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by Ed Flaspoehler, AAAA President
 The 3rd Annual Lake Whitney Astronomy Day Star Party was
again held at Lake Whitney State Park, near Hillsboro, TX,
about 70 miles south of Dallas/Fort Worth. For the past two
years, AAAA has been participating by providing programs and
sponsoring observing certificates at Lake Whitney.
 Like
all good star parties, the Lake Whitney Star Party is geared
to public observing programs. But LWSP is also known for its
telescope making events, since organizer Thomas Williamson
is an enthusiastic ATM. This year, he ground a 14.5 inch
mirror during the two days of the event. Kelly Stripling
helped out by making tile tools, and John Dowell built the
Dobsonian scope mount for the new mirror. Mirror null
testing demonstrations were also held. LWSP has donated a
total of three Dobsonian telescopes to Lake Whitney State
Park to use in their public programs.
 Several hundred Girl
Scouts were attending a jamboree in the park during the same
weekend, and were treated to clear skies and good observing
on Friday night. Sadly, Saturday night clouded over, and the
closest anyone got to seeing stars was during AAAA President
Ed Flaspoehler’s slide presentation. Ed’s topic,
Observing Spring Deep Sky
Objects, concentrated on five important objects visible
this time of year, representing each of the five type of
objects available to observe: nebula M42 in Orion, open
cluster M41 in Canis Major, planetary nebula M97 in Ursa
Major, galaxy M51 and globular cluster M3, both in Canes
Venatici.
 Dr. Paul Derrick from Waco gave an interesting
presentation about comets and asteroids. Dr. Derrick is Star
Gazer columnist for the Waco Tribune-Herald newspaper. Dean
Chandler gave a presentation describing the new planetarium
being constructed at Central Texas College in Killeen. Harry
Bearman, president of the Fort Worth Astronomical Society,
was head judge for the ATM events. AAAA is proud to
sponsor the LWSP observing programs, and issued certificates
for observing 20 objects to James and Matthew Ochoa from
Bryan, TX, and Jay Porter and Mike Warren, both from College
Station, TX. |
April 13, 2001
International Astronomy Day is dedicated to taking astronomy to the people. It is
celebrated on the Saturday near the first quarter moon between
mid-April and mid-May. Check out the night sky tonight!
Entry forms for the Sky & Telescope Astronomy Day award are available by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Gary Tomlinson at the address below. Deadline for entries is June 13.
New Handbook
To receive your copy of the new Astronomy Day Handbook, 4th edition, revised and published by Sky and Telescope magazine, send a check made out to the Astronomical League for $3.00, $4.00 outside North America, to our new address:
Gary Tomlinson,
Astronomy Day Headquarters,
Public Museum of Grand Rapids,
272 Pearl NW,
Grand Rapids, MI 49504 USA
(616) 456-3532,
(616) 456-3873 FAX
gtomlins@triton.net
www.astroleague.org/
astroday.html
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Lake Whitney is a Texas State Park located near Hillsboro, TX, on State Highway 22, west of I-35.
