Running a Star Party

[Fermenter]

Next Thursday I am running my first star party during the peak of the Perseids meteor shower.  It will be in the neighborhood park.  I posted the message copied below to the two neighborhood Facebook groups that share the park and got a lot of people interested in coming out.  I had set up my telescope in the park during the transit of Mercury and posted to the groups to let people know to come out and take a look, but I didn't give any notice.  So a bunch of people were asking when I would do it again.  Since this is my first time running a star party, and I've never actually been to a star party myself, I thought I would ask you all for advice on what to do, what to bring, how to make it great for everyone involved.

There are bunch of people in the neighborhood that homeschool, and they have shared my message with their homeschooling group in the city (about 120 families).  In addition a bunch of adults have said they would like to show up later, after the kids have had their turn at the telescope.  So here's what I've got planned so far...

I will be setting up my Meade LXD-55 SN-6" telescope, for which I have a 26mm & 7mm eyepiece, for people to take a look at the moon, Saturn and Mars.  We are in a major city, Atlanta, so hopefully the sky is really clear and the meteors are able to push through the light pollution.  I will be bringing some 532nm 5mW laser pointers, my old ones disappeared, so I picked up a 5 pack for $15 and will sell the extras to anyone who wants one for $3.  I plan on teaching the kids where Polaris is, by finding it via Cassiopeia, so they know how to find north; and also how to find Perseus from Cassiopeia as that is the radiant for the meteor shower.

In addition the moon, Saturn and Mars, is there anything spectacular that I should point the telescope at?  Mind you we are in a city with light pollution, so it's going to have to be fairly strong and my telescope is only a 6" Schmidt-Newtonian.  Is there anything else I should try to show people?  

I am writing up a handout to send to people ahead of time, and will bring a few printouts myself for people who just randomly show up.  Explaining stuff like, what is a meteor, where do they come from, what causes meteor showers and this one in particular.  Talking about the moon, its formation and why it looks the way it does.  Describing Saturn's rings, with a little focus on the E ring and how its maintained by Enceladus's cryovolcanoes.  I haven't written the Mars section yet, and I'm going to end the whole thing with a handful of links to stuff like APOD, Cassini mission at NASA, Earthsky.org's guide to everything you need to know about the Perseids, a meteor shower calendar, Stellarium, etc.

Thanks for any advice you might have.  My fiancée and I plan to bring a bunch of folding chairs for people, some blankets to spread out on the grass, and a cooler with juice boxes for the kids, and some craft beer for the adults during the late night session.  We'll have the kids come out at 9pm and the adults maybe around 10:30/11pm EDT.

Cheers,
Fermenter

PS - Here's the notice I posted in the FB groups:

Hey All,
A couple months ago when I posted my telescope and the photo I created of Mercury transiting the Sun, several people expressed interest in when I might next set up my scope in the park for people to come take a look. Well, the Perseids meteor shower is one of, if not the best meteor shower of the Summer. This year it is supposed to be especially strong as well, at least twice as strong as usual with 200 or more meteors per hour at the peak. It will be peaking over the night of Thursday 8/11.
This seems like the perfect night for a star party if the weather will cooperate with us. In addition to the meteor shower, Saturn, Mars and a waxing gibbous moon will grace the night sky and make for interesting viewing through the telescope.
Some of the homeschooling parents expressed interest in this event as a great way to stoke their kids' curiosity in astronomy and science in general. So I'd like to make this a kid friendly event.
I don't know when schools start up again. Hopefully not before the 11th, as it would be a school night and obviously a star party must take place after dark. In addition to the meteor shower, the planets and moon, we can teach them how to spot some of the major stars that are visible from the city. How to spot Polaris and find North, etc.
In terms of viewing the meteor shower, and all meteor showers in general, the best time to watch is after midnight. That's when the sky overhead starts pointing in the direction of Earth's travel around the Sun, and thus directly slamming into the debris left behind by the comet. While we will be out just after dusk, and will see fewer meteors, the ones we do see have a higher likelihood of being "earth grazers", low-flying meteors that burn for a long time producing a very memorable sight - streaking across a large portion of the sky.
If people are interested in bringing their kids to this, I will make a handout for them. You can PM me your email, and I'll send it over so you can print it out to let them know what we're going to look at and bring it to the event. It'll include information about meteor showers, the moon & planets we will be viewing, and links to websites where they can learn more and see beautiful and educational images. Actually that goes for anyone interested, not just kids.
I'd also like to invite anyone else who owns a telescope to bring it out and set it up for people to share. The more scopes we have the more people will get to view and the longer they will be able to do so.
Please reply to this thread and let me know what you think. If there's enough interest in doing this I think it could be a fun community event. You never know what you're going get from meteor showers, but as long as the sky is clear, we will still be able to view Saturn, Mars and get great views of the moon.
And I really hope someone else out there is able to bring their telescope(s) as well. That way we won't have one long line queueing up for a turn, and we can point each scope at a different object which will save lots of time trying to redirect the telescope to points of interest.
The sun sets at 8:29pm and then there is 30 minutes of twilight before it's actually dark enough for astronomical observations. So we can set the meeting time for 9:00pm. I'll get there probably around sunset, so I can set up the telescope in the light. If anyone wants to join then, please do. The more people there are the more secure I'll feel being out in the park at night with my equipment.
So let me know if you are interested in doing this, and if you have a telescope to bring as well, and we can get a head count and gauge interest in this idea.
Cheers,
Chuck

[ronin]

You do not say (or at least I cannot see it) how many people will be there to assist you ?

For the Perseids watching it can be just one, they need to be able to point out where the meteors originate from and how to find Perseus (from Cassiopeia I suppose). Since I guess that people will be stood around in a group looking for any that appear 1 person may be able to take care of that.

The "problem" to me is the scope, you will really need 2 people at that. One to guide people to the scope and make sure they see the object and one to answwer the questions both before and after. I have always found tht 2 people on a scope is about the best arrangement. It tends to be that people ask questions before they look and after they look, often nothing related to the object and often if it say  acluster or double star they ask where it is when they just look up. Means that one person is trying to manage the observing and the other is taking care of the other bits. Also it allows a change over.

If there is just you the you will find people asking about the Perseids, where they come from (comet and location), pople seem to always ask where Polaris is and where Andromeda is, another will need help at the scope and someone will be asking if Einstein was right, or dark matter, dark energy, black holes.  Can you do that all yourself at once??

The ones I have been to that run well tend to have 10 to 15 "helpers" spread around with say 100-150 attendee's.

I think that we tend to assume that we can handle a scope without trouble but you have to remember that maybe half of the people will not know one end of the scope from the other. By the way that also includes knowing which eye to close - and yes I have found that people close the observing eye then comment they did not or cannot see anything.

Take a few more eyepieces, 22mm seems OK but not sure about the 7mm, I would throw in something around 30mm and a 12mm. If I recall the ones I have been at rarely use nothing less then 26mm. It appears to be that you as an experienced astronomer want to see detail, most attending just want to see the moon.

 

[Fermenter]

Thank you for your detailed and well organized reply.

Unfortunately, these are the only two eyepieces that I own, though I am reaching out to other people to see if we can get more equipment brought to the party.  Perhaps I can find a place to rent another eyepiece or two if I cannot find someone with their own equipment to bring.  The telescope has a 762mm focal length, I should have mentioned that in my original post.  So the 7mm eyepiece is great for the planets.  I typically use the 26mm for getting the object spotted and centered, then switch the 7mm for observing the planet.  Sorry about the typo in the original post, I have edited it to be correct now.

I am really hoping that we can have 2 more telescopes there.  I figure the 3 objects that people are going to want to see most through the scope is the Moon, Saturn and Mars.  If we can get 3 telescopes set up, then we can have one pointing at each and won't need to waste time with tracking between objects.  Jupiter is going to be too low on the horizon for observing.  I don't know if there are any DSO that will be out that night worth pointing the telescope at, especially a 6" SN in the city with all the light pollution.  And like you said, most people just want to see the Moon, but I bet the rings on Saturn will be something people also want to see.

If the group is going to be large, we've been discussing setting up a schedule for people to come by the park.  It is literally within walking distance for pretty much everyone.  It's less than 5 minutes from my house and I'm one of the farthest.  So that would help with handling the crowds and making sure that I can address questions.  My fiancée will be there to help me out with managing the telescope.  She doesn't have quite the in depth knowledge that I have (degrees in mathematics and physics, astronomy classes taken as an undergrad), but she loves science and astronomy, she has experience using my telescope, and while not having rigorous training has absorbed a lot from documentaries and our conversations and her natural curiosity.  We literally watch a nature documentary of some sort at bedtime every night, our DVR is filled with them and we don't delete them.  How the Universe Works from the Science Channel is the number one series we watch almost every night.  So she'll be able to field some questions while also helping to tend the scope.  But other than that, it's just me running the show, no other assistants or people with knowledge... yet.

Although I said there are 120 families in the homeschooling group, we do not expect that many people.  The mother I'm in contact with from that group said that they plan events like this all the time and usually only a few families show up.  She's also reaching out to the group to see if anyone has a telescope to bring.  I've also asked people in the neighborhood if anyone has a telescope.  I don't know exactly how many people are going to be coming to this.  If I only counted the number of people that have replied to the threads, we'd have maybe a dozen or so people show up.  But I'm sure that number is going to grow as I only posted yesterday and I haven't heard back from the homeschoolers yet.  I don't think that we will get up to 100 people, this is just a little neighborhood get together.  But if it does grow that large, then a schedule would be a must instead of having 100 people all standing around waiting for a turn at the telescope.  The could just show up like 10-15 minutes before their slotted time.  But I think to handle the crowd we are going to split it into a kids session at the beginning and adults around 11.  Then we might have a dozen or two dozen people per session, I really have no idea yet.

Thanks again for the tips, I'm trying to plan this as best I can.  I've written 5 pages already for the handout... including a couple photos I've created with my telescope.  As long as we have clear skies that night, I'm sure people are going to have a good time.

[rockystar]

I haven't hosted a star party, but have been to a couple, they are typically run by the local Astro club, so generally have many volunteers.

They tend to start with a naked eye tour of the sky, with some pointer stars and constellations, and a bit of mythology - this tends to get a bit more interest than in depth facts about about globular clusters, keep those facts really basic like age and distance; M15 would be a good example of this, as that area is the focus of the evening.

[Fermenter]

Yeah, this is a bit less formal, it's just a neighborhood get together and so far I'm the only astronomer in the sense that I have a telescope and know a lot of the night sky.

 

In the handout I'm writing I've included mythology when I get to Perseus, taking about him being a Greek hero who slaid Medusa, etc.  I intend to finish writing that today, so I guess I'll attach it here in case anyone wants to check it out or give feedback.

Thanks for the tip on M15.  I just did some reading on it and Wikipedia says that a telescope my size should be able to resolve a few individual stars on a clear night.  A 12 billion year old star cluster is a great DSO especially given its location.  I'll do some testing later this week to see what it actually looks like I'm my scope. Hopefully it's compelling enough to share.

[andrew63]

Can't offer any practical advice, but wish you well. I'm sure the moon and saturn will be the highlight , and hopefully generate some interest for another gathering.

 The Perseids will be in outburst this year, so the numbers should be up - might cause a few whoops and hollers !  In Perseus also, don't forget the Double Cluster, still a good sight even with the moonlight.

 

andrew

[rockystar]

I've been an idiot, M15 is in Pegasus, not perseus! You could still start there, then move to Andromeda and finish with the double cluster which is where the shower will emanate from. That will give you three DSOs that you could talk about. I'm sure everyone will enjoy themselves

 

[Fermenter]

I've been reading a bunch of articles about keeping kids interested during an observing session, questions to ask them, things to point out, on the Cloudy Nights website.  That's been helpful in preparing for this.

I'm also going to pick up a filter or 2.  I currently don't have any and while I'm used to letting eye adjust to the Moon's brightness, I don't want to blast people's dark adaptation since they're also going to try to be spotting meteors during the shower.

I'm debating between picking up a Meade 4 color set, #15, 25, 58, & 80A, and using the #80A.  Or getting the Baader Planetarium Moon & Skyglow filter.  Currently I'm leaning towards the BP Moon & Skyglow filter because I'll be able to use it as an LPR filter after the event.  Living in Atlanta light pollution is an issue and I think I'd probably get more use out of that filter than a color set.

I just wish there was a way to attach these filters to my Barlow DSLR camera adapter, but that lacks the threads for attaching filters.

 

Thanks Andrew and rocky star for the additional viewing subjects.  Depending on how many people show up and how long they stick around we may be able to get the scope pointed at those objects as well.  And my fiancée and I totally hope this will lead to more star parties, maybe like once a season.  And perhaps I'll also be able to connect with some of these home schooled kids for tutoring in math & science.  Being a TA for both physics majors and non-science majors taking a physics class was the most rewarding thing I did in college.  It's a lot of fun to get people excited about science and help them learn something new.