December 15, 2007, Star Party
Published on Dec 8, 2007 at 1:40 pm.
2 Comments.
Filed under astronomy, observing.
I will be doing a star party on December 15 at Dinosaur Valley State Park, in Glen Rose, Texas. For those who don’t know, Glen Rose is a small city southwest of Fort Worth. You can find directions to the park at their web site. The star party will be held at the amphitheater, and a map to that is also at the park’s web site. I will begin about sundown. The star party is free, but there is a $5 admission charge to get into the park.
I have been doing public star parties since the mid 1980s, and they are normally quite fun. I started off helping out others, and eventually started parties of my own. I encourage every astronomer to consider helping with star parties now and then. It is a great way to engage the public in our science. I have been doing star parties with the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife for over a decade now. While star parties can be done anywhere (and I have done a lot of them in bright city lights), you can see more from a dark sky location. The parks that I normally do star parties at are reasonably dark. The picture above was of a star party a couple of years ago at Dinosaur Valley.
Normally, I start off with a public lecture. That begins at sundown. Of course, it is still too bright to see things then, but that is OK. I like to give the public talk so that people have an idea what to expect. Also, it gives me a chance to talk about topical things. I know a lot of people who begin star parties with a public talk, but often it is pretty much the same talk every time. That would bore me. And, I have a number of people who regularly attend my star parties, so they would be bored with hearing the same thing every time, too. In fact, I think some like my star parties because I do share different things at different times. When an upcoming eclipse is about to happen, I talk about the eclipse. When a planet is in prime viewing position, I talk about that. This past October, I talked about Sputnik. And, when there is some big astronomy or space related topic in the news, I talk about that, too. The talks are timed to end about the time that it is fully dark and we can start to observe some of the dimmer things.
This star party will be only a week and a half before Christmas. So, the natural theme seemed to me to talk about the Star of Bethlehem. I will probably post some things about that, too, on this blog.
You might wonder at the name “Dinosaur Valley State Park.” What do dinosaurs have to do with the park? The park is built at the site on the Paluxy River, where dinosaur tracks were first found in Texas. This used to be the shoreline of an ancient sea. Dinosaurs walked here over a hundred million years ago, and they stepped in mud. Their tracks were buried, and the mud turned to stone, preserving their footprints. Sediment covered the tracks. But, millions of years later, the Paluxy River came about, and it has eroded the sediments down to the level of the tracks. Whenever there has not been a lot of rain and the river is down, you can walk down to the river and see the tracks.
The park opened in 1972. Not long afterwards, they got two large fiberglass dinosaurs. These dinosaurs probably weren’t the ones living in the area when the footprints were formed, but they are still cool. The dinosaurs were originally built for Sinclair Oil Company for the 1964 World Fair dinosaur exhibit. For those who are not old enough to remember Sinclair, they had a dinosaur as the company logo. When I was growing up, they used to give out wax dinosaurs when you got a fill-up. My parents bought gasoline at a Sinclair station, and I collected a handful of those wax dinosaurs. I don’t know whatever happened to those wax dinosaurs, but the big Sinclair fiberglass ones are still standing at the park, right next to the park store.
So, if you are free Saturday, December 15, and you want to get out of town, and if you live in the North Texas area, think about the star party. But, I am sure that there are other people doing star parties elsewhere if you don’t live here, and most planetaria host Christmas shows. If you do decide to go to a star party this time of year, though, remember that it gets cold very quickly (for those of you living in the northern hemisphere!). Be sure to dress quite warmly. Bringing extra clothing never hurts.
-Astroprof
Nicole Randall on December 10, 2007 at 8:52 am: 1
Hello Astroprof, I am the Marketing Director for Dinosaur World. We are an outdoor dinosaur museum with over 150 life size dinosaurs. We have locations in Plant City, FL and Cave City, KY. We will be opening a park in Glen Rose, right beside Dinosaur Valley State Park this Spring. I\\\’m sure you see the construction. I saw this article and wanted to introduce myself. I would love to join you\\\’re party, but I am currently in our Kentucky location. Check us out at http://www.dinoworld.net or call me anytime at 270-773-4345.
Paleoprof on December 11, 2007 at 2:25 pm: 2
When I was in grad school at A&M we used to run field trips up there it’s a beautiful and interesting place. I’m sorry I’m not there any more or I’d come out.