200 Dakota Astronomical Society Star Party
Due to scheduling conflicts, I wasn't able to go
to the 2000 DAS star party. Dean Smith provided me
with this summary:
We went to the star party and the tradition continues.
Friday night was nice and clear but Saturday stormed.
There was smoke from the fires but it only seemed to
affect the horizon. I think most of it actually sank
below us.
In the evening as it cooled, the smoke
seemed to sink so that it was at our altitude. My
eyes and nose acted as thought I was in a smokey bar.
As nightfall approached the affect of the smoke seemed
less. The stars still didn't seem quite as bright as
other years but they still easily beat the
observatory.
This year they had a program both nights
so Friday night had quite a few people. I had brought
maps of Neptune and Uranus and was showing people
Neptune soon after the talks ended. It wasn't easy
since it was in a field with stars of similar
brightness. I must've described Neptune's location
with respect to the other stars to more than 20
people.
Saturday night was clouded out of course. We got very
little rain but it was very windy and there was
flashes of lightning. It did clear up later but it
was so windy that I didn't take my scope out. The few
rangers left in the park (most were gone fighting
fires elsewhere) were positioned on outlooks watching
for lightning strikes. There were several warnings
throughout the weekend that there was an extreme fire
danger. Charcoal and wood fires were not allowed but
luckily the propane grill was ok. Luckily there were
no major fires in the north unit.
On the way back
Sunday we stopped at the Painted Canyon rest area and
saw some fires in the South Unit and took some
pictures.