Last year, week of the new moon in May, we attended the Deep South Star Party at the observatory at French Camp, MS. Dark skies and great weather. We were so fortunate as this was the weekend where we had to crazy aurora borealis that was so active people saw it well south of us but it was the first time I'd ever seen it. Special. My then 10 year old son and I went, borrowed a tent, carried too much gear and not enough clothes! In the vein of learning from one's mistakes, I have a few questions, as we begin to prepare for this year's event, which is the last week in April. We will in all likelihood be observing DSOs visually as well as some longer focal length broadband imaging.
As far as sleeping. We know to take a foam blanket or air mattress. Gotta get off the ground. Never again!
But as for the tent, we knew that we had to respect others dark-adapted eyes as much as possible. We were pretty isolated, maybe 75 feet from the nearest other observer. Everything was red lights, except for my son's iPad and frequent need to turn on the camping lantern. Not the Coleman type. This is a battery powered light that has a number of features, the most offensive that it has a bright lantern setting that is too bright for star parties, apparently. The only guy in line of sight of us was the only guy on our side that was doing visual. He came over and told us we were too bright, we apologized and didn't use the lantern again. The question is, is there any way to know, if I buy another tent, whether or not it can allow lights to be on inside without emitting light or making the whole tent glow from outside?
Another thing, heat. It was cold by 3 or 4 o'clock. Really cold. Last year the event was the first week of May, this year it's the last week of April. Not too much earlier, and certainly no warmer. We had taken plenty of clothes for the outdoors, but something happens when you get in the tent and lay down. Like I said, not having a blanket for a mattress and instead a couple of foam yoga mats or an inflatable will help a lot, but is there a reasonably safe, and not too bright, way to heat the space? I use a portable propane heater in my observatory and have built a very safe base for it to prevent tipping. Plus, it goes out if tipped or even jostled too much, anyway. I use it to heat my warm room in the observatory when imaging but can't use it in the telescope space when doing visual, especially for dim DSOs because it's pretty bright. Planets aren't as bad and don't require as much dark adapted vision, but I know others feel differently, and I want to be respectful of them.
The site has ample 110v power, every 25' or so, so maybe there's an idea for heating, maybe not. We didn't realize we'd have access to AC before we got there.
Those are my main concerns/questions. How to prevent violating others dark adaptation with devices or flashlights INSIDE the tent and how to heat the tent without a heater putting out a ton of light?
I think the answer to both questions is a tent that has light proof walls/roof.... but when I google it, nothing comes up except the same regular tents. Thank you for your time!
