The Central Pennsylvania Observers will be hosting their 10th annual Black Forest Star Party at Cherry Springs State Park this coming weekend. This is a pre-registered, pre-paid event, but the general public is invited to visit the Astronomy Observation Field on Saturday, September 19 from 7:30 – 11:00 pm.
There will still be enough light on the field for visitors to see the hundreds of telescopes that will be set up on the field, then stay after dark to look through many of the scopes that have been “volunteered” for this event. These telescopes will be marked with a green light stick on the ground pointing towards the telescope and the scope itself will be marked with a red light stick.
For those wishing to attend it is recommended that you bring along a small flashlight and you will be issued a red cellophane filter, as no white light is permitted on the Astronomy field. Please dress warmly as it can get quite cool and damp at Cherry Springs and sturdy footwear is also recommended. No pets will be permitted, so please leave your dog at home.
This is the 10th year for the Black Forest Star Party which has been held at Cherry Springs State Park usually from mid-August to early October. Over 500 astronomers have registered to attend this year’s event which runs from September 18 – 20. Not only do astronomers spend the night observing the fantastic night sky available at Cherry Springs, but during the afternoons there are astronomy vendors as well as a slate of internationally known speakers – another reason why star parties are so popular.
This year’s keynote speaker will be Canada’s Terence Dickenson, author of 14 books including “Night Watch” – one of the world’s best selling stargazing guides. He is also co-author with Alan Dyer of “The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide”, Dickenson was also the first editor of Astronomy magazine, and a professional science writer freelancing for Science Digest, Popular Mechanics, the Gannett news service, CBC radio and the Canadian Discovery Channel. For the past 15 years he has been the editor of “Sky News”, the Canadian magazine of Astronomy and Stargazing.
Other speakers at this year’s star party will be Erik Hoversten, a Research Associate at Penn State University, who will speak about Observing Gamma Ray Bursts from Space and Your Backyard. Larry McHenry, an amateur astronomer for over 30 years will be speaking about Video Astronomy for Beginners. Also speaking will be Phil Creed, a long time deep-sky and comet observer from Ohio who will be talking on the Science of Site(s). And speaking on Modification and Cooling of DSLR Cameras for AstroImaging, will be Gary Honis, member of the Greater Hazelton Astronomical Society and long time observer at Cherry Springs State Park.
Those wishing to visit the park for the Public Viewing Night, should park their cars in the public parking lots located on the north side of Rt. 44. They can then cross the road where they will be met by members of the Cherry Springs Dark Sky Team who will set up their flashlights for them and point them in the right direction for finding the volunteer telescopes.
Again, the public is asked to vacate the area by 11:00 pm so the astronomers can get back to their regular observing. In the event of poor weather or overcast skies, the public viewing portion of the program will be cancelled. Please contact the Lyman Run State Park office for any cancellation notices – which will be left on the park’s answering machine at (814) 435-5010.
Cherry Springs State Park has been internationally recognized for having one of the darkest night sky observing areas in the Eastern United States. Astronomers from all over the US will be attending this star party and hopefully, the weather will cooperate in order for them to see the spectacular site of the Summer Milky Way stretching across the sky from one horizon to the other. Astronomers can’t wait to share the wonders of the night sky with people and there’s nothing more exciting than seeing the moons of Jupiter or looking into the heart of a nebulae where new stars are being born.
Cherry Springs State Park…Pennsylvania’s First Dark Sky Preserve..the place to be…for Astronomy!See you under the Stars!!
