edwincjones
Post Laureate
Reged: 04/10/04
Posts: 4119
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Is there any information available yet for the 2008 event other than the date of 6/25-28?
I am planning to go and just got my reservations for campgrounds.
I have been to the public CedarKeyStarParty and GrandCanyonStarParty, but have never been to Bryce Canyon.
I, and my nonastronomy oriented wife, like the format of star parties in exciting locations.
edj
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n w arkansas
Binocular, Solar, General Amateur Astronomy
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edwincjones
Post Laureate
Reged: 04/10/04
Posts: 4119
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still waiting and 6 weeks to go?
web site?
information ?
edj
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n w arkansas
Binocular, Solar, General Amateur Astronomy
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Jay_Bird
professor emeritus
Reged: 01/04/06
Posts: 660
Loc: Nevada 36N 115W
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PM sent with links I hope will help. Good that you reserved camping!
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'these things stand like stone - kindness in another's troubles, courage in your own' Gordon
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Ziggy943
professor emeritus
Reged: 08/11/06
Posts: 743
Loc: SLC, UT
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Chad Moore published this in the thread below on page 4 titled "National Parks..."
Quote:
If http://www.nps.gov/brca/planyourvisit/astronomyvolunteer.htm
is not working for Bryce Canyon, contact the park directly at 435 834 5322
If you are interested in volunteering for the nationwide effort and potentially working in any number of parks, contact me directly at 970-491-3700 or Moore at cira.colostate.edu
Chad Moore
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Siegfried
4" Mak
160mm F8 TEC (born 1-18-2007, 27 lbs, 45.5" long), on AP900
150mm F17.5 (D&G lens) (first light 6-7-2008)
9" F/14.8 Alvan Clark (1915), on Byers 812
14.25 F/5.5 Newt in a roll off observatory
Others, that have come and gone
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Ziggy943
professor emeritus
Reged: 08/11/06
Posts: 743
Loc: SLC, UT
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We are under a week away. The anticipation is starting to build. This is a great get-away weekend.
Anyone else heading that way?
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Siegfried
4" Mak
160mm F8 TEC (born 1-18-2007, 27 lbs, 45.5" long), on AP900
150mm F17.5 (D&G lens) (first light 6-7-2008)
9" F/14.8 Alvan Clark (1915), on Byers 812
14.25 F/5.5 Newt in a roll off observatory
Others, that have come and gone
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janehoustonjones
super member
Reged: 10/21/07
Posts: 194
Loc: 34 N 118 W, 637.0 feet
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Just in from the first night of the Bryce Canyon Astronomy Festival. We left LA after work Weds, drove to Vegas and stayed at the Stratosphere. Fun up at the top. Drove to Bryce Caanyon this morning, arrived at 4 p.m.
At 6 p.m. there was a volunteer in park briefing, that lasted a half hour. All new volunteers then attended a one hour National Park interpreter session, but we did that last year.
We all received really cool tee shirts. We set up telescopes after dinner, and while the attendees were attending various talks that ran with staggered start times until 10:30 p.m. This meant the arrived not all at once. It was still packed up where I was - in the land of the big dobs.
Park guests started lining up at about 9 pm. and the gates opened at 9:45 p.m. It was barely dark enough to find a few objects. The guests arrived on foot and with no lights of any kind at 9:45, walking over from the visitor center. No cars arrived and none left until 1:00 a.m.
I have pictures but the album isn't finished. In a nutshell 700 guests, 38 telesscopes, clear skies, no wind. Temps 60 at 8:30 p.m. and 43 at 1:00 a.m. when we packed up and left. More tomorrow. Jane
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Jane Houston Jones
Cassini Program Outreach Office
JPL's What's Up Podcast
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~Steph~
Texas Wildflower
Reged: 06/11/05
Posts: 20978
Loc: North Texas
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Wow! That's a lot of people! Thanks for the first report, look forward to more, Jane. 
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Steph
10" RCX400 ~~ 4" TV102 ~~ WO ZS80FD ~~ PST
Serenity Observatory 
HansenAstro | CN Member Websites
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janehoustonjones
super member
Reged: 10/21/07
Posts: 194
Loc: 34 N 118 W, 637.0 feet
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The website now has a nice schedule and poster http://www.nps.gov/brca/planyourvisit/astronomyprograms.htm
Our first day pictures are here: http://photo.whiteoaks.com/2008-06-bryce/Thursday/index.html and cner ziggy943 is in one picture.
My brother and family are here, and we're doing the Bryce hikes - Navajo Loop this morning, another one a little later, before we head out to the telescope field at 8 p.m.
clear, sunny, warm, no wind (or smoke) here.
Jane
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Jane Houston Jones
Cassini Program Outreach Office
JPL's What's Up Podcast
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deepskysurfer
newbie
Reged: 07/27/06
Posts: 3
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How has the rest of the week been? It looks like you've had pretty good conditions and dark skies.
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What a day for a night...
Edited by deepskysurfer (06/28/08 06:27 PM)
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janehoustonjones
super member
Reged: 10/21/07
Posts: 194
Loc: 34 N 118 W, 637.0 feet
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Yes Dark Sky Ranger Chad Moore confirmed my limiting magnitude calculation. Thursday night LM 7.3, Friday LM 7.0 to 7.1. Just spectacular at Bryce Canyon. Seeing was excellent both nights too!
Stats: 600 guests Friday night, 43 telescopes. This time there were 18 dobs (11 on Thrurs night), 3 18-inchers including my own, and one big 22-incher. Jeff Goins 24-incher was here Thurs, next to us, but he left Friday. I only saw 3 of the 4 Tec refractors Friday night. The 4 of them looked like a white tree forest on Thursday.
Temps just a little warmer Friday night (or rather less cold at midnight - 48 degrees.
Pictures uploading, will share them soon. Jane
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Jane Houston Jones
Cassini Program Outreach Office
JPL's What's Up Podcast
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janehoustonjones
super member
Reged: 10/21/07
Posts: 194
Loc: 34 N 118 W, 637.0 feet
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Here are pictures from Thursday and Friday nights. We're heading back home, and will miss Saturday night. But the 2 nights under the stars and 3 days in the hoodoos were fantastic!
http://photo.whiteoaks.com/2008-06-bryce/
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Jane Houston Jones
Cassini Program Outreach Office
JPL's What's Up Podcast
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Ziggy943
professor emeritus
Reged: 08/11/06
Posts: 743
Loc: SLC, UT
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Yes, Bryce was a lot of fun.
Jane, I'm actually in at least 3 of your pics. In one I'm taking a picture of Yuri, owner of TEC, Telescope Engineering Company. We had 5 TEC telescopes on the field Thursday night. Three were 160's, Yuri had a 140 and Don had his new 180.
This was the mildest Bryce event I have attended. Thursday I did resort to a coat late at night. Friday just a sweater. The seeing was much better Friday night. Thursday Jupiter was not worth looking at. Friday, while it still wasn't great, it was pretty good. Friday we stayed till about 1:30.
Only a few public remained after 12:30 so we did some personal viewing. Split Delta Cygni at 256x. Even my brother could see it. Did A-Hercules at 128x, Cor Caroli ... and several others.
This is a shot of the telescope field Thursday night with the three 160's showing.
Jane, it was nice seeing you and Mojo again.
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Siegfried
4" Mak
160mm F8 TEC (born 1-18-2007, 27 lbs, 45.5" long), on AP900
150mm F17.5 (D&G lens) (first light 6-7-2008)
9" F/14.8 Alvan Clark (1915), on Byers 812
14.25 F/5.5 Newt in a roll off observatory
Others, that have come and gone
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Ziggy943
professor emeritus
Reged: 08/11/06
Posts: 743
Loc: SLC, UT
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A close up of myself on the left, Rob Moore at the back 160 and my brother Bruno on the right.
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Siegfried
4" Mak
160mm F8 TEC (born 1-18-2007, 27 lbs, 45.5" long), on AP900
150mm F17.5 (D&G lens) (first light 6-7-2008)
9" F/14.8 Alvan Clark (1915), on Byers 812
14.25 F/5.5 Newt in a roll off observatory
Others, that have come and gone
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Ziggy943
professor emeritus
Reged: 08/11/06
Posts: 743
Loc: SLC, UT
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And where else do you get scenery like this?
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Siegfried
4" Mak
160mm F8 TEC (born 1-18-2007, 27 lbs, 45.5" long), on AP900
150mm F17.5 (D&G lens) (first light 6-7-2008)
9" F/14.8 Alvan Clark (1915), on Byers 812
14.25 F/5.5 Newt in a roll off observatory
Others, that have come and gone
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Ziggy943
professor emeritus
Reged: 08/11/06
Posts: 743
Loc: SLC, UT
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Or this?
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Siegfried
4" Mak
160mm F8 TEC (born 1-18-2007, 27 lbs, 45.5" long), on AP900
150mm F17.5 (D&G lens) (first light 6-7-2008)
9" F/14.8 Alvan Clark (1915), on Byers 812
14.25 F/5.5 Newt in a roll off observatory
Others, that have come and gone
Edited by Ziggy943 (06/30/08 01:42 AM)
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Ziggy943
professor emeritus
Reged: 08/11/06
Posts: 743
Loc: SLC, UT
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This is the picture of Yuri I was taking while Mojo was taking me taking Yuri.
All in all it was a lot of fun and I'll be doing it again next year.
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Siegfried
4" Mak
160mm F8 TEC (born 1-18-2007, 27 lbs, 45.5" long), on AP900
150mm F17.5 (D&G lens) (first light 6-7-2008)
9" F/14.8 Alvan Clark (1915), on Byers 812
14.25 F/5.5 Newt in a roll off observatory
Others, that have come and gone
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janehoustonjones
super member
Reged: 10/21/07
Posts: 194
Loc: 34 N 118 W, 637.0 feet
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Mojo and I almost brought our Astro Physics f/9 180mm Starfire/AP900, and our 105mm f/5 Astro Physics Traveler/AP Mach1 GTO, but the big dobs won out. Much less setup and take down time.
Bryce Canyon is a fabulous National Park, small enough to actually get to see and do a lot in just a couple days. We had some family with us, and so we didn't want to stay observing late and miss the family hikes in the daytime.
Jane
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Jane Houston Jones
Cassini Program Outreach Office
JPL's What's Up Podcast
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Joker
newbie
Reged: 04/29/08
Posts: 3
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The Las Vegas Club is going to Bryce this weekend 4th 5th july for a mini-astronomy event..
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Ziggy943
professor emeritus
Reged: 08/11/06
Posts: 743
Loc: SLC, UT
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We had the pleasure of Las Vegas' Roy Hanson's company this past weekend. He was there big time with two big scopes. He brought a big SCT and Newtonian.
Hope you all have a great time. Two days is hardly mini. It's quite a committment in time and expense. Not just the motel but now also the gas. Amateur astronomers are a very dedicated bunch.
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Siegfried
4" Mak
160mm F8 TEC (born 1-18-2007, 27 lbs, 45.5" long), on AP900
150mm F17.5 (D&G lens) (first light 6-7-2008)
9" F/14.8 Alvan Clark (1915), on Byers 812
14.25 F/5.5 Newt in a roll off observatory
Others, that have come and gone
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janehoustonjones
super member
Reged: 10/21/07
Posts: 194
Loc: 34 N 118 W, 637.0 feet
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Quote:
Two days is hardly mini. It's quite a committment in time and expense. Not just the motel but now also the gas. Amateur astronomers are a very dedicated bunch.
For us it was a 500 mile one way trip, 4 hotel nights and 2 vacation days. But what's better than national parks + astronomy + family? Plus volunteering at a National Park makes the trip deductible. I just send my expense receipts and my volunteer-in-parks paperwork to the accountant at tax time. :-)
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Jane Houston Jones
Cassini Program Outreach Office
JPL's What's Up Podcast
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