On the road: Tucson Star Party 2013 - Dave's Universe - Astronomy

Credit: Tony Hallas

Early tomorrow morning, I’ll head to Tucson, where astronomers are gathering for a big public star party event at Pima Community College’s East Campus on Saturday, February 16. Senior Editor Michael Bakich is already there, and we’ll both be helping coordinate an event that will bring together not only Astronomy magazine and Pima Community College, but also the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association, the International Dark Sky Association, the University of Arizona’s Mount Lemmon SkyCenter, the Astronomy Foundation, and the Girl Scouts of America.

Michael and I will be blogging about our experiences from attendng the star party, from visiting some local observatories in Tucson, and from seeing the meteorites at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, which is currently taking place. The fact that tens of thousands of people are in the city right now — many predisposed to astronomy — will drive attendance at the star party.

Expect to start hearing from Michael and me on Thursday. And we hope to see you in Tucson!

In case you didn’t see it before, you can find the full description of Saturday’s event here.

Dave,

It was great to talk with you at the Tucson Star Party. The response of crowd that we had for both the solar session and the evening session was a very strong indication of why these events are essential.

I do have to appologize to Michael; he patiently waited while I was setting up my 18" Teeter for the night session, while helping my grandson set up a 10" SCT on an Atlas EQ-G. Well, both scopes had issues; suffice to say I've never had an elevation encoder fall off, AND forget to put the second star name into the Sky Commander for the alignment, while Stephen's power cord discoonected so we had to rebrain the Atlas. By the time we were ready to rock and roll, Michael moved on to working instruments. The good part was that through the equipment difficulties, I was able to give the crowd a cultural tour of the visible sky elements, mixing in some Greek with Navajo, Cherokee, Apache, and North African perspectives which they enjoyed as much as the eye candy. Looking forward to a time when you can make it to the Grand Canyon Star Party, where our 100+ astronomer volunteers really shine for over 1000 visitors every night.

Jim O'Connor

South Rim Coordinator

Grand Canyon Star Party

gcsp@tucsonastronomy.org