Once again, the 3rd annual Nebraska Star Party lived up to its reputation as both a family and dark-sky observing event, bringing about 250 people from as far away as southern Florida, California, Texas, and Ontario, Canada, together to experience the wonders of the late summer skies. Held August 10-17th near Merritt Reservoir high in the Sandhill region of northwest Nebraska, this event once again featured a unique combination of daytime recreational and social activities for all ages, along with viewing under a pristine night sky which has to be seen to be believed.
A few people arrived early on Saturday the 10th, and spent much of the day sight-seeing or resting up from their travels. That evening, about 100 of the "early birds" gathered with 26 telescopes at the observing fields on the high dunes south of the Snake campground to begin their week of viewing. The sky gave these amateurs the wonderful experience of both crystal-clear darkness and rock-steady seeing. Many observers saw stars down to magnitude 7.5 with the unaided eye, and the views through the telescopes were equally stunning. Tom Miller's 30" Obsession revealed the majestic dark pillars in M16 in a way few people had ever seen. The Veil Nebula looked better than most photographs, and faint galaxies became easy to pick out. Telescopes were rapidly swinging all over the sky, as awe-struck amateurs ran from instrument to instrument to take in the view. The Milky Way again stole the show, casting weak shadows and revealing extensive dark detail well outside the normal confines of its band of light. Many people commented on how they could see even dim stars just "pop" up on the horizon. Some star party attendees concentrated on just sitting back and taking in the fantastic star fields with the naked eye, while they watched the Perseid Meteor shower put on its annual display of fireworks. NSP chairman Dave Scherping put his 20" Dobsonian on Saturn while it was only five degrees above the horizon, and revealed Cassini's division and a number of moons! Sunday morning twilight came all too soon!
Sunday brought on the start of NSP registration, as the bulk of those who would spend the week arrived. At dusk, a public star party was held at the Merritt Resort behind the cabins, so campers and interested individuals from Valentine Nebraska could view the more prominent celestial objects. After that, most attendees went to the observing area to watch the Perseids or view through the large number of telescopes present. Several people reported about 60 meteors per hour, with many being quite bright and leaving trains.
Monday, daytime activities were in full swing, with many families taking advantage of Merritt Reservoir's white sand beaches and warm water. The weather was warm and dry, with temperatures in the upper 80's. Tom Miller took several families and other attendees out on the lake in the "Party Barge", a 24 foot pontoon boat, to fish, swim, or just relax and take in the scenery. The evening brought partly cloudy skies which tended to frustrate some observers, but people still had a chance to chat for long hours into the night. Tuesday afternoon at the Merritt Resort, Dr. Jim Swinehart, a geologist from the University of Nebraska, gave an interesting talk about the origin and history of the Sandhill dune field. This was followed by a hamburger barbecue behind the cabins. Tuesday night was mostly cloudy, which spawned a round of Laser Wars and Photon Torpedo exchanges at the observing site.
Wednesday afternoon brought on the swap meet, which was followed later by a wonderful night of observing with dozens of large telescopes under a crystal- clear dark sky. Mark Dahmke demonstrated the ST-8 CCD system on his 8" Meade LX-200, imaging a large number of deep-sky objects from the NSP observing field in as little as 10 seconds. Comet Hale-Bopp was also fairly easy to see with the naked eye, showing both a curving coma and a broad faint tail which was nearly two degrees in length.
On Thursday morning, the Great NSP Canoe/Tubing trip in the Niobrara Canyon was a "splashing" success. It was a cool morning, but that didn't prevent some vigorous water antics from many of the kids (not to mention the water cannon battle between Tom Miller and Texan Alan Scruggs). Other people just floated down the river, resting from the previous night's observing, or admiring the rugged canyon topography. A chicken Barbecue was held at Merritt Resort that evening, but thunderstorms cut off observing.
On Friday, the formal programs were held in the Valentine High School auditorium. Martin Tippman of the Genesis Factor started things off with a talk on meteorites. Vic Winter of the Astronomical Society of Kansas City did a presentation on observing high in Bolivia at the Southern Skies Star Party. Bruce Twarog gave a talk on the search for metals in the Galaxy, which was followed by a presentation on H-alpha Observing by David Knisely of the Prairie Astronomy Club. Brenda Culbertson of NEKAAL gave a talk on Archeoastronomy, which was followed by Joel McCleary and Sean O'Corrain who spoke on the Nebraska Math-Science Initiative and Science Odyssey. Dave Nash won the difficult "Name that Object" contest. The Key-note speaker was Richard Pirko, who gave the presentation "Echoes of the Space Race". The group then moved to the Peppermill Restaurant for the prime rib banquet, where the grand door prize, a Meade ETX Maksutov was awarded.
Friday night was another observing winner, with dark and clear skies lasting until twilight on Saturday morning. Mark Dahmke again fired up his CCD system, taking even more stunning images for placement on the NSP web page. Telescopes were spread out over a huge area running from the upper observing field all the way down to the campground near the lake.
Many attendees had to leave on Saturday, but a number stuck it out for one more clear (but cold) night under the dark sandhill skies. A waxing crescent moon low in the west signaled the final wonderful night of the 3rd Nebraska Star Party.
THE FOURTH ANNUAL NEBRASKA STAR PARTY IS SCHEDULED FOR AUGUST 2 - 9, 1997 at Merritt Reservoir, 26 miles southwest of Valentine Nebraska. For more information, check out our web site at: http://www.4w.com/nsp or the Prairie Astronomy Club Web page: http://www.infoanalytic.com/pac/