2016 GCSP - Day 2 - Special Award For Grand Canyon National Park

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2016 26th Annual Grand Canyon Star Party In Memory Of Joe Orr

DAY TWO - IDA Awards GCNP Provisional International Dark Sky Park Status

Location: Grand Canyon Visitor Center, South Rim of Grand Canyon, AZ, about 340 miles north of home in Tucson, about 7000 ft. elevation

Weather: 94F mid-day, 88F at sunset, 56F when we quit near 11:30. Incoming cloud decks from the west, wildfires disturbed the night's activities.

Seeing and Transparency: Transparency started OK but recent wildfires took away transparency to the east and south, and the western clouds also were getting in the way. Sunset winds were 10 to 20 mph. Temperatures dropped a bit, still 10 degrees F above normal.

Equipment:

10" Meade SCT on Atlas EQ-G mount

Mallincam Xterminator video system on the 10", 19" QFX LCD monitor.

This was a VERY special day for Grand Canyon National Park. At 8 PM, the International Dark Sky Association formally awarded Provisional International Dark Sky Park status to GCNP. This is the result of a tremendous effort and investment since the begining of the Grand Canyon Association's 2012 Dark Skies project. GRCA was able to raise funding lin the range of $170,000 to push the project to the point where the local light environment is now understood, and the upgrades required are known. Thanks to the Orr Family Foundation and GRCA, the upgrades are in work with a goal of being completed in 2019, and the award of full Interrnational Dark Sky Park status can occur concurrent with the 100th Anniversary of the Grand Canyon National Park.

Following the formal award presentation, Dean Regas repeated his awesome presentation of the Universe to the night talk audience. His interaction with the audience, especially the younger members, presents what could be complicated information showing the relative structure and elements of the known universe, and the the time it would take to travel to far off domains. Intermixing humor with his interogatory exchange, is a wonder to behold. And when he is done, and we need to get outside, it's mostly the young children who mob him at the front of of the auditorium. And the kids ask great questions; he really awakens their thinking about their home universe.

Another record for astronomer attendance. We had at least 58 set up, needing to spread to the overflow area in the adjacent parking lot. And we are international this year, with volunteer astronomers from England and France. Busy week coming up!

After the night talk, granddaughter Karina and I again started with Saturn, but while the seeing was noticably better, although wind gusts had Saturn doing figure eights at times, the transparency had dropped markedly. I had to extend the shutter speed well slower than the night before, and the great detail from the night before was not there. I decided that I'd see how Deep Sky Objects would do, which meant I had to change the focal ratio from native f/10 so I chose f/5 to start with. I had noticed that the polar alignment was not good, and checked it and found somehow the alignment had shifted over 3 degrees east on 3 degrees north, so we fixed that, added the 0.5 reducer and adjusted the focus. We aligned on Vega and dropped over to the Ring Nebula, and could immediately tell the transparency was not good at all. Usually, with the Xterminator, down at 3000 feet elevation I can get the nebula to show in the monitor at 2.1 seconds of integration, but although we were at 7000 feet, it took a full 15 seconds to get a faint outline, and 20 seconds for the beautiful color and whit dwarf star to come out. Karina and I did the stellar evolution story, intermixed with the usual sky tour of the ecliptic and Milky Way, and many of the various cultural significances of what was in view. The Ring, though, was quite a show. But it started washing out, and finally by 11 PM the wildfire effects were not only visible, the smell of the burning vegetation was being carried north to us as well. Enough for the night! The Xterminator had put on a great show, but it couldn't quite beat Mother Nature.

Usually I have a few human intereest interactions, many involving younger people, but tonight the audience was much more scientifically grounded and the conversations were very interesting from a cosmology point of view. The ace in the hole was the Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Native American cultural layer that made their stop at my location worth their time.

In the end, Coma Berenices was about the least affected, so M51, the Whirlpool, became a target of choice for some folks. Most of us, however, were giving up with the loss of good resolution on the southern eye candy in Sagittarius. The transparency was just too negatively affected, better to save the feet and legs for another day.

Jim O'Connor

South Rim Coordinator

Grand Canyon Star Party

gcsp@tucsonastronomy.org