The Great Nebraska Star Party

The official score for the Great Nebraska Star Party is: Astronomers six--clouds zero. If you don't count having to wait until 1:30 am Tuesday morning for the sky to clear after the thunderstorm. At least that is up until Friday afternoon when we had to leave.

The event had everything just about any astronomer could want. The clear, dark skies displayed the overwhelming brilliance of the Milky Way. Even the dark rifts of dust marking the heart of Cygnus, the Swan were visible. Moisture in the form of dew rarely stopped observing sessions and all the grandeur of the starry host with a few planets here or there for good measure.

There was a sprinkling of meteors all night which could have been a precursor of the coming Perseid Meteor shower in early August and a nice aurora in the north. One of those attending took a very nice photograph of the auroral display which silhouetted an astronomer at a telescope. It wasn't a bright, overhead display normally associated with an aurora. It was confined exclusively to the northern horizon.

The only unfortunate event was the location we chose for our camping spot. It was the site of the international convention of the Grand Order of Granddaddy Long-Leg spiders. Unfortunate that is for the spiders as their numbers were reduced by several hundred by the lady folk who attended with us.

The Great Nebraska Star Party is held each year in late July or early August at Merritt Reservoir near Valentine. It is one of the darkest spots in Nebraska.

The only problem facing the astronomers; there were almost too many stars for them to locate and target the open and globular star clusters, planetary nebula, galaxies and other such objects.

I know I had some trouble locating some constellations that are well known to me because there were just too many stars to find the familiar landmarks I was looking for.

Attending the star party with me were my wife, Janice, eldest daughter, Kimberly Bartholomew, and her two children, my grandsons, Tyrell and Sheldon Bartholomew. Also with us was Sheldon's best friend William Lewis, all of Imperial.

It was a great pleasure showing the boys the wonder of the night skies. The two younger boys, Sheldon and William, eagerly took control of the 8-inch Dob telescope and began to search for items we had discussed and were on the "Newcomer" challenge list. One of the great comments heard from the boys was "I found it, I don't know what it is, but I found it."

Later in the week they each won one of the Galileo telescope kits given away as door prizes. It was a replica of the one used by Galileo 400 years ago to examine the night sky.

William turned his scope on Jupiter and saw a sight similar to what Galileo himself saw with the small moons in orbit about the giant planet.

There was also some excitement at the party when a new spot appeared on Jupiter and the astronomical community around the world was speculating it could be another meteor strike similar to the Shoemaker-Levy 9 meteor strike several years ago. With all scopes aimed at the planet, the new dark spot could easily be seen near the south pole of the planet.

As for me, I wasn't looking for anything in particular. I just wandered from scope to scope looking at what they were looking at and enjoying the view. With an excess of 200 people in attendance, that is a lot of telescopes.

SKY WATCH: First quarter moon, Tuesday, July 28, full moon, Aug. 5.

NEXT TIME: More astronomical blathering, and perhaps more about Scorpius.