A crowd of excited amateur astronomers and members of the general public attended the Summer 2002 Lake Whitney Summer Star Party, held at the Recreation Center in the Lake Whitney State Park near Hillsboro, TX. Event organizer Thomas Williamson graciously designated the Central Texas Astronomical Society in Waco, TX, and the American Association of Amateur Astronomers as event sponsors. 

CTAS Bar-Be-Que Dinner	Patricia Haley at Registration	Paul Derrick Answers a Question
Winning a T-Shirt	Harry Bearman Supervises Door Prize Drawing	ATM Awards
	ATM Award Presentation

At 8:00 PM, Ed  Flaspoehler, Vice President of the American Association of Amateur Astronomers, give his slide show on observing the night sky for the beginning amateur astronomers. Entitled Introduction to Late Summer Deep-Sky Objects, Ed's talk covered five of the most prominent Messier objects up during the summer months, representing each of the five major categories of deep sky objects observable by amateur astronomers: globular clusters, planetary nebulae, open clusters, emission nebulae, and galaxies. This talk includes slides from Ed's personal collection, illustrating the various objects, as well as finder charts and star maps to help the viewer to go find each object on their own. Ed also distributed finder charts and observing logs for people to use later that night on the telescope field. Ed's program is based on  the popular Constellation of the Month programs presented during the monthly meetings of the Texas Astronomical Society of Dallas. Ed will also be presenting this program at the general meeting of the Oklahoma City Astronomy Club on September 8, and at the Great Plains Star Party on September 30.

The Stars at Night 
Are Big and Bright
Deep in the Heart of Texas!

The Lake Whitney Star Party is free and open to the public except for park fees of $2.00 per person. The Central Texas Astronomical Society from Waco, Texas, holds their August meeting at the star party and help with door prizes.

The organized presentations and speaker lectures are held at the Recreation Hall in the State Park. The Recreation Hall has recently been air conditioned. 

T-Shirts for the Lake Whitney Star Party were available. The shirts are black with a single face-on galaxy in silver printed with the slogan, " I Explored The Universe, Lake Whitney Summer Star Party." At the lower corner of the galaxy in small letters will be the phrase, "All men find that for which they seek- Arab proverb." 

Lake Whitney is a Texas State Park located near Hillsboro, TX, on State Highway 22, west of I-35.

Contact event organizer Thomas Williamson at 817-656-0901, or via e-mail at distglow@hotmail.com. 

Contact Lake Whitney State Park at lwsp@digitex.net. 

The park information web site is http://www.digitex.net/lakewhitneystatepark