So how many regular posters in here are from the Central Wyoming area?

No bites?  Someone identified himself as from Wyoming awhile back, one post and never has returned.

Even over at Cloudy Nights which has vastly more members, I've only run across 3 or 4.

You gotta figure the percentages. Only a small fraction of amateurs spend time looking at forums like these and an even tinier fraction register and take part. There just ain't that many of us in Wyoming. 

Hi alancorey1979,

You may find that the nearest group of armature astronomers near you is the Black Hills Astronomical Society. The are located in Rapid City SD. Here is a link:

http://rap.midco.net/ggladfel/BHAS/

JJ 

 Rapid? Long way from where Alan's at. I wonder how much really dark sky is left in the Hills anymore.

Well the closest club to me, is my own astronomy society. I am the president of CWAS (central wyoming astronomical society) www.cw-as.com

Aside from us, there is the Laramie Astronomy Society, The Cheyenne Astronomical Society, and coming soon I think is the Fremont/Riverton Astronomical Society. They are coming to my night sky observation on the 26th of this month to learn what it takes to have a club. Gillette also has one now, as well does Jackson Hole, but I never hear to much about Jackson Hole so I am not sure if they make themselves public or not.

But I digress....I was just letting all my fellow locals know of my solar observation at the beartrap summer festival this weekend. We will be enjoying bluegrass music all weekend while checking out the sun through the coronado PST. I am raffling off a pair of 7x50 nikon binocs, as well as 50% of a 50/50 drawing. The weekend will be wrapped up on Sunday night with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band playing at the festival. Also I have a public night sky observation set up for the 26th of this month at a location outside of Casper. It gets very dark and awesome there........providing the wind isn't blowing. Last year we got to see the milky way so bright, it was casting shadows.

let the festivities begin.

Alan,

email or PM me if you have any phone numbers or names of some of the people who might be trying to get something going here in Fremont county.

Someone set up a CSC centered in the park in Riverton and NOLS has one for Lander, but I've never run across anyone who does any astronomy. I'm only about 50 miles west of them, close enough to get together.There's a few people up in Dubois too. 

No problem. I will see them in the 26th of this month, so what information should I give them?

 Alan,

As I type this, it appears you are logged in here, I tried to send you an email through the forum, but I'm not sure if they always go through. We got a breakdown in communication. I know there are a few amateurs down in the lower country around Riverton and Lander. Since some have contacted the CWAS, I'm looking for a way to contact one or 2 of them to find out just what sort observing etc. they might be doing. I've operated an observatory here for the past 15 years and except for a huge remotely operated one west of Dubois I know of no others. I've tried to contact CWAS in the past to no avail, most of us amateur astronomers in western Wyoming operate in isolation. There is another observatory  just north of me on the Bear River, but I've never been able to find out who it is or get in contact with them.

John, WRS Observatory 

You might also try posting at Cloudy Nights in the Clubs and Outreach forum.

Very wide readership there. 

John,

 I recently took over as president of CWAS so if you ever need to contact us you can get my at my personal email. That is if you want to get me quickly that would be the best place to email me. The email address is alancorey1979@msn.com. When I talk to these people who are coming up I will let them know that you are in that area. If I remember correctly, one of the members bought a 10" go to scope built by meade but he has no clue how to use it.

Well OK. If any of these guys in the county get something going after getting with the Casper group and want to get in touch with me this forum is probably the best means right now.

I won't post personal contact info in a public forum so the initial contact would have to be through  an email or PM at a place like this. Or if there is an active participation with CWAS and some contact info for some of them is listed at your web site I can get to them that way.

Or find out if they ever put notices of get togethers in the local paper.