I came back!
This Fall’s installment of the Staunton River Star Party was a hit as were the preceding ones. The Chapel Hill Astronomical and Observing Society (CHAOS) and the Staunton River State Park again did a stellar job of hosting the event. They made us feel very welcome and took great care of us.
Assembling and organizing a star party requires a substantial amount of effort and coordination. Jayme Hanzak and his colleagues at CHAOS have worked tirelessly with the staff of Staunton River State Park to ensure that the visitors had an astronomically good experience. The party was well organized, everyone was helpful and I saw lots of happy astronomers. The weather even cooperated for several good evenings of observing. I could not ask for more.
It’s difficult for me to not over-praising everyone involved. Frankly, this star party represents to me a perfect combination of a good facility, good planning, a helpful, welcoming staff and dark skies. Each star party has its own strengths and I have been to many and enjoyed them all, but this star party is a real gem.
There was wi-fi available on the observing field, arranged by CHAOS, a comfortable meeting space in the park visitor center, good presentations, good food, friendly vendors with a nice selection of wares. The Richmond Astronomical Society contributed to the presentation agenda by hosting an imaging workshop, thanks to RAS member John Raymond.
One of the sessions hosted by CHAOS consisted of a conversation with park representatives, interested astronomers and local officials to discuss the possibility of the area being designated as a Dark Sky Park. Local officials have, much to their credit, recognized the value of the dark sky resource that this region possesses. Their support has found its way into the development of town and county ordinances designed to protect the dark sky resource by requiring good lighting practices.
In addition to providing AC power to much of the observing field and marking the travel paths with red lights, the park staff kept the cafeteria operating until 4:00 AM each morning to feed hungry astronomers, temporarily renaming the cafe, the Deep Space Diner.
The menu ranged from the Hadley Rille Ham and Cheese to Betelgeuse Biscuits with a special dish each night for dinner, including shepherd’s pie, lasagna and meat ball subs. No astronomers went hungry. The bottomless coffee mug was a particular hit with me. The park employees that staffed the Deep Space Diner were just wonderful, working lots of extra hours, creating the special menu items, light-shielding the door and providing specially carved pumpkins with a stellar theme.
Seems like every gathering of a bunch of humans has to have some, at least minor, mishap. Although I heard of no major mishaps at all, I did manage to have one of the minor variety – walking off of the road one night as I was heading back to my observing site after a late night snack at the Deep Space Diner. I should point out that the roadway was clearly lined with solar-powered red lights, but I, lacking some measure of coordination, still managed to defeat the well-placed and thoroughly adequate safety measures. As I wandered off the edge of the road, my feet located a parking space bumper and I tripped a bit onto the adjacent grassy area. As I tripped I somehow reflexively raised my right arm in the air, perhaps to regain my balance. Unfortunately, my right hand was carrying a fully loaded mug of coffee which I proceeded to pour on my head and down my back. Don’t ask me to explain the physics of how this happened; I can only claim to picking myself up and realizing that I had topically applied all of the delicious coffee that I was planning to drink only moments ago. I was more upset at losing the coffee than falling.
Fortunately, the coffee had cooled by the time I spilled it all over myself and my fall was gentle as I was able to somewhat catch my balance in what would have been a most amusing maneuver had anyone seen it, but I was nevertheless covered in fresh coffee. I stopped by the nearest bathroom to clean myself up as best I could and was laughing hysterically all the while. Another astronomer who walked into the bathroom while I was there had to wonder what the heck was going on. Upon regaining my composure, I resumed observing for the evening, reminded every now and then about my adventure by the dampness of the knit cap I wore.
So ends the tale of my coffee mug fail. The next morning we found the lid of my mug near some trampled grass at the site of my mishap. No serious impact, but my knit hat was in dire need of a good wash by the next day.
To sum up, if my message has not been clear, this was a great star party. CHAOS and the park have done an excellent job and continue to do so – by providing a very pleasant observing and camping experience and through their efforts to protect the dark sky resources of the region. Many thanks to CHAOS and Staunton River State Park on a job well done.
If you would like to see more images of the star party here is a short video of this year’s Fall installment:
We’ll be back!
Jim Browder
Richmond Astronomical Society
