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AstroMax
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Texas Star Party 2002:
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| Rick Feinberg: Challenges for Astronomy in the 21st Century | |
Saturday night ended up being the only presentation I was able to attend at TSP. Rick Feinberg, Editor in Chief at S&T, gave a talk on The Challenges for Astronomy in the 21st Century. It was good, but I had heard it before, since it was basically an updated version of the same talk he gave at Ventura for the Astronomical League Convention a few years back. Among the issues he highlighted were the search for Dark Manner and Dark Energy, the need for Unification of Gravity with Other Forces, the Evolution and Large-Scale Structure of Galaxies and the Universe, and Inflation vs. "Branes" and the current research into higher dimensions by mathematicians and physicists.
One note worth mentioning is that Bob and Lisa Summerfield
of Astronomy-To-Go were awarded the Omega Centauri Award for their contribution
to astronomy and education. They were flabbergasted. Bob and Lisa are great
friends, and friends of everyone it seems, and this is a well deserved award.
Dave Tosteson from Minnesota was awarded the Lone Star Gazer award for his
work with students and observing projects. I did not know him, but we had
talked, and he is very nice. Apparently he is an expert observer. Mike Planchon
presented the Omega Centarui Award to Bob and Lisa Summerfield, and
Barbara Wilson presented the Lone Stargazer Award to Dave Tosteson.
TSP Observing Coordinator John Wagoner,
seen in the photo here with AAAA Member David Bushard, reported that he
awarded 296 observing pins during the week: 167 pins for the Seeing Double
program, 30 pins for the Glorious Globulars program, 37 pins for the Observing
Odyssey program, and 62 pins for the binocular program. That is a lot of
observing going on. Reports are that the programs, especially the Seeing Double
program, were lots of fun this year.
Saturday night ended up cloudy, so Jackie did not miss anything. I ended up walking around the field in the dark, seeing who I could find. I had a lot of interesting conversations with lots of different people. I ran into Mike Planchon later in the evening, and Anna brought down some of her cherry cobbler to share around. Delicious!
So Sunday, it was over. I got the car packed, Fort Davis dust and all, and headed south to Presidio, TX, for a drive down the Rio Grande and a day in Big Bend National Park.
TSP weather was OK this year, but not much more than that. I arrived on Wednesday evening, about 8:00, just about local sunset. Wednesday was clear, and ended up being the clearest of the nights I was there. Before I arrived, I understand that it was mostly cloudy, with a few sucker holes here and there.
There has been a drought for some months out there in west Texas, and because of that, lots of dust, which results in haze in the air. For that reason, even during the day, transparency was terrible, even when it was clear. At times, even when it was sunny, you could not see the mountains across the field from the ranch because of the haze. I was trying to work on the Spring objects on my Herschel list, and made some progress, but it was tough going with all the haze.
Saturday night ended up being cloudy again, so after the talks and giveaway, I just visited around, and headed out the next morning, rested rather than excited from all the observing.
I
spent the day Sunday in Big Bend NP, and found a hotel in Marathon for Sunday
night on my way out of the park. I settled into the hotel about 10:30, but was
still not sleepy, so I drove out of town about a mile and found a dark side
road for some additional observing. That turned out to be the best night I had
all week. The dust in the air seemed to have settled, or moved on. I was even
able to get a few shots of Comet
Ikeya-Zhang before turning in about 12:30.
The Southwest Region of the Astronomical League holds its annual business meeting during TSP, and it is encouraging to hear that SWRAL will be increasing its interest in its member societies and their activities outside of TSP each year. To find out more about the Texas Star Party, visit their web page at http://www.texasstarparty.org/
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The Southwest Region of the Astronomical League is made up of 28 member societies of the Astronomical League in the states of Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.
Join the AAAA's SWRAL Newsgroup
Hosted by Yahoo Groups and the American Association of Amateur Astronomers The purpose of the SWRAL Yahoo! Newsgroup, hosted by the American Association of Amateur Astronomers, is to create a forum where members of SWRAL clubs can share ideas and experiences, and just get to know each other. If you belong to one of the member societies of the Southwest Region of the Astronomical League, or just want to know more about what is going on in this part of the Astronomical League, please join us as we share ideas about our region and what we can do to encourage more communication between clubs. |
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The American Association of Amateur Astronomers is a member society of the Astronomical League. Based in Plano, TX, and with a worldwide membership, including 15% of its members in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, AAAA is proud to be one of the ten largest clubs in the Astronomical League, and the second largest club in the Southwest Region.
Unless otherwise noted:
Copyright ©2001 by The American Association of Amateur Astronomers
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