The Enchanted Skies Star Party
October 10-13, 2012 | Socorro, New Mexico, USA
A printer friendly version of the schedule may be found by clicking HERE
1:00 p.m. Registration packet pickup begins at the Etscorn Campus Observatory.
1:00 p.m. Welcome to the 18th annual Enchanted Skies Star Party, Etscorn Campus Observatory. Camping at Fort Craig or Etscorn Campus Observatory opens.
2:00 p.m. Mandatory Meeting for all participants planning to go to South Baldy, Etscorn Campus Observatory.
3:00 p.m. Observing at 10,000 Feet -- atop Socorro County's South Baldy peak. Convoy leaves Etscorn Campus Observatory, bring your own brown bag supper. See the About page for more information.
8:00 p.m. Observing at Fort Craig Dark Sky Site, Observing at the Etscorn Campus Observatory.
1:00 p.m. Registration packet pickup begins at the Etscorn Campus Observatory.
12:00 p.m. Depart Socorro for the "Looking Forward" Tour of the Expanded Very Large Array radio telescope. Tour begins at the EVLA site, 50 miles West of Socorro at 1pm, and lasts for approximately 90 minutes. Leave VLA by 3:00 p.m.
5:00 p.m. GEODSS tour departs Socorro for a pay-as-you-go dinner at the Owl Bar in San Antonio at 5:30pm. Introductory briefing begins immediately after dinner. The convoy departs for the GEODSS facility by 7pm.
NOTE: Participants taking the GEODSS tour must provide their names, Social Security numbers and proof of U.S. Citizenship in advance upon registering for the star party. See here for more details.
8:00 p.m. Observing at Fort Craig Dark Sky Site, Observing at the Etscorn Campus Observatory.
1:00 p.m. Registration packet pickup begins at the Etscorn Campus Observatory.
1:00 p.m. Dave Dooling "Building the 4-meter Advanced Technology Solar Telescope" Bio
2:00 p.m. Frederick Pilcher "Asteroid CCD Photometry and Lightcurve Analysis - Performed by Amateurs to Professional Standards" Bio
3:00 p.m. NMT Astronomy Club "A History and Tour of Etscorn Campus Observatory"
4:15 p.m. Jim Jackson will give a tour of the NRAO Array Operations Center electronics laboratory. Convoy from Etscorn at 4:10 p.m. if you don't know the way.
5:30 p.m. Pizza Party at Etscorn Campus Observatory. $1 a slice.
7:00 p.m. Keynote Lecture: Scott Ransom. On campus, room 101 of the Workman Center.
8:30 p.m. Observing at the Etscorn Campus Observatory. This night is open to the public, we invite you to share your telescope with anyone who is interested!
8:30 p.m. Observing at Fort Craig Dark Sky Site.
9:00 p.m. Lecture: "Beginning Amateur Astronomy," Jason Speights, NMT Physics, Etscorn Campus Observatory.
9:30 p.m. Bill Spargo Memorial Lecture: "Learning the Constellations," G.B. Cornucopia, U.S. National Park Service. Etscorn Campus Observatory
3:00 p.m. Registration packet pickup begins at the Fort Craig National Historic Site.
All events move to the Fort Craig dark sky site, all Etscorn campers must move to Fort Craig.
4:00 p.m. Civil War reenactor presentation
5:00 p.m. Dinner is Served! Saturday Night chuck-wagon dinner at Fort Craig.
7:00 p.m. Campfire Lecture: G. B. Cornucopia, U.S. National Park Service, Fort Craig.
8:30 p.m. Door prize drawing. Full star party registrants are automatically entered, you must be present to win. Grand prize of a 6" Orion Starblast Telescope, donated by Wayne Watson.
Stay for observing at Fort Craig after the Campfire Lecture!
A staff astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and a Research Professor at the University of Virginia, Dr. Scott Ransom has led efforts using the National Science Foundation's Green Bank Telescope and other facilities to study pulsars -- spinning, superdense neutron stars -- and use them to make advances in areas of frontier astrophysics such as gravitational waves and particle physics.
In January, Ransom received the American Astronomical Society's Helen B. Warner Prize. Presented by AAS President Debra Elmegreen, the prize recognized Ransom "for his astrophysical insight and innovative technical leadership enabling the discovery of exotic, millisecond and young pulsars and their application for tests of fundamental physics."
In 2010, he was on a team that discovered the most massive pulsar yet known, a finding that had implications for the composition of pulsars and details of nuclear physics, gravitational waves, and gamma-ray bursts. In 2006, he was part of a team that discovered the fastest-spinning pulsar found to date, a speedster rotating 716 times a second, faster than a kitchen blender.
Ransom also is a leader in efforts to find and analyze rapidly-rotating millisecond pulsars to make the first direct detection of the gravitational waves predicted by Albert Einstein. In other work, he has advanced observational capabilities for finding millisecond pulsars in globular clusters of stars and investigated how millisecond pulsars are formed.
A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY, Ransom served as an artillery officer in the U.S. Army. After leaving the Army, he earned a Ph.D. at Harvard University in 2001, and was a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University before joining the NRAO in 2004.
Nightly observing at the Etscorn Campus Observatory (just outside Socorro)
Nightly observing at the Fort Craig National Historic Site (~ 30 miles south of Socorro)
Drawings for numerous door prizes.
Solar observing.
...and more to come!
More events may be scheduled in the future.
The schedule is subject to change without notice, so check back before making final plans!
