[AZ-Observing] Observing Report GCSP 2011 Day 6 - Communication Skills Not
- From: Skylook123@xxxxxxx
- To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:18:46 -0400 (EDT)
Grand Canyon Star Party - DAY SIX - Communication Skills, Not
Location: Grand Canyon Visitor Center, South Rim of Grand Canyon, AZ, about
340 miles north of home in Tucson, about 7000 ft elevation
Weather: Mid 80s in the afternoon, Low 50s when we quit at Midnight. Clear
skies for afternoon and evening, with local gusts to 40 and high wind
warnings.
Seeing and Transparency: Average for this location, so pretty good.
Equipment:
18â?? f/5 2286mm Teeter Telescope newtonian truss dob, Sky Commander DSCs
10" Meade SCT on Atlas EQ-G mount
60mm Lunt LS60THa/B600 on Atlas EQ-G Mount
Duplicate temperature behavior from yesterday, although a bit warmer after
sunset. Maybe I'm getting used to it.
Granddaughter Karina wanted us to set up the solar scope at the Market
Plaza in front of the Canyon Cafe, so after lunch I went over to the site and
picked up the mount head and we set up at a point where we could ambush the
most traffic. I am really getting spoiled by having Jessica and Karina
around to set up. All I need to do is stand back and act like a post.
We were set up by 1:30 and stayed about an hour and a half. The internal
thermometer in the Atlas mount head was reading 102 out in the hot sun on
the concrete. To paraphrase a famous saying, only mad dogs, Englishmen, and
solar astronomers come out in the mid-day sun. We did snag nearly 100
passers-by to view a fairly uniform distribution of small prominences and a
small sunspot cluster.
Events tonight let me know I have some communication shortfalls. We are
growing in our understanding of what we need to do to make this work. We
have around 50 telescopes each night, and most of the astronomers are totally
cooperative with the National Park Service wishes for our staging and
setup. Some well-meaning folks let me know that someone else is operating
beyond the fringe of perceived rules. I really do appreciate being informed
of
potential concerns. The problem is that the informers don't seem to be
aware, despite my circulation and attempt to explain the thinking and
motivation, of how the global plan is evolving. NPS (not me!) asked that one
group set up in the adjacent bus lot for several reasons. First, they are a
cohesive team of up to 14 telescopes who work as a group in an extremely
effective fashion. Over their 20 years of participation with GCSP at Yavapai,
they have crammed themselves into extremely close footprint to not crowd
the rest of the astronomers. With the tight quarters in the normal parking
lot, being able to redirect a single group of 14 telescopes to a safety
valve location is helping the group as a whole. Second, they have a lighting
system for their setup that is a visible aim point for the night blind
visitors coming around the Visitor Center to our site, and also coming from the
opposite direction, from Mather Point after sunset. The first four nights,
several hundred visitors each night did not get the opportunity to enjoy
our presence because, frankly, we are invisible to the Mather Point
returnees. The route to and from their vehicles does not go past our banner,
so
this becomes a large share of our audience that is unaware of the event. My
reaction is a "me" problem; I get somewhat annoyed at people who really are
trying to let me know that something is happening that might not be a good
thing, but I apparently haven't gotten the word out that NPS has specific
reasons they want that group of us to set up in the bus lot, and directed
that they take the room they need to host their 14 instruments. This may
seem like two star parties for the astronomers, but it is really one star
party for the park visitors, and the strategic location of that group on the
path from Mather Point to the parking lots, while also being visible from the
Visitor Center is making it work. I really need to improve my
communication skills.
We had a tour de force archaeoastronomy presentation by retired NPS
Interpretive Ranger Art Cloutier. For twenty years earlier in his career he
was
the "Chief Interp", as he phrased it, at Glen Canyon. Having retired and
returned to Page, Arizona, he now works as a volunteer at Glen Canyon as
well as doing astronomy outreach around the area. His talk was a study on the
Paria Canyon Archaeo-Observatory petroglyph panels. He goes through, in
depth, the panel depictions and compares them with actual sky configurations
at various times going back several thousand years. I sure learned to
look differently at cultural evolution and astronomy in the area.
The wind gusts were too high for me to set up the 18", so we went with one
scope. When I got back to the 10", Jessica was already in full swing on
Albireo. When a gap in the crowd happened, I took her on her first "align
the telescope" learning session. We also collimated the scope on the way.
When we were done, we went to The Dumbbell. The planetary nebula story
always gets a good reaction from visitors as they grasp how we are all star
stuff.
There is a noticeable change in the pattern of the visitor flow at the
Visitor Center compared to the previous years Yavapai. At Yavapai, the
visitors arrive mostly by shuttle bus throughout the night while at the VC, all
of the PR and the banner say after sunset, so we get two surges; the part of
the crowd that isn't in the theater, followed fourty five minutes later by
the nearly 300 night talk attendees. No modulation through the night.
So, by 10 PM or so, the crowd has pretty much evaporated. I'm getting back
from the night talk wrap up around 9 PM, and I miss the good old days of
constant visitors until 11 PM.
After The Dumbbell, I tried some galaxies. M51 and the supernova
cooperated well, but several scopes were showing it. I tried the Sombrero and
Markarian's Chain, but by now they were too low to get good contrast with the
10". In the 18", they scream. I then put the scope on M22. With the way
the scope is set for maximum visitor flexibility, M13 is at zenith and the
eyepiece is just too low for comfort. My ace in the hole is always M22,
which puts the SCT eyepiece at an easy height for almost everyone. And it is
plenty large enough! I did the globular cluster story, another hit with
the public.
The only remaining visitor was a rather intoxicated individual who hung
around far too long. We would occasionally hear the pop of another can from
his backpack opening. When he pulled out a bright white light and wouldn't
shut it off, I got pretty nasty. I thought he'd left, but later I almost
tripped on him as he sat on the ground near the scope. Then he disappeared.
I shut things down, put the OTA in the box, and went to get the truck. I
compared notes with Jim and Vicki Palmer as they were packing up in the bus
lot, and by the time I got back Jessica had the whole site ready to load.
Gosh, I'll miss the girls next year.
Jim O'Connor
South Rim Coordinator
Grand Canyon Star Party
_gcsp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:gcsp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
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