sky
Association named it the second
International Dark Sky Park on
June 11, 2008.
[w] www.dcnr.state.pa.us/
stateparks/findapark/
cherrysprings
southern horizon at its highest.
[w] www.scas.org/wsp.html
2 Green Bank Star Quest
Location: Green Bank,
West Virginia
Open: once a year for a four-night
star party
Note: Organizers bill the Star
Quest as the largest optical and
radio star party in the nation. Registration includes campsite and
shower facilities.
[w] www.greenbankstarquest.org
3 Deerlick Astronomy Village
Location: Sharon, Georgia
Open: to individuals who buy an
2
annual field membership; 1.5-acre
plots for cabins or houses are
available on these 96 acres
Hosts: the Peach State Star Gaze
Note: As of this writing, only four
sites remain available.
[w] www.deerlickgroup.com
4 Chiefland Astronomy
Village
Location: 7 miles south of
Chiefland, Florida
Open: to members, and to visitors
approximately 10 days per month
for $5 per night
Hosts: the Chiefland Star Party
[w] www.chiefland.com/
chieflandastronomyvillage.php
5 Winter Star Party
Location: on Scout Key in the
Florida Keys
Open: once a year for a weeklong
star party
Note: This location has the most
southerly latitude — 24°38'58.2"
— of any dark-sky site on this
map. From here, Acrux (Alpha [α]
Crucis), the southernmost bright
star in Crux the Southern Cross,
sits right on the horizon, and the
globular cluster Omega Centauri
(NGC 5139) stands 18° above the
A ST R O N O M Y I N S I GH TS • MAR CH 2016
Michael E. Bakich is an Astronomy senior editor who has observed at
most of the sites on this map (and lots more).
6 Great Lakes Star Gaze
Location: River Valley RV Park in
Gladwin, Michigan
Open: once a year for a four-day
star party
Note: In addition to sites at the RV
park, you’ll find available lodging
at five nearby locations. Registration discounts are available to
those signing up before the
posted deadlines.
[w] www.greatlakesstargaze.com
7 Hobbs Observatory
Location: Beaver Creek Reserve
near Fall Creek, Wisconsin
Open: year-round to members of
the Chippewa Valley Astronomical
Society (CVAS) and guests
Hosts: the Northwoods Starfest, a
three-day event in late summer
Note: The CVAS conducts monthly
club meetings (except during
December) that include programs
and observing and are open to
the public.
[w] www.cvastro.org/events.htm
8 Heart of America Star Party
Location: near Butler, Missouri
Open: once a year for a five- to
seven-day star party
Note: hosted by the Astronomical
Society of Kansas City
[w] www.hoasp.org
9 Nebraska Star Party
Location: Snake Campground,
Merritt Reservoir, 27 miles south
of Valentine, Nebraska
Open: once a year for a weeklong
star party
Note: A Nebraska State Park
entrance permit ($4 per day; $20
per year) is required on all vehicles entering the observing field.
A $7 per day fee also is required if
you are camping in the park.
[w] www.nebraskastarparty.org
10 Okie-Tex Star Party
Location: Camp Billy Joe, 1 mile
east of Kenton, Oklahoma
Open: once a year for a nine-day
star party
Note: The event is hosted by the
Oklahoma City Astronomy Club.
The club allows school groups
that preregister to attend.
[w] www.okie-tex.com
11 Rocky Mountain Star Stare
Location: private land roughly 6
in g t o
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Background: iStockphoto/Thinkstock; map: Astronomy: Roen Kelly
Wa s h
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G eo rg ia
La.
Flo
4
12
rid
a
MEXICO
5
miles north of Gardner, Colorado
Open: once a year for a five-day
star party in June or early July
Note: The Colorado Springs Astronomical Society hosts this event,
which features speakers, kids’
activities, door prizes, and more.
[w] www.rmss.org
12 Texas Star Party
Location: Prude Ranch, 5 miles
north of Fort Davis, Texas
Open: once a year for a weeklong
star party
Note: Prude Ranch offers tent
camping, trailer/RV sites, bunkhouses that sleep eight to 20, and
family cabins that sleep two to
four. Because of high demand,
organizers of the Texas Star Party
conduct a random drawing in
January to choose that year’s
actual attendees.
[w] www.texasstarparty.org
13 Double U Ranch
Location: near Cornudas, Texas
Open: year-round to members
and guests of the Sun City
Astronomers (SCA)
Note: The SCA meets monthly in
the Gene Roddenberry Planetarium, 6531 Boeing Drive in El Paso.
[w] http://tech.groups.yahoo.
com/group/suncityastronomy
14 Enchanted Skies Star Party
Location: Socorro, New Mexico
Open: once a year for a four-day
star party
Note: offers tours of the Karl G.
Jansky Very Large Array and a
night of observing at the Magdalena Ridge Observatory, which
sits atop South Baldy at an elevation of 10,600 feet (3,230 meters)
[w] www.enchantedskies.org
15 Granite Gap
Location: 13 miles northnorthwest of Animas, New Mexico
Open: year-round to lessees and
for site inspection visits by individuals wishing to lease plots
Note: Leases are available for
1/3-acre plots on which you can
park a camper or erect an observatory. Rental units are available
for extended stays.
[w] www.granitegap.com
16 Russell Country Star Party
Location: Lewis and Clark
Interpretive Center, Great Falls,
Montana
Open: monthly on Friday nights
closest to New Moon, weather
permitting
Note: The Central Montana
Astronomy Society, with cooperation from the U.S. Forest Service,
hosts these events, which include
refreshments, indoor kids’ activities, free admission to the Lewis
and Clark Center, and more.
[w] www.russell.visitmt.com/
listings/15177.htm
17 Grand Canyon Star Party
Location: the North and South
rims of Grand Canyon National
Park in Arizona
Open: once a year for a weeklong
star party
Note: Volunteers set up their telescopes for park visitors. Admission
for seven days is $25 per private
vehicle or $12 per individual.
[w] www.nps.gov/grca/
planyourvisit/grand-canyonstar-party.htm
18 Table Mountain Star Party
Location: approximately 20 miles
north of Ellensburg, Washington
Open: once a year in July or
August for a three-day star party
Note: You can get to the star party
other ways than the directions on
its website. Alternate routes, however, are generally suitable only
for four-wheel-drive vehicles.
[w] www.tmspa.com
19 Oregon Star Party
Location: Indian Trail Spring in the
Ochoco National Forest, 45 miles
east of Prineville, Oregon
Open: once a year for a weeklong
star party
Note: This star party spreads
across 40 acres and offers some of
the darkest skies in the country.
Organizers develop three observing lists every year, each with an
award certificate and pin.
[w] www.oregonstarparty.org
20 Steve Kufeld
Astronomical Site
Location: 2.5 acres approximately
90 miles northwest of Los
Angeles, California
Open: year-round to members
and guests of the Los Angeles
Astronomical Society
Note: The site offers 57 concrete
pads with power outlets for setting up personal telescopes.
Members can purchase one of
these pads for a nominal fee.
[w] www.laas.org
W W W.ASTR ONOMY.CO M
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TEAM
CELESTRON
STEPHEN HAWKING
JOHN DAVIS
In early 2015, Celestron staff traveled to
the physicist’s home to install a custom 11”
CPC Deluxe HD telescope enabling him
to wirelessly image the Moon, nebula,
planets, and distant galaxies.
Writer, director, and producer of Jimmy
Neutron: Boy Genius, Davis’s work has been
featured on the pages of Sky & Telescope,
Astronomy, and NASA’s Astronomy Picture
of the Day (APOD).
Discoverer of Jupiter’s “Red Spot Junior”
a decade ago using a Celestron C11 and a
Skyris camera, Go is a famed planetary imager
and current member of the American
Astronomical Society and its Division
for Planetary Sciences.
DYLAN O’DONNELL
GRANT REGEN
PHIL PLAIT
O’Donnell rocketed onto the scene in 2015
with an instantly viral, APOD winning image
of the ISS transiting the Moon. He regularly
contributes to the Celestron blog and hosts
the livestreaming Global Star Party.
Regen quickly taught himself to use advanced-level
equipment from Celestron and produced
images almost immediately. He began
sharing his knowledge with others through his
blog series, “Learning Skyris”.
Authoring numerous popular books, the Bad
Astronomy blog for Slate.com, moderating panels,
and engaging the public through podcasts, live
hangouts on the web, and social media – Phil
Plait is a science communication powerhouse.
4
A S T R O N O M Y I N SIGHTS • MAR CH 2016
CHRISTOPHER GO
WHO WOULD YOU DRAFT
for your squad of astronomy all stars?
For the past few years, Celestron has been curating a veritable dream team of fans, brand ambassadors, and organizations
from all walks of life, professional and amateur, who make significant contributions to astronomy, astroimaging, and public
outreach. Explore the full roster, their stories, and images at Team Celestron and be sure to stay tuned for some exciting
new additions in 2016.
JIMMY WALKER
TAHOE STAR TOURS
ASTRONOMERS
WITHOUT BORDERS
PGA golfer by day, astroimager by night.
As he’s traveling the country winning major
golf events, Walker uses a Celestron telescope housed in New Mexico to conduct
astroimaging sessions remotely.
Operated by Tony Berendsen and his son
Ryan, Tahoe Star Tours has been giving tourists
unforgettable views of the skies above the
Sierras for the past two decades while
melding poetry, music, and outreach.
THIERRY LEGAULT
ROBERT REEVES
DAMIAN PEACH
Author and astroimager Thierry Legault has
had a variety of awards and accomplishments
attached to his name. Legault is widely known
for his astounding images of the Sun, the
Moon, the ISS, and spy satellites.
Prolific astroimager, speaker, and author on all
things celestial (including his 20 encyclopedia articles about space exploration), Reeves has been
imaging the Moon for over 50 years!
A young veteran, Peach has been imaging
for 25 years and has a string of awards and
accolades too numerous to list here. Widely
considered one of the best astrophotographers
in the world.
Astronomy has been a part of every culture in
history and that’s the foundation of Astronomers
Without Borders: One People, One Sky. Through
efforts big and small, AWB connects people
worldwide through our shared night sky.
W W W.ASTR ONOMY.CO M
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CITY SCOPES
Stargazing
in the
Dark sites are great for veteran
observers, but when throwing
a star party for new friends,
go where the people are.
by Korey Haynes
The landmark Griffith Observatory was always intended as a place Angelenos
could have as their personal connection to the stars. GRIFFITH OBSERVATORY
T
he day had been fine and clear,
with the Sun shining brightly
over Lake Michigan. But as twilight now descends, fog rises up
to smear out the Chicago skyline. Undaunted, Michelle Nichols, a master educator with the Adler Planetarium,
continues to unpack her Dobsonian
telescope, centering it squarely between
the bright lights of the library parking
lot. Nearby, volunteer astronomers set up
binoculars on a tripod and a small go-to
scope, all of them pointed at the only visible target: the Moon.
Korey Haynes is an Astronomy associate editor
with a passion for public outreach. Previously,
she volunteered with the Smithsonian’s National
Air and Space Museum and Project Astro.
6
A ST R O N O M Y I N S I GH TS • MAR CH 2016
As darkness deepens, visitors appear. A
young woman shows up with a male companion in tow. “I’m so excited,” she says.
“I saw this announcement in the neighborhood bulletin, and I texted everybody.”
Saturn finally peeks through the gloom,
and Nichols turns her scope on the ringed
giant, bringing it into focus.
“Okay,” she tells the young woman,
stepping back. “Go ahead.”
She leans over and her face lights up.
From behind the eyepiece, she exclaims,
“This is the best day of my life!”
Megan Gorzkowski, like most of the
other visitors, has never looked through a
telescope before, though she says she has
long been a space fan. But the star party
came right to her neighborhood tonight. So
for roughly an hour and a half, she hangs
out and mingles with the astronomers.
And she isn’t alone. Most of the more than
two dozen attendees, whose ages range
from a few months to past middle age, stick
around for the duration of the event.
The limited seeing doesn’t seem to
bother them. They ask about the motor
on the go-to scope, the Dob’s Lazy Susan
base, and the backgrounds of the astronomers gathered around. They duck in for
second, third, and fourth looks at Saturn
and its rings. Nichols encourages them
to steer the Dob on their own to follow
Saturn’s surprisingly swift path, and they
pan around the Moon’s surface, learning
words like “ray” and “terminator.”
If you ever find yourself lamenting the
dearth of new blood in astronomy: This is
how you fix it.
Hollywood stars
Los Angeles, CA
city
If you’re pessimistic about observing
targets, it’s true that deep-sky objects will
be mostly out of reach in the city (though
even at dark sites, newcomers often are
disappointed that visual observing can’t
attain the glowing colors that Hubble
reveals). But not even the Big Apple can
drown out the brilliance of Saturn with its
flaring rings. It’s impossible to look at the
Moon the same way after poring across
its surface with just binoculars. And these
simple celestial wonders shine extra bright
for urban crowds accustomed to seeing
only a handful of stars when they glance
up at their night skies.
Even in America’s biggest, most lightpolluted cities, astronomy lovers reach out
to each other to share their passion, as well
as some surprisingly nice telescopes.
Whatever your thoughts on city observing, one place should spring to mind
immediately: Griffith Observatory reigns
as the most popular in the world, with
more than a million visitors per year.
Perched just above the smog and lights
of Los Angeles, a stone’s throw from the
famed Hollywood Sign, Griffith has since
its inception not just tolerated its urban
status, but embraced it. But even with a
state-of-the-art planetarium and plenty of
museum-style exhibit space, the staff still
prioritize true telescopic observing above
all else. “We’re in business to put people
eyeball to the universe,” says E. C. Krupp,
director of the observatory. “That’s what
Colonel Griffith originally intended, when
he conceived of a public observatory and
left money in his will for it.”
Since 1935 (except for a five-year break
in the early 2000s for renovations and
expansions), Griffith has entranced visitors,
especially locals, with its stately white walls
and active approach to astronomy that casts
each visitor as an observer. “The architecture, the exhibits, the planetarium … all of
this is really designed to make people fall in
love with the sky, astronomy, and the place,”
Krupp explains. “And in fact Griffith really
is one of the most affectionately regarded
places in Los Angeles. Everybody knows
they own it; it’s municipal.”
With anywhere between hundreds
of people on a slow night and thousands
on special occasions, the numbers support Krupp’s assessment of its popularity.
Located high on its hill, the observatory requires a little dedication to visit,
but sky lovers flock there nonetheless.
Griffith boasts a 12-inch Zeiss refractor, and Krupp is proud to tell me that
more people have looked through it than
any other telescope in the world. Every
night when the skies are clear, portable
Chicago’s busy Millennium Park attracts many visitors who are happy to stop and try out
some telescope observing. ADLER PLANETARIUM
W W W.ASTR ONOMY.CO M
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New York City’s Amateur Astronomers Association is more often seen in high-traffic areas like Lincoln
Center. But cemeteries remain prime urban “dark” sites for special occasions. STAN HONDA
telescopes dot the lawn and once a month,
the Los Angeles Astronomical Society,
Los Angeles Sidewalk Astronomers, and
Planetary Society members join in as well
to host star parties. Even and especially
when sky events occur that would be visible
anywhere — eclipses, comets, or the 2012
Venus transit — visitors appear at Griffith
in droves. “The observatory is sensed as a
place you can make contact,” Krupp says.
“Something special happens here.”
Guerilla astronomy
New York City, NY
If Griffith is about making a pilgrimage to astronomy, New York takes the
opposite tack. The Amateur Astronomers
Association (AAA) brings their telescopes
to the people, engaging in guerilla-style
stargazing to find pedestrians in neighborhoods all across the city. Their favorite
spots include High Line Park and Lincoln
Center, both well traveled, brightly lit areas
that are no one’s idea of a great observing
site — at least by traditional thinking.
Ten years ago, the club would meet in
the darkest spots they could find in the
city — hilltops far uptown, even cemeteries, relying on would-be observers following “breadcrumbs,” such as balloons tied
to park benches, in order to find the telescopes. “But it was still urban observing,”
complains Marcelo Cabrera, the club’s
president. “It was a darker area, but that
also made it perhaps more unsafe and
inaccessible.” Their novel approach began
in 2009, with the International Year of
8
A ST R O N O M Y I N S I GH TS • MAR CH 2016
Astronomy. “We just told our members to
go out, let us know where you’re going to
be, but don’t go farther than two, three
blocks from where you live,” he says. “And
most people said, ‘Well there are a lot of
people there, and streetlights.’ Perfect!
That’s what we want! We’re going to do
the experiment.”
By any reasonable metric, the experiment worked. Cabrera reports a few thousand visitors every Friday and Saturday
night when the weather is good. Many are
tourists, adding a star party to an activity
list that also might include walking through
Times Square or taking in a Broadway
show. But the locals also show up in force,
some of them even becoming regulars,
though Cabrera admits they have far more
attendees than dues-paying club members.
The AAA’s reach is enormous. In addition to weekly observing sessions scattered
across the city, it still holds bigger annual
star parties and special events, as well as
trekking outside the city to hold dark sky
events for its more dedicated members. The
crowds keep the AAA busy, but Cabrera
says members and visitors both enjoy the
new normal. Members find themselves
viewing the same urban-limited targets
they used to, but with far greater impact
and without the strain of carting telescopes
up muddy hills or venturing into dark corners of the city. And newcomers find the
club more easily — stumble across it, in
fact, allowing the AAA to recruit people
who never knew an astronomy club was an
option in the heart of Manhattan.
Lone star
Fort Worth, TX
But how do you turn these one-time visitors into regular astronomers? Visitors to
the Fort Worth Museum of Science and
History provided their own solution
according to Sarah Twidal, who manages
their monthly star parties with the help of
the Fort Worth Astronomical Society.
“A lot of people bring out their telescopes
and they’ve never used them before,” she
says. “They’ve been sitting in a closet picking up dust. The astronomers will just jump
up and help put them together, figure out
how to use them. That’s increased our
return visits greatly. A lot of people who
come are regulars, who started to love this
place because they’ve been lent a helping
hand by the local astronomy society.”
Outreach is actually a foundational component of the club. In 1947, a retired math
teacher named Charlie Mary Noble founded
the Junior Astronomy Club at what was then
called the Fort Worth Children’s Museum.
A self-taught astronomer, Noble led weekly
meetings where students observed and
recorded the skies. She put together a lending library of telescopes and formed a team
for Project Moonwatch (a nationwide effort
Observing in New York
City can involve peeking
between buildings, in addition to normal sky-watching
weather concerns. But the
high rates of participation
outweigh the meager benefits of oxymoronic “dark
sky urban observing.”
MARCELO CABRERA
equally wary. “The equipment is also
intimidating,” Cowles adds. In addition to
helping new observers set up and understand their equipment, his club also
stresses that you can enjoy the hobby without straining your purse strings. “We don’t
want to be telescope snobs,” he says. His
club utilizes tiny Dobsonians that can
perch on picnic tables and binoculars on
tripods, as well as reflectors from 8 to 12
inches, a large refractor, and often a homemade scope or two. “We try to have a
range, so people don’t think they have to
spend a fortune,” Cowles explains.
Their consideration seems to be paying
off. The club is growing rapidly, with new
members almost every month and an active
Young Astronomers Club that carries on
the heart of Charlie Mary Noble’s mission.
Southern skies
Atlanta, GA
John McCrea, a member of the Fort Worth Astronomical Society, sets up a telescope for solar observing, a popular option for urban skywatching. CHIP TOMPKINS, COURTESY FT. WORTH MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND HISTORY
to track Sputnik and other Soviet satellites).
The current astronomical society grew out
of her club and maintains its close ties with
the museum, as well as her supportive and
inclusive example.
“People are intimidated by astronomy,”
observes Bruce Cowles, president of the
astronomical society. He combats this feeling by encouraging all visitors to ask questions. “We love talking about this stuff, so
we don’t mind talking about it to you, ever
… To see people so excited keeps us excited.”
And if the subject matter intimidates
some, the mechanically disinclined can be
Not all astronomy clubs are as naturally
dedicated to servicing the broader community. In Atlanta, Fernbank Science Center
had to defend its 36-inch Cassegrain
reflector from an understandably covetous astronomy club who wanted to see
the telescope relocated to darker skies
some 95 miles outside the city. But nearby
Agnes Scott College provided a cautionary
tale. The school relocated their 30-inch
telescope to a remote site to escape light
pollution, only to find that its use plummeted, as even astronomy students tired of
the long commute. They eventually moved
it back to campus, where it now enjoys
both public and academic use.
Ed Albin, who has been an astronomer
with Fernbank since 1988, was keen to prevent history from repeating itself. “We listened to [the astronomy club’s] request,” he
says, and acknowledges the obvious allure
of a large-aperture, public telescope under
dark skies. But for him, the decision to keep
the instrument at the science center was an
easy one. “We know that the public really
would not go out there on a regular basis,”
he says. “We wouldn’t captivate children
and families like we do here in the city.”
While the standard urban-attainable
targets of the Moon and planets figure
prominently in the museum’s observing
repertoire, 36 inches, even in Atlanta, also
reaches not just the Andromeda Galaxy
(M31) and bright globular clusters, but even
planetary nebulae like the Ring Nebula
(M57) and the Ghost of Jupiter (NGC 3242).
The observatory is open every Thursday
and Friday evening and sees between 100
and 200 visitors a night, though thousands
W W W.ASTR ONOMY.CO M
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The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum’s public
observatory in Washington, D.C., uses small telescopes to supplement its 16-inch instrument for
observing events. ERIC LONG (SMITHSONIAN)
may appear for special occasions. For the
2003 opposition of Mars, Albin recalls
opening the observatory when the Red
Planet rose. “We shut down when we lost it
in the trees in the west around 5 a.m. and
we still had literally hundreds of people.”
Stars and stripes
Washington, D.C.
On the other hand, as with the other observatories and science centers, Fernbank’s
guests have already made the first step
toward becoming an observer simply by
choosing to visit. “When you have a public
night, when they come to you, these are
people who already think astronomy is for
them,” explains Shauna Edson, an educator with the Smithsonian Air and Space
Museum’s Phoebe Waterman Haas Public
Observatory. “When you go outside the
observatory, you get a totally different group
of people. The beauty of it is that it’s a surprise. The sidewalk astronomy element is
exactly that they find you unexpectedly.”
She should know. Their program has
a bit of both approaches. The observatory
nestles close to the museum’s Washington,
D.C., location and houses a 16-inch telescope that once belonged to Harvard
College Observatory and is now on indefinite loan to the museum. Wednesdays
through Sundays, museum-goers can
augment their visit with solar observing.
And by sitting right on busy Independence
Avenue, only a block off the National Mall
and in the heart of the cluster of other
Smithsonian buildings, the observatory
attracts plenty of foot traffic — at least
during daylight hours.
10
A ST R O N O M Y I N S I GH TS • MAR CH 2016
By day, the Smithsonian’s public observatory
volunteers show visitors the Sun via a projection
screen attached to the 16-inch telescope.
ERIC LONG (SMITHSONIAN)
“It’s not a place you really want to hang
out in at night,” Edson admits. The neighborhood isn’t among D.C.’s worst by any
means, but residential and dining options
are nearly nonexistent, so when the
museum crowds disperse for the night, the
observatory’s visitors also tend to evaporate.
The museum’s semiregular series of
evening talks entices some of them back.
Visitors can use the 16-inch scope to view
Jupiter, Saturn, or perhaps a bright star
cluster, and volunteers also bring out
smaller telescopes to join in the fun. Some
observers are regulars, fans of the museum
and stargazing, and thrilled to have such a
resource in their own city. Many are tourists from around the world.
But without such special events, pedestrians are in short supply. And the resource
cost to keep the museum open so long after
hours is a strain. So the observatory is in
the process of launching their own guerilla
astronomy program, planning to bring their
portable telescopes on the metro and strike
areas like busy residential Arlington, or the
well-traveled and bustling Navy Memorial
or Chinatown — locations with metro
access and lots of evening foot traffic.
The high ratio of tourists to locals at the
museum makes it impossible to track how
many star party attendees find their way
back to a telescope in the future. But the
wonder and excitement they so obviously
display makes it clear the organizers have
shared something special with them,
whether that manifests in a newfound
interest in observing, a general affection
for space and science, or simply a sense of
wonder and beauty in the universe.
Sweet home Chicago
Chicago, IL
Back in Chicago, Nichols hands out free
passes to the Adler Planetarium to anyone
who stops by the star party, hoping to
encourage more than a one-time interest
in the cosmos. The landmark planetarium
is halfway through renovations on their
20-inch Doane telescope, which looks
out over the lake. The observatory now
boasts viewing screens and easier access,
and upgraded electronics are forthcoming. Volunteers are coming up to speed
as fast as Adler can train them on the
Doane, which is equipped during the day
for solar viewing and open whenever they
have cooperative weather and the staff to
operate it.
“’Scopes in the City,” the name given to
these frequently occurring star parties,
continues to pick up steam. “Last year we
only had four events in our pilot program,”
Nichols says. “This year we have 25 on the
books, extending our reach into communities that may not have access to experiences
such as this.”
Michelle Nichols helps young astronomers look through telescopes to observe the Sun and stars
across Chicagoland neighborhoods. ADLER PLANETARIUM
CELESTRON IN AMERICA’S
NATIONAL PARKS
America’s network of national parks has been an inspiration and model
for conservation and recreation to the world for the last 100 years.
This year as we celebrate the Centennial of the National Park Service,
Celestron is reflecting on its proud history of support and partnership
with America’s most cherished lands and their stewards working to
promote outdoor recreation and conservation for the enjoyment of all.
Bridging the gap between land and sky, Celestron has also partnered with
the International Dark-Sky Association in an effort to bring awareness to
the issue of light pollution. As some of the last vestiges of dark skies in
America, the national parks serve as a refuge and stronghold, a symbol
of unspoiled nature and humanity’s shared heritage.
Celestron in America’s National Parks 2016
Bryce Canyon Astronomy Festival
Badlands Astronomy Festival
Sequoia Dark Sky Festival
Acadia Night Sky Festival
Great Basin Astronomy Festival
Utah, June 1-4
South Dakota, July 8-10
California, August 5-7
Maine, September 22-25
Nevada, September 29-October 1
The National Park Foundation
Since 2014 Celestron has partnered with the National Park Foundation
and created a line of official NPF licensed telescopes, sport optics and
outdoor electronics in support of America’s national parks. Purchases of
Celestron’s National Park Foundation products support the preservation
of America’s national parks.
celestron.com/npf
Proud Supporter of
W W W.ASTR ONOMY.CO M
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The Adler Planetarium and its 20-inch Doane
telescope (lower right), occupy possibly the
loveliest real estate in Chicago’s Museum Park.
Residents consider the glare of nearby downtown a fair trade for easy access to the stars
without ever leaving the city. ADLER PLANETARIUM
As a fledgling program, it’s hard to say
yet what effect ’Scopes in the City is having on Chicagoland neighborhoods and
their residents. But at one point, two visitors almost simultaneously approached
Nichols from opposite sides, wanting to
know when and where the next event will
be held. For them, at least, the astronomy
bug had bitten.
Adler’s ’Scopes in the City exemplifies
the best way to attract newcomers to any
hobby: Be friendly. Be convenient. The former simply requires remembering what it
was once like to be inexperienced at a new
hobby and uncertain of your welcome in a
strange community. As to the latter, what’s
more convenient than finding people
where most of them live?
Whether you’re an Astronomy reader
who has yet to try observing first hand, or
a veteran observer who wants to make
some new friends, consider heading downtown. Despite the bright lights, the nearest
star party may be closer than you think.
Chicago’s Adler Planetarium also brings portable telescopes to neighborhoods across the city, though
the largest crowds are easier to find at landmarks like Millennium Park. ADLER PLANETARIUM
FIND MORE OPPORTUNITIES FOR STARGAZING IN THE CITIES AT www.Astronomy.com/toc.
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A ST R O N O M Y I N S I GH TS • MAR CH 2016