The very dark skies characterize the largest star of the United States, the Grand Canyon Star Party, which attracts about 1,000 people per night for more than a week. Credit: GCSP
Takeaway Keyway:
Years ago, three big stars have dominated plans for astronomy enthusiasts in the United States. They were Stellafane, Riverside and the Texas Star Party. Stellafane and the TSP are still suffocating and, unfortunately, the Riverside event is no longer. But another great player has been building for more than three decades, and is the largest feast of stars in the country: the feast of the stars of the Grand Canyon.
During the week of June 23, the party of the Grand Canyon Star took place once again and I participated for my first time ever. It is a very large event: maybe 1,000 or more people are there every night and the event continues for more than a week. So, overall, perhaps 10,000 people or more participate in the event, held near the South Rim visitors Center of the Canyon. Most of those who participate are visitors to the holidays at the canyon and so they are giving their first glance at the distant cosmos.
The event was coordinated for a few years by the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association, now My Home Astronomy Club, and coordinated with the park. Among the many rangers that open the road there is the chief Ranger responsible for the event, an exceptional boy named Rader Lane. We had a great time to honor Rader with his asteroid, so now he has a remote place to explore!
Now that I am in Tucson, it was about 5-1/2 hours to reach the canyon, through Phoenix and Flagstaff. For a few days I lived in a house inside the park with my friends Kevin Schindler of the Lowell Observatory and the astronomy popularizer of the Cincinnati Dean Regas area. Dean spoke on Monday evening, Kevin spoke on Tuesday evening and I spoke on Wednesday evening. My speech was on galaxies, the topic of my relatively recent book, GalaxiesPosted by Random House. It was a great success for a great crowd and a crowd of people approached later, with many questions, including big questions from children about black holes, amazement for the huge distance scale of the universe and every type of things. Later, on the same night, I conducted a stars of Stella d’Ancia stars, armed with a green laser pointer. It was very funny, speaking of constellations, interesting objects and immensity of the universe.
Following the main interviews, the great reason to be there has come – observing. Lemme I tell you: the sky at the Grand Canyon is very dark. It is the paradise of an astronomer. Overall, about 80 telescopes were created in the parking areas adjacent to the visitors center and we observed for two or three hours per night. There were great areas, including some large refractors and several dobs in the 28 or 32 -inch interval. In addition, several observers had intensifiers of new generation images that we attached to the areas and which provided spectacular views of nebulae and truly weak galaxies.
We examined many objects, especially with the larger areas – but as for any stellar party, too many areas were aimed at the same 20 or 30 objects. This is probably wise in part of this event to show beginners some shows. Surprising views of the Whirlpool, Globulars M3, M13 and M22 galaxy and planetaries such as the Dumbbell nebula and the Nebula ring dominated. We have also explored some really demanding and beaten paths of course and you will see some of those adventures appear in future stories.
One afternoon Kevin and I marched in the canyon and we worked a bit in Kevin’s project to identify exactly where some of the historical photos were taken when in the early 1960s the astronauts trained at the canyon, preparing to go to the moon. Once again, I will write about it more detailed in separate stories.
A big party of stars under a dark sky in one of the most beautiful places in the United States? We could look down the first rocks in the canyon and back in time of one billion years, and then look at them in the octopus and see light from galaxies and quasar who had traveled every minute of that huge span of time.
If you can reach the party of the Grand Canyon Star in the future, you encourage you from doing it. You will have a wonderful and very memorable experience.
