The Dakota Astronomical Society 1996 Star Party
or
"Thankyou sir, may I have another"

by John Nordlie

This year, the star parties I attended went a bit differently than last year. As you may recall (or maybe not, since you might not have been there) last year the Northern Skies Astronomical Society's Northern Prairie Star Fest went very well. The DAS star party a week later, while enjoyable for the most part, also involved interesting encounters with many large, furry animals (and some scaly), thunder storms, and rock climbing.

This year, the second annual NPSF went rather poorly. This is certainly not the fault of John Leppert, who puts on the party at his farm. John did his normal excellent job of organizing everything under his control. Unfortunately, the weather was not one of these things. The day started off so muggy my road maps, clothes, and everything else got soggy just sitting there. We were clouded out that night, and completely deluged with rain. Half our party was driven from their tents when they discovered water standing in them 3 inches deep in places. My tent leaked like a sieve, but my extra thick air mattress kept me high and dry for the night (not that I could sleep with thunder rocking the world and lightning flashes bright enough to hurt my eyes). Dean Smith alone stayed dry during the storm, in a tent I had just sold him for $25 (shoulda kept that one and given him mine B). Tom Gall and I left the next morning, due to wet sleeping bags and damp spirits. Dean and Milly stayed and got some observing done the next day.

It's a good thing the DAS party was not for a few weeks after that. My enthusiasm for this 'camping' thing was waning for a while.

Last year Dean, Milly, and I rode in my Taurus sedan along with minimal camping and observing supplies. This year they invited themselves to carpool with me again (at least they helped pay for gas this year), since Dean's car is in poor shape. The water pump in mine had failed just a few days before we had to leave, but the new unit seemed to be working fine. We decided that a star party without telescopes just isn't as fun, so I hitched up my utility trailer, we packed an amazing amount of gear in it (it's 4' x 8' x 2' deep, and we filled it), and hit the road.

Last year, Dean and Milly's non-stop chatter threatened to drive me nuts (sorry guys, but that's how it was). This year, I invested in some books on tape (the Lord of the Rings), and while Milly was not overly fond of it, Dean and I enjoyed it immensely. A late start, wasting time in Minot looking for a hamburger joint, and a missed turn and some backtracking caused by me stuffing my face with hamburgers when I was supposed to be driving caused us to arrive at the park a little after sunset. Tom Gall had beaten us there (he drove from Rochester, MN), and was a bit smug about it (he drove faster than I did, however). We set up camp and headed for the observing site.

Dean set up his Orion Dobsonian, Tom his 4" Newtonian, Milly his little 'pocket' refractor (2"), and me my Edmund Astroscan. Conditions were absolutely beautiful. The weather was warm, even in a t-shirt, no bugs, no moon, and a pristine sky. The Andromeda galaxy was naked eye, and beautiful in just about every scope. Many deep sky objects were as nice as I've ever seen them. Dean claimed to see the whirlpool naked eye. Even though he had had his pupils dilated in an eye exam earlier that day, we all thought he way lying.

Unlike last year, we stayed at the site for some time, but fatigue started claiming victims, and everyone headed for their bedding by 1 am. We tried to stick it out a little this year, since friday night was the only good observing weather we had last year. We decided to leave our scopes at the site, since there were DAS members staying there to look after them.

Camping that night did not involve visits by buffalo, nor rattle snakes. We were thankful for this. However, my prized air mattress sprung a leak in the night, and I woke at 5am lying on the ground, padded by 2 millimeters of plastic sheet (NOT soft).

The next day dawned (guess what) hot. Unlike last year, when I fought 95F heat and very high humidity in black jeans (NOT smart), this year things were bone dry. A stiff breeze sprung up, and we ate our breakfast and thought up things to do for the day. Tom and Milly went to town for more ice for their coolers, and Dean and I followed suit a bit later. Gas and Blueberry bagels were also procured, but we discovered the bagels were frozen when we got back to camp. Tom's bagels were then procured and subsequently devoured in record time. The buffalo came visiting, but stayed away from our camp this time. We were relieved. John Gramza (president of DAS) was out for a morning walk, and was cornered in a bathroom by the furry ones. They wouldn't let him leave until he finally made a bee-line straight away from them.

A rather attractive park ranger Tom and Milly were flirting with (well, at least that's what they told us) suggested a trail near the observing site, so we geared up and jumped in the cars. At the site, the sun was very hot, but the dry wind kept us from getting overheated. I remembered the suffering I put myself through last year, and wore light colored shorts, a t-shirt, and a sun hat this year, along with a fanny pack and loads of sun block. The others similarly equipped themselves with cameras and lots of water (we all learned from last year). Saying things about mad dogs and Englishmen, we headed off on the trail.

At first, things looked unpromising. Theories about the motives of the cute ranger began to circulate among the group, when we came over a hill and were greeted by a magnificent view. We pressed on (resting from time to time, Milly was having trouble catching his breath), and found that every hill we came over, a new and even more beautiful scene expanded before us. The trail ended on a mountain ridge (well, what we in North Dakota call mountains anyway), and the scenery was breathtaking. We sat there, soaking up the view, and discovered we'd consumed about half our water supply. It seemed strange to drink so much, but not have to go to the bathroom. My clothes were bone dry too. When I moved my fanny pack, I discovered my shirt and shorts underneath it were soaking wet. A readjustment of the pack exposed the wet area, which was dry in about 15 minutes in the hot, dry, 30 mile per hour wind. Perfect hiking weather! We headed back along the trail, and arrived about 2 hours after we started, tired, and completely out of water. We were starting to feel the heat now, and decided to go back to camp to eat lunch and put the rest of our hiking plans on hold.

Back at camp, I finally got to set up a sun shade I bought two years ago. Basically, it's a 12' tarp with some flimsy aluminum poles, string, and bent wires mislabeled as 'stakes'. The stiff wind played havoc with it, requiring frequent adjustment and sometimes all-out pursuit, but it's amazing how much better you feel just getting in some shade. We cooked our brautwurst and hamburgers on the grill, and all but Dean chowed down (Dean felt too sick to eat). Then all of us just sat and tried to cool off (sort of like last year). The 2.5 gallon bottle of drinking water I had brought as a precaution was now half empty, and all our pop, gatorade, and milk had been drunk. A ranger stopped by the campsite to see how we were doing and chat. He told us to have plenty of water on hand to keep the heat under control. He said that during our hike, the park weather station had registered a temp of 103F!! It was now at 105F (good thing we were huddled in the shade, gulping water). The ranger told us he was the one giving a talk about the park that year at the party, and asked us some background info so he wouldn't look like a fool (smart guy). He then left us for his air conditioned truck.

Any plans we had to hike more that day were abandoned. Dean felt better, and ate lunch, while I tried to wash the gooey suntan lotion off my arms and legs. Now, the funny thing is the bathroom at the group campground has some of the coldest running water I've found (at least that's how it felt). No hot water, warm water, or even mildly frigid water, just plain cold. This water would probably feel wonderful to drink, but Milly tried that last year and got sick to his stomach (not badly sick, but enough to make the rest of us relegate the tap water to washing chores only). The water was so cold, it actually hurt when I tried to wash my arms and legs in it (I did eventually, but MAN!). The drinking water bottle, on the other hand, was about 85F, and rather unappetizing. The bottled water would have felt fine to wash with, and the tap wonderful to drink, but we resisted. Trying to repeat a trick I read about in a book on medieval traveling, I put wet paper towels on the drinking water bottle, and it cooled it about 10F from what it was (amazing!). Most of us later proved our manliness by soaking our shirts in the cold tap water and donning them (no, the wet shirts clinging to our bodies wasn't what I'm talking about, it was the ability to survive the shock and pain of putting on a shirt that felt like it had been dipped in liquid nitrogen). Many goofy faces and grimaces were made when donning the shirts, but they felt very good after they were on. They dried in about 10 minutes. The ranger told us the humidity was 16% (thank goodness. A dry heat is much, MUCH better than a damp one!).

When the sun was lower in the sky, I tried to repair my leaking air mattress with duct tape. Unfortunately, the heat had rendered the adhesive on the tape too soft to stick well, and I had to confiscate my backup air mattress from Tom.

At around 6pm, we headed back for the site to eat the BBQ dinner DAS had prepared. Mass quantities were consumed. I then amused myself and some of the kids there with a kite I found in the trunk of my car (it's handy to leave toys scattered around, despite what your parents told you when you were young). One of the kids managed to let go of the string, but a sprint by Tom and a helpful tree prevented it's escape.

The DAS business meeting commenced, so Dean, Milly, and I decided to go tour the park some more. Thunder clouds were scuttling about, (kind of like last year), but we decided they looked too far away to threaten us. We had a nice drive down to the park entrance, then headed back to the observing site.

The thunderstorms were closer now (gee, sounds just like last year), so I started driving in earnest. When we saw that the main storm looked pretty close to the summit that the site was on, I popped the soundtrack from 'From Dusk 'til Dawn' in the tape deck, and started taking the roads much faster. Milly put his seatbelt on for the first time of the trip. Darkness rapidly fell, and the lightning was dazzlingly bright. We arrived at the site before the rain, but the lightning was all around us, close on every side. We grabbed the trailer and hitched it up (nothing like holding a 200lb piece of steel in the middle of a lightning storm), then grabbed the telescopes and stashed them in the trailer. Tom jumped in his car, the rest of us in mine, and off we went, pursued by lightning all the way (wow, just like last year!). We met one buffalo on the road, but he seemed rather relaxed, sauntering along the opposite side of the road (on the right side for his direction of travel, they're learning). We arrived at camp safely, and got ready for the night. The storm buffeted us with wind, dropped a few raindrops on us, then left, just like last year. Unlike last year, the sky didn't clear, so no more observing that night.

By the next morning, the super dry air had dried all traces of the rain away, and striking camp was a dusty experience. We ate breakfast, drank the last of the water, packed the trailer, and headed for home. The trip back was uneventful (but Milly still didn't like the Lord of the Rings tapes).

So, lessons learned: it is a good idea to observe the first night. Buffalo will always hassle at least one of the party goers. Bring lots of water and ice. Bring a sun shade. It will rain on the second night. Milly doesn't like J. R. R. Tolekien stories.

I actually had a much better time this year than last. The heat is bearable when it is dry, and I have enough water, and the hiking was really a lot of fun. The observing was excellent. Wildlife is fun to see when it stays away from you. If you are interested in amateur astronomy, a star party is a good thing to try to go to. Just be ready for the elements, bugs, and watch out for buffalo!

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