Milwaukee, Wisconsin is well represented at the Nebraska Star Party says Karen Kerans. "There are 4 campsites here from the Wehr Astronomical Society". "We heard about this from one of our members who came home and raved about it..This is his third year." She was referring to Gene Dupree who has helped make the NSP a great success by merely telling others what this place is like.
Word of mouth travels far and wide. The impressions of individual observers carry far more weight than advertisements or brochures.
Jeff Schmidt from Aurora, Illinois heard about the NSP from a newsgroup on the internet. It took three days to get here. Jeff said "...it was a toss up between this one and one in Canada over the same weekend, so I did some research and looking at the International Dark Sky Association imagery of the area it actually looked like this might be a little bit darker, so I opted to come here and I'm glad I did." Jeff is observing with a Celestron CG11 that he bought last April. "My boss and Uncle Sam were good to me this year so I made the leap and I bought this guy." "Observing outside Aurora were I am at is not the best, but you take what you can get...out here,... well this is wonderful."
Kansas City Astronomical Society member Steve Berg has just completed building a 8" f/8 Newtonian. "We have a very active mirror grinding group down there." he said. The mirror, his first, turned out pretty good and tested out to 3/8 wave accuracy. Jeff is looking for good clear skies to really test the new mirror. He wants to do some double star work while out here at NSP.
Another three timer Alan Scruggs from Amarillo, Texas came in Saturday evening. Alan helped inaugurate NSP1 and was at NSP2 and we are always happy to see him, his wife Laura and their kids Jenifer and Mathew. They drove over 11 hours to reach the sandy shores of Merritt Reservoir."We have been going to the Texas Star Party since 1988, knew what the Prude Ranch had to offer, but we come up here mainly for the dark skies and for the activities that we enjoy around the lake." says Alan. "The kids have been spending almost all their time in the lake. We've gone fishing, boating and later this week we will take in the nature tour at Valentine and then the big tubing trip down the Niobrara is obviously the highlight of the trip." Alan brought with him a 20" Obsession telescope that he purchased two years ago from Tom Miller. The views it can pull in always produce a line of lookers waiting to see.
Michael Cain travelled nearly 1000 miles to reach NSP. Their route brought them from North of Chicago through South Dakota where they stopped by the infamous Wall Drug Store and toured the scenic Badlands. Michael, his wife and two kids heard about NSP-2 from Lesa Andrea and Roberto Garza of Lake County Astronomical Society. The Cains decided to come on their recommendation. Michael brought a 12 1/2 inch f/6 dobsonian built by Morning Star Telescopes in Oregon. "...it is a solid tube like a Coulter so it doesn't break down any smaller than a 75 inch tube. It fits in our van between the two kids in back so it actually kind of serves a purpose by keeping them from fighting." he said laughing.
We're glad Michael and his wife brought their kids along. NSP has really become a family event full of numerous activities. This is the way it should be, a Star Party that can start to address the interests of the whole family, and this year, the Perseids have helped add an extra bonus. This reporter saw many families together on blankets gazing up at the star filled Nebraska sky as silver streaks shot across the Milky Way. Sometimes everything seems so right in our busy hectic world. This is one of those times.