So you have seen some of the posts in the Knoxville Observers Facebook page about Star Parties. You wonder what happens at a Star Party? What do I even bring to a Star party?
So first and foremost a Star party is a social gathering. When taking pictures or visual observing it can be quite lonely and probably stunts our social skills. So in order to combat the loneliness and probably to improve social skills, we gather together and share our common knowledge of what we’ve learned and make new friends and strengthen old along the way.
When you decide to come to a Star party there are a couple of things to bring and do, that will make it enjoyable for everyone.
1/ Bring a head lamp or flashlight with a red light or cover the white flashlight with a red film. The reason why we do this is a) gives you visibility in the dark place, b) protects the night vision for observers who are visual observers.
2/ Bring a telescope, DLSR camera, binoculars.
3/ Bring warm clothes for winter or protective clothing for summer for the bugs.
4/ Be courteous to the folks with equipment as they may be processing images or visual observing. Please ask folks if you can look through their telescopes if you are curious.
Final thoughts, if you are reluctant to come out and see us because you’ve never met us. Feel free to look at the Knoxville Observer pages for events during the day where we discuss topics like helping local groups, writing articles for the website, and general astronomy things.
– Thanks for reading and clear skies!
Comments are closed