Star Party Information

TONIGHT'S STAR PARTY (10/28) IS CANCELLED DUE TO CLOUD COVER

Star parties are a fun way for you to earn extra credit in your science class.  Beginning on September 9th, star parties will happen every Wednesday night in September and October.  The star parties will begin at 7:30 and end at 9:00pm.  Up to 12 students and one parent/guardian per student may attend each star party.  In order to attend, your parent or guardian must give email or written permission for you to go (emails should be sent to Mr. Burdon at bburdon@lwsd.org).  The first 12 students to send an email or give a note to Mr. Burdon will be the ones who get to attend the star party.

At the beginning of the star party, you will report to Mr. Burdon's room (139) for instruction on how to operate the telescopes and a rundown of what we will be viewing. 

You will team up with another student to aim a telescope at the objects that Mr. Burdon tells you to locate.  Five of the telescopes are operated completely manually and one of the telescopes has a GoTo controller.  During the observing session, you will sketch what you are seeing in the eyepiece.  For the planets Jupiter and Saturn, you will use a computer program called Stellarium to figure out the names moons that you were able to see once we return to the classroom.

At the end of the star party we'll bring the telescopes back up from the field and discuss what we've seen.

Below are some websites that have some very cool online tools to help you find your way around the sky:

Stellarium - this website has a free downloadable program that enables you to find stars, constellations, planets and deep space objects at any time and from any location.

Utah Skies - this website has some terrific information about objects in the night sky, but also has Telrad charts that help you locate objects in the night sky if you have a telescope equipped with a Telrad finder (they run about $40.00).  We use Telrad finders to locate objects with our telescopes.

Cloudy Nights - this is a forum where you can people with all different levels of experience for help with anything related to astronomy.

Have Fun!!!