There were around 30 scopes there. Gate count last time I heard was at 500.
There were several late comers that may have the numbers nearly 600. My wife
Karen used a counter at her scope and she had over 200. I'm sure each scope had
equal amounts. Even with the sky glow from Flagstaff, objects lower to the
south could still be seen fairly easy. Unloading and parking was a bit
tedious. (Pain?) But, everything worked well with the long one lane road that
the scopes were set up on and used as a pedestrian walk. Before darkness fell,
you had to be cautious with the joggers and bikers using the road. The park was
still open at that time. I'm guessing this was the first time the park was used
for astronomy. Maybe someone at the city will consider making this a dark sky
park and create an area for the telescopes to be set up. I left my SQM meter in
the car and didn't take any readings. I'm guessing low 20's. Maybe high 19's.
Decent public venue. As an example, M8 had lots of nebulosity with my 11. Maybe
Saturday when I'm there again I'll remember to grab it. We parked about 1/4
mile down the road from the scopes.
JD Maddy
Clarkdale, AZ
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Flagstaff Star Party Thursday-Saturday
From: bas@xxxxxxxxxx
To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
CC: bas@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2015 15:29:50 -0700
This is a reminder for those who don't know
that the Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition and
the city of Flagstaff are hosting a three-evening
star party this weekend --- starts tonight! ---
mainly at Buffalo Park on the north side of
the city. This is not a traditional "dark-sky"
hard-core observing sort of affair, but one mainly
to highlight Flagstaff's good lighting practice
and more general public interest in the night sky.
Details are here:
http://www.flagstaffstarparty.org
All events are free, and are happening in
association with the local 10-day Festival of
Science going on in Flagstaff through next weekend
(Sep 27). I will be among the many helping
with this, including giving my "famous"
sunset/Earth-shadow presentation as-it-happens
all three evenings. Tonight's sunset and Earth-shadow
should be especially good, since it is cloud-free
all the way to the California coast and beyond.
\Brian
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