Imagine gazing at the night time sky, temperatures in the low 70's, on a sand beach with the ocean 30 feet away. You can see why the Winter Star Party - http://www.scas.org/wsp.html in the Florida Keys is so popular. This is the first major star party of the year in North America, attracting over 500 participants. Astronomers from all over the world leave the snow and cold to eat fresh seafood, listen to renowned speakers and observe all night long.
Star parties are popular throughout the world as amateur astronomers gather in some of the darkest, most remote locations to observe truly dark skies.
Some of the nearby star parties:
Heart of America Star Party near Kansas City - http://www.hoasp.org/
Nebraska Star Party - http://www.nebraskastarparty.org/
Okie-Tex Star Party - http://www.okie-tex.com/
Many bring large computerized telescopes. I had the chance to observe through 2 "monsters" - a 32" and a 25" (size of mirrors). The 32" stood about 15 feet high and the 25" stood about 12 feet high. You obviously need a ladder. I spent 3 nights observing galaxies, "exploding" stars (supernova), "exploded" stars (planetary nebula) and the "coolest" planet in the skies - Saturn. Not only are the rings big and beautiful but counted 6-8 moons around the ringed planet. Since Cape Canaveral is so close we had many speakers from NASA updating on the latest discoveries.
Interesting fact - Did you know at the beginning of the Civil War the Union Navy controlled Key West? Matter of fact more cannons were stored there than any place in the US. The citizens of Key West voted on which side they wanted to support - Union or Confederate. Voted Confederate. The Union Navy told the residents they would aim all their cannons at the city. Key West had a re-vote - Union won this time!
Key West - only city where residents enlisting as Confederates had to travel NORTH!
Next blog - next week.
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