“Watch me pull off a miracle,” Angie announces. I’m helping organize the club’s 70th anniversary celebration and she catches me by surprise. Angie Hutchison has set up all the tables, including decorations, for the incoming crowd, when she realizes she has misplaced name tags. While not an event killer, it would be a nice-to-have. As … Read more
If you have not been to this star party before, it’s a real treat and very much worth the trip. The dark skies, hospitality, convenience, facilities, and good food that you find there are really, really hard to beat. It’s difficult to say enough good things about this star party and the effort that the … Read more
70th Year Celebration Start time is 7:00 pm, but please arrive early, so you can mix with other guests. We are at capacity, and we’re not allowing any more reservations. Recommended dress is business casual–no need for a tie, but dressing up a little would not be out of place. Buffet dinner Mosaic Garden SaladBell … Read more
The skies at this park are very good-we could easily see the Milky Way, which is always a good omen. The park itself is very clean and well kept. We set up near a pavilion, also adjacent to bathrooms, and the sky was wide open almost all the way around. The night was hosted by … Read more
Who says jeeps and telescopes don’t mix? It turned out to be a good night for star gazing last week with a large crowd at Intermission Beer Company, due to it being Jeep NIght, but we had about 20-30 people interested in looking through our telescopes, too. No Moon, but we saw Jupiter, Saturn, and … Read more
Registration is now open for the fall installment of the Staunton River Star Party (October 21-27). Registration information at http://www.chaosastro.org/starparty/ This star party is distinguished by being held at Staunton River State Park, which is designated by the International Dark Skies Association as a dark sky park and has a dedicated observing field adjacent to … Read more
Below is a link to images of the March 2018 party compressed into three minutes for your enjoyment. Click on the image to view the video or watch on YouTube here. You can view a longer version of the October 2017 party at this link.
Greg Redfern of the website What’s UP? The Space Place gave us all a good reason to stay awake at conventions: he played a video of the Chelyabinsk meteor exploding over Russia in 2013. The shock wave damaged 7,200 buildings and injured over 1,500 people. Needless to say, the playback over the sound system was LOUD. … Read more
. On April 20 John Raymond, Ray Moody and I traveled by car to Suffern, NY for the 2018 Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF) show (27th year!). Indeed, quite a show it is. . The lengthy trip was a pleasant one, with no shortage of discussion among the three of us about the world of astronomy. … Read more
Clouds, clouds, and more clouds. ECSP, sponsored by Kent Blackwell, ran from Thursday 10/12 to Saturday 10/14, but it was cloudy every night. For those who could stay one more day, Sunday turned out to be the redeeming factor. It was clear, but oh, the result of hitting the dew point was almost as bad … Read more