2016 Grand Canyon Star Party - More Pictures

[Skylook123]

At Grand Canyon Star Party, we do both day and night public outreach.  Here, Michael Turner took some pictures of Dr. Mary Turner, our club's Chief Observer, and Mae Smith, our club Vice President, in front of the Grand Canyon Visitor Center one day.

[Skylook123]

Native American wall art around our setup site.

[Skylook123]

My grandson Stephen sets up my live video alongside John Carter, Howard Weatherhead, and John Suscavage in our video corner.

[Skylook123]

Ed Rosenbach captures the Canyon around us, and John Carter catches the rain.

[Skylook123]

Jim Palmer's Night Sky (our typical night at GCSP).

 

[alan potts]

Some lovely photo's there Jim, never been to this area of the USA but I bet the skies are to die for and mine are not that that bad. Can't imagine there are many street lamps.

Alan

[cotterless45]

Wow that sky ! Where's my coat ?

Nick.

[Skylook123]

The geology and night sky are striking.  Often left out of the discussion is the climatology.  This region is a mountain desert.  Our setup spot for the South Rim GCSP is about 7000 ft. altitude, while the North Rim GCSP site, a few miles away across the Canyon, is at 8000 ft.  VERY high, and also dry with humidity generally under 20% and dew points in negative numbers.  During the summer period, the northern Colorado Plateau loses its normal high pressure area that keeps moisture from the Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Gulf of California away.  From late June until the end of September, this becomes the Southwest Monsoon season, with daily rain, lightning, and hail storms.  Other than that time frame, it is extremely dry and clear.

If any of your holiday/vacation/travel plans involve the Southwestern US, please consider the annual Grand Canyon Star Party, either as a visitor or as a volunteer.  Sunset in June is around 7:45 PM local time, and the visitor foot traffic tends to disappear around 11 PM, leaving the volunteer astronomers with these wonderful skies and their own observing agendas to pursue.  For future dates and other information, please see http://tucsonastronomy.org/upcoming-events/grand-canyon-star-party/

[MarkVIIIMarc]

It would be a dream to join you all one year.  The Canyon I have not been to but I have been to Death Valley, Vegas, Hoover Dam, and Phoenix.

Why have a Star Party there this time of year if it rains every day?  Is it a daytime heat effect rain?  Do you all ever get rained out?  Seems early spring or late fall would be best. That way you avoid the heat and rain?

It was a hot September when I went to Phoenix. Unreal and life threateningly hot like Death Valley it was. They have a great botanical garden which anyone who relocates from a moister climate should see before they plant high maintenance trees and shrubbery like back home. An eye opener for a St Louis boy.

The effects of elevation changes near Vegas were impressive also. Red Rock park is the place to be!

[Skylook123]

The reason for June and GCSP for the last 26 years is to allow the most families with children in school to be on vacation, maximize the domestic and international tourists able to attend, and have summer staff available for the support that is needed.  This star party is public outreach for the maximum number of visitors and to raise dark sky environmental awareness.  We can't start before Memorial Day weekend because of seasonal staff availability, the need for the new summer Park Aides to be trained, and the staff is fully engaged supporting the Memorial Day park visitor load prior to this event starting.  We also can't impinge on the week prior to the July 4 holiday weekend to allow workload balancing by the park.  This event is a big impact on Interpretive Ranger staff; our 8 day weeks average in excess of 70,000 visitor contacts.

Although in very rare occasions will the monsoon season begin prior to the end of June, the true monsoon starting point is when the dew point exceeds 55 degrees F, which is almost always in the first week in July or later.   This year's tail end of solar max caused the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Mexico to have quite elevated temperatures and pumping moisture into the climate, and Arctic flow disrupted the usual protection by the high pressure area that generally stays over the Colorado Plateau and keeps moisture out of the area until July.  Even with the wisps of cloud visible in some of the pictures due to 2016's atypical early June weather, most were taken in early evening, we did not lose an observing night this past year, although several nights had some cloud involvement prior to 9 PM which cut down the visitor attendance.  On the worst cloudy night, with nearly 100% cloud cover at 7:45 PM sunset and very few visitors joined us, by 9 PM the clouds were breaking up, visitors started showing up, and I had guests at my scope until 1 AM, completely clear sky.

In the last 7 years behind the Visitor Center, we have lost one night to weather, and several nights were impaired by winds in excess of 20 MPH, limiting the use of some of the large truss dobs.  Eight years ago, our last at the Yavapai Geology Museum, we lost the last two nights to rain.  Thirteen years ago when I started attending, we lost three nights to rain.   All other years since I've been attending have had 100% available time for the full 8 nights.  In my 13 years attending 10 nights each year (site setup and takedown included), I've had six days with rain.  June is the best month for weather, the only month for staff support availability prior to monsoon, and the maximum visitor attendance, which is our reason for being.

The heat is generally not an issue at 7000 feet as far at temperature is considered, but the thinner air at that altitude does induce dehydration.  Although high temperatures were predicted prior to the week, only the first two days ended up much warmer than usual (but allowing t-shirts at 1 AM).  Notice the jackets in the video corner picture; that is the typical condition with most years having 70-80F sunset temperatures in general, although  I believe in 2005 we had a couple of days with high temperatures in the 50s.

The altitude in Phoenix is around 1500 feet, and their summers tend to have over 110 consecutive days with temperatures over 110F.  I've worked there with temperatures in excess of 120F and in 1995 Sky Harbor Airport and smaller local fields could not allow any take-offs due to a lack of engine performance data.  The nickname of the place is The Valley Of The Sun, but I call it Surface Of The Sun.  Up north in Flagstaff, Prescott, Kingman, Grand Canyon, etc., more like upper 80s to low 90s in the daytime.

Please come on over to the Grand Canyon National Park and join our adventure!  You never know what one life you'll touch, and might even touch yours!

[RobertI]

Some lovely looking Hyperstar setups in the video corner.  

[Beulah]

WOW!

How dark does it get there - have you taken any SQM measurements?

[Skylook123]

9 hours ago, RobertI said:

Some lovely looking Hyperstar setups in the video corner.  

Even better was the view on their monitors!

[Skylook123]

2 hours ago, Beulah said:

WOW!

How dark does it get there - have you taken any SQM measurements?

I know some of the volunteers have taken measurements, but I don't know their raw results.  A couple of years ago, though, the announced conversion from SQM values to magnitude was 6.9 on the first three nights, 6.6-6.8 on the last four nights, and the lowest value was 6.5 on one night mid-week.  The last two years we've had wildfire and weather impacts, with the best transparency after 9 PM.  It can be truly stunning how many naked eye Messier objects are visible, in all parts of the sky.  Seven thousand feet altitude and humidity under 20% does wonders.  Even more striking on the North Rim at 8,000 feet!

[Beulah]

6 minutes ago, Skylook123 said:

I know some of the volunteers have taken measurements, but I don't know their raw results.  A couple of years ago, though, the announced conversion from SQM values to magnitude was 6.9 on the first three nights, 6.6-6.8 on the last four nights, and the lowest value was 6.5 on one night mid-week.  The last two years we've had wildfire and weather impacts, with the best transparency after 9 PM.  It can be truly stunning how many naked eye Messier objects are visible, in all parts of the sky.  Seven thousand feet altitude and humidity under 20% does wonders.  Even more striking on the North Rim at 8,000 feet!

*whistles*

6.9 is amazing. Especially under the excellent quality of those dry skies...

Thank you for your reply. 

 

[Skylook123]

On ‎8‎/‎29‎/‎2016 at 09:20, Beulah said:

*whistles*

6.9 is amazing. Especially under the excellent quality of those dry skies...

Thank you for your reply. 

 

Well, obviously, you must come join us some time - we always have room for more volunteers to share the night sky and a bit of themselves with the visitors to the Grand Canyon!  See what it is like to not recognize constellations because of too many stars!

[Beulah]

12 minutes ago, Skylook123 said:

Well, obviously, you must come join us some time - we always have room for more volunteers to share the night sky and a bit of themselves with the visitors to the Grand Canyon!  See what it is like to not recognize constellations because of too many stars!

Thank you for your kind offer but I live in the UK and will never have the finance to travel to the US.

If ever I do...you know where I'll be going. 

[Skylook123]

We'll be eagerly waiting!

[MarkVIIIMarc]

On 8/26/2016 at 23:20, Skylook123 said:

The reason for June and GCSP for the last 26 years is to allow the most families with children in school to be on vacation, maximize the domestic and international tourists able to attend, and have summer staff available for the support that is needed.  This star party is public outreach for the maximum number of visitors and to raise dark sky environmental awareness.  We can't start before Memorial Day weekend because of seasonal staff availability, the need for the new summer Park Aides to be trained, and the staff is fully engaged supporting the Memorial Day park visitor load prior to this event starting.  We also can't impinge on the week prior to the July 4 holiday weekend to allow workload balancing by the park.  This event is a big impact on Interpretive Ranger staff; our 8 day weeks average in excess of 70,000 visitor contacts.

Although in very rare occasions will the monsoon season begin prior to the end of June, the true monsoon starting point is when the dew point exceeds 55 degrees F, which is almost always in the first week in July or later.   This year's tail end of solar max caused the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Mexico to have quite elevated temperatures and pumping moisture into the climate, and Arctic flow disrupted the usual protection by the high pressure area that generally stays over the Colorado Plateau and keeps moisture out of the area until July.  Even with the wisps of cloud visible in some of the pictures due to 2016's atypical early June weather, most were taken in early evening, we did not lose an observing night this past year, although several nights had some cloud involvement prior to 9 PM which cut down the visitor attendance.  On the worst cloudy night, with nearly 100% cloud cover at 7:45 PM sunset and very few visitors joined us, by 9 PM the clouds were breaking up, visitors started showing up, and I had guests at my scope until 1 AM, completely clear sky.

In the last 7 years behind the Visitor Center, we have lost one night to weather, and several nights were impaired by winds in excess of 20 MPH, limiting the use of some of the large truss dobs.  Eight years ago, our last at the Yavapai Geology Museum, we lost the last two nights to rain.  Thirteen years ago when I started attending, we lost three nights to rain.   All other years since I've been attending have had 100% available time for the full 8 nights.  In my 13 years attending 10 nights each year (site setup and takedown included), I've had six days with rain.  June is the best month for weather, the only month for staff support availability prior to monsoon, and the maximum visitor attendance, which is our reason for being.

The heat is generally not an issue at 7000 feet as far at temperature is considered, but the thinner air at that altitude does induce dehydration.  Although high temperatures were predicted prior to the week, only the first two days ended up much warmer than usual (but allowing t-shirts at 1 AM).  Notice the jackets in the video corner picture; that is the typical condition with most years having 70-80F sunset temperatures in general, although  I believe in 2005 we had a couple of days with high temperatures in the 50s.

The altitude in Phoenix is around 1500 feet, and their summers tend to have over 110 consecutive days with temperatures over 110F.  I've worked there with temperatures in excess of 120F and in 1995 Sky Harbor Airport and smaller local fields could not allow any take-offs due to a lack of engine performance data.  The nickname of the place is The Valley Of The Sun, but I call it Surface Of The Sun.  Up north in Flagstaff, Prescott, Kingman, Grand Canyon, etc., more like upper 80s to low 90s in the daytime.

Please come on over to the Grand Canyon National Park and join our adventure!  You never know what one life you'll touch, and might even touch yours!

Makes sense.  In a few years I'll be used to scheduling things around the kid's school. 

I guess the Monsoon season there isn't quite like our rainy weeks where several nights at a time are lost to some weather front or other.

Same with the altitude saving you from the heat.  I always think of the canyon as being a hole in a valley.  I should have remembered even relatively low Red Rock park by Vegas is a break from the heat, Mt Charleston there was GREAT.  Hot Phoenix I didn't like soo much.  Phoenix did have an excellent and eye opening botanical garden but the employees were driving golf carts about handing out water, sun umbrellas and making sure folks didn't cook to death  lol.

[Skylook123]

The interesting about altitude and heat is that the temperature lapse rate in the troposphere says the ambient temperature declines, a good thing.  But you loose the atmospheric shield against the direct solar radiation that fries your skin subtly.  And you lose moisture through direct evaporation and never notice the dehydration until it's too late to immediately reverse.  The dehydration affects electrical signals in the brain and muscle control, and when you find yourself spitting cotton balls, it's too late to stop the trend and liquid intake is almost at an emergency state.  Yet the dehydration affects your thinking and muscle motor control like balance on the Rim.  The people affected the most at the Grand Canyon, needing emergency response?  Males between the ages of about 18 to 36.  Time to hydrate is the night before, extra non-alcoholic beverages, and early morning, to get the liquids in the system.  I forgot one day to pay attention and have a 1.5 liter bottle with me all day and did a solar outreach at a day school for children at the Canyon, and at 9 PM had a transient stroke due to low fluids and a pinched carotid artery!  And me always advising the astronomers on hydration.  It feels cooler while the liquid is evaporating from your body and those tank top shirts are getting you fried without feeling the heat.  One remembers after sticking to the pillows and sheets at night!

By the way, only one child has fallen off the Rim going back 80 years, but five to six 18-36 year old males make the deep dive annually.  Want to be safe?  Stand behind a kid!