Virtual Texas Star Party Night 3

Transcript:

Good evening. Once again, Here we are on a Saturday night. The
last night of a three night event. Virtual Texas Star Party. I got this thing out of the archive back there. I was
given this hat long ago. You can see it says Texas Star Party, right there. It's it's
an old school hat. Let me tell you. Dig deep for that one, Will, huh? Yeah, I had to dig deep and but yeah so I figured
I would wear it tonight at least for the first few seconds of the show any bit anyway but welcome to night three The 2021
Texas Star Party Live. the virtual event. We've got an amazing lineup tonight. We've
got the one and only David Levy. Yes, he will be joining us shortly. We have the one and
only mister Stephen Hummel who will be with us shortly and thank you, George. Appreciate
that. I mean, it's a little tight. It's a little you might hear, you know, I'm losing circulation in my brain in
places will passes out. Yeah, we'll probably have to pull somebody in as an emergency guest house. So, That's right.
Yeah. And my name is Will y'all. I am at the deep Sky. Dude, if you can find me on all the social media stuffs and
right next to me, right over here is my really good friend, mister Joe Cali, a fellow president. He's the president
of the Houston Astronomical Society. I'm the president of the Astronomical Society of Southeast Texas Assets. So,
it's good to have a fellow president here, Joe for the last night of Texas Star Party, right? absolutely II kind of feel like those we're in those
exclusive clubs kind of like when Clinton and Bush and the rest of them guys get together. You know, I feel like I'm in
the same rare fight there whenever I'm in the same room as you will. So like, yeah, like astronomy, Illuminati.
That's it. Now, we're going to have have some conspiracy. We're the Illuminati is right.
There you go. I like that. We got so much tonight. I mean, it's going to be crazy.
jam-packed evening but one thing we should just do right off the bat here is say that
the Texas Star Party in person, the in person version of what we're doing here and what we've done in the past is right down
there, April 24th through May, 1st 2022. I think you're
planning to be there, right? Maybe I am looking forward to that more than just about anything else right now. You know, we've we've got a few
summer trips lined up but I'm way past that to April 24th. when I could be back at the
Texas Star Party. That's right. Yeah. And I'll be there a couple of days early to help with gate duties and things like that. There's a there's a
chance you may see me at the gate checking you in when you come in the door. Maybe even Joe, our friend Carl, eight and
he makes us work, man. He puts us out in the field with nothing's free out there. Not that it was free anyway. Right.
But yeah, he does put us to work but that's okay but yeah and so we we've got so much
stuff guys. We're just going to kind of we're going to greet you guys as we're coming in. Appreciate all y'all watching
from Canada from all over the place. I see comments coming in from like Florida all over the
Us. Everybody's here. All the all the faces we've been seeing for the last several nights.
Thank you guys and gals for joining us. We appreciate y'all. and Joe, you know, we've
been working with a lot of cool people, Sky and telescope Celestron Explore Scientific.
We have And what do you say? I guess maybe we should hear from one of them now, huh? Yeah, let's listen. our good buddies
over at Explore Scientific and see what they have to say to welcome everybody to the Virtual Texas Star Party. Hey,
everybody. Scott Roberts and Ken Martz here from Explore Scientific and we're at the
world famous Texas Star Party. One of the dates again, the dates are June 10, eleven, and
twelve in the evenings and you know, the Texas Star Party is one of the world's greatest Star fights. Super dark skies
out there in West Texas near Fort Davis. This is a star party. That's a lot of us love
to get to deep Sky observers Astro photographers. It's beautiful and a really friendly
staff. We think you'll love it. The main thing about the Texas Star Party is is that, you
know, the camaraderie you've been to the Texas. I haven't been to the Texas Star Party. I've been, I've been to Mcdonald's Observatory in Fort.
Okay. But I've never been out there, Right? But folks, it's dark out there. If you ever get a chance, you need to make the
trip. That's right. Yeah. We'll see you there. We're here for the virtual event and we'll be showing you lots of stuff. Stay
tuned.
and I think we say it every night, Joe. But those hats are cool. My hat can't even compare
and there's just not too tight, right? So, I don't think they're going to suffer from potentially from an aneurysm or
anything like that but it's awesome to have Scott and Kent kick us off like that to welcome everybody to the
Virtual Texas Star Party and you know, they kind of hit the the nail on the head. about the camaraderie. We've heard that
from a lot of people and we look forward to bringing that back next year and hopefully we're bringing that to the
virtual event this year as well. I hope so man. That's what we Do you know Joe Don And I when we got our heads
together for this, we're kind of just like throwing ideas at the wall, see what's stuck and we hope we landed somewhere that has made everybody
reminisce about Texas Star Party. That's what we wanted to do is force y'all to remember
why we go out there where we go and what it's like to be a part of it and like Joe said, man,
it is the camaraderie, the yeah, The community that has arisen from all these forty
something years of the Texas Star Party being out at the Prude Ranch And that area, man.
That Big Bend area. I don't think it can be really really
overstated how beautiful it is and how how magical I guess it is. Yeah, You hit the nail on
the head, will. you know, one of the things that we've tried to do with this virtual event is to kind of transport
everybody to the Big Bend area and then eventually on the prude ranch itself but for
those of you who've never been to Big Bend, like we say it's a magical area. It's like any other on earth and it's one of
the kind of big draws and the reasons why we do the Texas Star Party where we do it. It's just a fantastic place to do
things during the day as well as at night. So, let's go ahead and transport everybody to the
Big Bend region of Texas
There's an old adage by William Blakely that says Texas is neither southern nor Western
Texas is Texas and for anyone who's been to the Lone Star
State, they know that the different parts of Texas are just as varied from one another as we are from our neighbors
across our borders. Whether you're deep in the thick of the Piney woods and the lush
marshes of the Gulf Coast and the plains at the Panhandle or on the limestone cliffs and
caverns that can be found in the Hill Country Texas landscape is more varied than
those of many countries but no region seems to capture the true essence of what Texas is
more than Big Bend though people may think of Texas as a desolate place. It's a
destination that folks come from around the world to visit big national parks saw almost
half a million visitors in twenty-nineteen alone with people coming in from all corners of the world to take
part in the world class hiking, hiking water activities, or to
take in the natural beauty that is like no other place in the world. Big Bend also boasts
some of the best dining destinations and international festivals anywhere around
but for astronomers, the Big Bend region is unique and unlike any other in the United
States. when the sun goes down, this landscape is transformed into something that cannot be
described until you've looked up into the Big Ben night sky and got lost in the heavens above very few places. both
skies as dark as they are here and on a cloudless mindless, Night, the Milky way can shine
bright and stretch from horizon to Horizon.
and as the song deep in the heart of Texas goes the stars at night are big and bright and
nowhere is that more true than here. For those looking to peer through their telescopes in
order to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos, Big Bend is more than just an international
destination but rather it's our gateway to the universe.
This is a beautiful piece, man. Fantastic job, Joe. Appreciate that, Will and you know, as as
I was putting that together, I just had this deep longing to get back out to the Big Bend area and and and out to the
ranch, right? It's just like I said, unlike any other place in the world but you know, when
we're out there, we are at the ranch and one of the things that we like to do when we're at TSP is to get on TSP time
and for everybody who's been with us all 3 days, I don't know if you've noticed it the first night we actually showed
everybody entering Psp so we wanted to give you that feeling of arriving on the ranch. The second night was really about
the star parties getting set up and things like that and Saturday night is usually the night when we have our prize
giveaways. It's the last big night to observe and things like that. So, TSP time tonight
is really going to kind of be focused on that and the journey home. so will anything you want to add before we get the TSP
time? I can't wait to get on TSP time is where I'll add. So let's get on TSP time.
And now, thanks to miss Molly Wakelin for her awesome footage. that II with my own in
there. Great stuff. Molly is an amazing astro photographer,
Astro Molly. I believe she is known. So, check her out where you can on all those social media platforms and I don't
know, man. I feel like I feel like we're there now, right? I don't know. I think so too. You
know, Well, you did a fantastic job of putting all of those together and really kind of capturing the sentiment and whatnot but I think we're on
TSP time and Saturday night TSP that you means giveaways,
right? It usually does and you know, there's always cool
prizes to win at Texas Star Party and the kind of the
emceeing that goes on, you know, like during the giveaway is that it's super fun and
it's, you know, hey, there's always a chance you'll win something but it's one of those things that you know, you must
be present to win but now, I think it's you must not be present to win but socially
distant to win You want to do it? So, yeah, I mean, it's
that's that's why we go right just to win prizes. That's it. Well, that's not really it but
that's one of the things that we wanted to do today was to give away prizes and you know, we have our Saturday Trivia
giveaway tonight as well. So, let's go ahead and get that on the screen and let everybody get used to what going to do for the Trivia giveaway
tonight. So, for those of you who've joined us the last couple of nights you're probably used to this already but we're using this platform
to do Trivia quizzes and the prize giveaways. So, we're
going to just go ahead and jump into the test. So, this doesn't count for anything but this gives everybody an opportunity
to kind of figure out how to play along and see how to participate in this. So, we set
up the last two nights. Nothing changes here. Here are the rules. when you log in to me, to me, please log in with your
real name. Don't use a nickname that wants to assign a nickname from the time you jump in.
Don't you know, please change that to your real name. You won't get cute. won't call myself. You know, Joe. no abs
or anything else like that but use your real name to log in before you click on join Quiz.
We're doing 20 seconds per question. So, you have 20 Seconds to answer each question correctly. You get points for
answering the questions correctly. You don't get points if you miss it. However, the faster you answer these
questions, the more points you're going to actually get and even though the at the end, we're going to show the grand
prize winner, The top three finishers are actually going to win a prize in tonight's giveaway. So, Those are the
rules. Will. I hope I didn't miss anything else but I wanted to go ahead. Sorry, I know you
covered it all. Just get those names in. and there's the code right there. I think you can
hold a smartphone up these days with the camera app on. It's fancy New fangled. That's right. It's just like it's like
RTC Clark. Any technology is indistinguishable from magic. Just hold that phone with the camera open on that screen that
Joe has. It's over there and it will take you to. It's like there's no It's one button to
push it. That's right. Enter the code. That's it. Or if you want to do it the hard way, right? We can go to Mentee.com
using your smartphone or your web browser, whatever you'd like there, your your ipad or other smart device and type in
the code 41050065. Again, that's
41050065 and that'll take you right into the game. It'll get you queued up, ready to go or it will set. You can actually
click on the code there. scan the code the QR code and have that take you directly to the
site. So, we've got a bunch of people queuing up right now. We wanted to give everybody else another 20 seconds or so to get
ready to jump in the game and remember, this is just a practice. So, if you've done this before, this is old hat.
Don't feel a rush to to join in or anything else like that. We're just going to ask two questions and for those of you
who just want to get familiar with the system by all means, join us here. Well, I think
we're about ready to go. I think so. I mean, these questions range from Novice
What in the world? But when Don Sully has done a great job
curating these questions for us. Yes, they're fun. They're, if they're fascinating, they're interesting and you gotta put
your thinking caps on. Like I've been saying. so, get get your stuff in, get your names
in and I guess here we go. Looks like we got some emojis jumping in The emojis are
jumping in again. last chance to jump in and this is just a quiz. These are really simple
silly questions. Nothing like the ones that will had mentioned that Donna put together for us but again,
we're we're just getting our fingers warm for the trivia contest itself. Alright, we're ready for question number one.
Number one, the Texas Star Party is routinely held at this ranch Rancho Cucamonga, Hidden
Valley Ranch, the South Fork Ranch, or the Prude Ranch. I have to say Hidden Valley Ranch
is my favorite with salads. That's the one I'd like to. Yeah. Yeah. To eat
Alright. Yeah. Most of you got that right. South Fork Ranch for those of you old timers
like myself, that's where the show Dallas was held at the South Fork Ranch. Wow. For
Hidden Valley Ranch is a wonderful dress. To add to any salad. Yeah. One person agreed with this Joe. They they they
enjoy that ranch as well. Alright. So, if all the folks who jumped in, who got there
the fastest after question one. Oh, look at all those names. Yeah, Mike Napper barely eking
out Kelly Miller by by just a single point and Keith there right behind him and S look at S coming in fourth place. Yeah.
Alright. Here's question number two. The final question for this practice quiz. Here we go.
The James Webb Space Telescope is a
microscope. telescope. stethoscope, or kaleidoscope If you ask my neighbor, it's a
stethoscope. There you go. You will don't give it away.
Whoops. Alright, we got a jokester in the crowd. They selected kaleidoscope. It is a
telescope. So, again, after most of these questions, we'll get to a leader board like this
so you could see who's answering, you know, more quickly, how many points that you get as we get towards the end, we take the leader board
away to add a little bit of mystery but according to this quiz, Kelly Miller is the winner. So, congratulations
Kelly on winning our practice quiz here and unfortunately like a There's no price for
this one but you get the prize of being first for this one. Absolutely and there will be
prizes later. There will be great stuff for the top three like Joe said. So, be ready, be
on the lookout because this is happening. not very, not very long, not very far away. Yeah.
So will I was wondering what are people saying out there? Well, there's a lot of people
hanging out with us. We got Christopher. He said he's setting up his telescope soon. Awesome. Christopher,
hopefully, we keep you company tonight with some astronomy goodness while you're hanging out under the stars. Travis is
saying good morning. So, it must be somewhere on the other side of the globe and yes, we do live on a globe. We know
because Enrique says hello from Honduras. Hello, Enrique. And we got Christopher Mick in the
house. So many familiar faces out here. Wallace from the Fountain Hills, Arizona, a dark
sky community. It's so nice in the dark skies. We have a dark sky specialist coming on tonight. Mister Stephen Hummel,
good friend of mine, fellow Sprite Hunter which we probably won't about that. But y'all
most of y'all know what Sprites are. I think so and we've got all the way from the UK man Wilma in Dark Skies, Scotland.
This is this is incredible. Hey, Wilma. How are you? and Angie out there and you know,
while we've been doing this live stream, we've really been trying to to focus on the the
participation in the crowd you guys from Ontario out here. Look a lot of Ontario. Check it
out. Look at that Ontario representing. Yeah, somebody in Ontario put us in the newspaper That's it. Welcome everybody
Coming in from Ontario and from everywhere else. It's wonderful to see people from the UK from Australia, Honduras, everywhere
else. So, thank you all for joining us and Gab down there. Just join us and see you. There you go and yeah and so while
we've been doing this live event y'all, we've been running a couple of things in the background and one of those things happens to be an
auction. Yes. And I believe I have that I can add right here
if you're interested in a two-night 3 day stay at either of these fine locations. We
have the prude ranch or the Bar Ranch. Now, the Prude Ranch is where we normally have the Texas Star Party, The Bar Ranch
is where we normally have the El Dorado Star Party Prude Ranch, or I'm sorry, spring
like April like we said, the dates for for TSP 2022 is coming up in April and then we go to the bar in the fall.
usually October, November range and you know, Joe and I just got back from the bar just not
long ago and it was beautiful. We had a great The skies were amazing. They were, we got a lot of work done. We looked at
some faint galaxies and all kinds of fun stuff but the the idea behind this auction guys
is is to let y'all bid on a two-night stay at one of the
premium cabins here at the X Bar Ranch or a winter weekend stay at the Prude Ranch. Both
of them are great values and you might be able to get an amazing on this and I think there's there's quite a few
bids in there for both of them Joe. there are and I think I've just been out bid on the prude Ranch. So, I've gotta get my phone and get back to to
bidding there but oh, you got out bid Joe. We have, I have been out bid. I've gotta get
back into this right now but we've got a little bit over 2 hours will before this auction closes. It closes at 9:01 PM
Central Time Central Time. So, it's 652 Central. So, we've got a little bit over 2 hours right
now. So, while we've got an opportunity, you know, take advantage of this. Get your bid in. win one of those packages
to either the XR Ranch or the ranch neither will disappoint. That's right. And our producer
done. So, it's fun to say that our producer but he's a producer. Yeah. Yeah. He hasn't, you know, he really has. Yes. That's the website
that Don just dropped on all the platforms. You can click on it there. Go directly over throw some cash at the thing.
See if you see if you win or you can see the the auction banner down there. Texas Star
Party dot Better World.org slash auctions slash VTSP dash Auction and you can go bid Good
luck everybody. I hope and again, like Joe said, there's only, there's a limited amount of time here. Only a couple of
hours left until someone is going to win a night stay at the bar and a night stay or two
nights stay at each one at the bar and one at the at the Prude and that's going to be awesome
for somebody and I guess we'll we'll hopefully be able to announce that winner tonight Joe's I guess if that's the way it works. Yeah I think we'll
we'll be able to do that and and look you don't have to bid on just one or the other. You can bid on them both and you know, that I'm thinking about
it. I might just do that myself. So, you know, get in there and try to beat me if you
can but yeah, like I said, both of those places are wonderful. We're really thankful for the
graciousness of both X Bar and the Prude Ranch for for donating those to the Texas Star Party and the money that
we raise as part of these auctions does go back to the Texas Star Party so that we can continue to put on a wonderful
Star Party moving forward in the future. That's right, man and so so gracious of the Bar Ranch and the Prude Ranch to do
that and a great opportunity for somebody to get a nice deal on on a nice day at a dark
place. Yes. bring your scope, man. Have a great time and try to do it on a new moon, right? Look at this. Look at the
calendar. You know, make sure you're good and all that. It should be good. Yeah. So that is again, very limited time
only about 2 hours left. So, get those, get those get those
in right now if you can. Yeah and will you know, yesterday when we were going through the show, we talk about Friday.
Normally being the day where the TSP group photos happen and we showed some of those photos as well and went through them
but wanted to take another trip down memory lane and show folks what some of those photos are
like just to again give everybody a sense of what Texas Star Party is like we wanted to, you know, transport
everybody who's with us to the Texas Star Party. Hopefully we're doing that with the TSP
time videos and things like that but wanted to share with you some of those additional group photos so that you can
what it's like and hopefully, when you join us next year, you'll take part in those photos as well. Yeah,
absolutely. It's a fun thing. You meet at like 1 PM after lunch on the Friday out at the
thing and Robert takes a picture for us and it's just a cool thing and you and throughout the years, you'll
see the faces, some of the faces change, some of the faces stay the same. The wardrobes
definitely change. That's one thing
So, if you can't get out to Texas Star Party, hopefully, we can bring again that vibe to
y'all of standing out in the hot sun waiting to get your picture taken by
Awesome. awesome stuff, man. You know, and II, I've seen some people say that they saw
themselves in those pictures over the last couple of days or since yesterday and that's fun. You know, it's fun to try to
play. where's Waldo with yourself or your friends? Find them in there. So yeah, we
we've played that you know a couple nights and I've noticed different people in each of the nights so it's it's always a
treat to go ahead and see that and again it's it's part of the camaraderie and seeing some of the same people there year
after year and really getting a chance to enjoy the the night skies with those folks. Yeah,
it's like a family reunion man. Every time you meet new people, they become your family and then, you know, it's like, I'll
see you next year, you know? Yeah. Vortex, whichever one comes first, right? Yeah. You know, for for some of us, the
wait for the next Texas Star Party is just a little too long and there are other Star parties that we can hopefully
get a little bit of what we get at Tsp. You know, nothing quite compares to TSP but there are
other Star parties out there where we can kind of get our fill what it is we love about the star party. So, well, I
just figured we'd share with a few folks what some of those Star parties are when they're going to be happening and
hopefully some of those watching will be able to attend those. So, the next star party
that we're really excited about is the Nebraska Star Party. That one's going to start at the beginning of August run for
a week and we've said this for two nights in a row. Well, neither of us have been there but we hear the skies there are
just absolutely fantastic, really dark and it's a wonderful Star Party Absolutely
can't wait to go. Absolutely. The next one is the Oregon Star Party. Again, starting in the
beginning of August, 3rd through the eighth 2021. Never been myself again for this one
but also here, it's wonderful. So, if you're looking to go, you can get more details at Oregon Star Party.org. the
world famous Cellophane Convention. A lot of folks from TSP love attending St. Lehane
as well. So, that's going to be going on again in early August, August 5th, and ninth. So many people Might have to make a
quick, you know. you know, hop from one place to another to another to attend these
conventions and Star parties but that one is going on again at the beginning of August, August 5th and ninth
registration is open now so you can visit Cellophane.org to get more details there and to register your one of your
favorites. will the OT Star Party, the beginning of October, October, 1st through the ninth 2021. I registered
today, Joe, I did you going to Ot, sir? Yeah, I've gotta get my in myself. Yeah. Look at S.
She's going to be going to be a cellophane as well I know Larry Mitchell often speaks at Cellophane. That's right. Yeah.
So, yeah, you guys. Hopefully, I don't know if I'll be able to be there but hopefully
everything goes well with you guys up there. Absolutely. Over to our west, our friends in New
Mexico have the Enchanted Sky Star Party in Socorro. So, that's going to be going on October 1st through the third
coincide a little bit with 0 Te If you're looking for more information there, go to Janet
Skies.org. The El Dorado Star Party. The Last Star Party. both you and I attended Will. It's a wonderful El Dorado
Texas at the Bar Ranch who as we mentioned earlier, have donated the stay item that
we're auctioning right now that's going to be happening on my birthday, November 5th. So, November 1st through the sixth
2021, El Dorado Star Party.org to get more information there. The Winter Star Party and we've
said this a couple of times known for its seeing steady skies because it's right there off the coast. January 31st
through February 2nd and as we mentioned earlier. The Texas Star Party next year, April
24th through the May 1st Texas Star Party.org and will you and I, we're talking about the
registration. Normally, those Emails come out at around Halloween time. I believe right at the end of October. Yeah.
Yeah. I think it's in that fall range in November. somewhere in
there and you just gotta be watching your Emails like a Hawk and then 1 Day, you'll get
that that tingle up your spine You're feeling good. Disturbance in the floor. Yeah,
I agree. Disturbance. Yes. but it'll it'll happen. 1 day when you least expect it and then,
you know, you start feverishly typing in your information and your PayPal stuff to get get
everything going. So, yeah, it's it's amazing. It's a cool rush to sign up for a star party. I know it sounds geeky
and and whatever but it it is a cool rush to sign up for a star party because you know, in just
a few months, you're going to probably see some great skies or maybe hang out in your
camper a tent for a few days. You know, just depends. You never know what you're going to get at the star party but typically you see some stars
promise you Absolutely. As long as it's not cloudy. So, yeah, as long as it's not cloudy but then if it is cloudy, there are
other things you can do at a star party. You camaraderie, hang out with your friends,
make your friends cook for you. You can fellowship. Yeah. yeah. Yeah. And you know, there's always a chance you could win a
door prizes and stuff like that and I think Joe, is that what we're going to go to next? We're going to that next.
Absolutely. So, this is the final night of the Virtual Texas Star Party and we're
going to give away even more prizes and I think tonight, we might have more prizes to give away than the other two nights
maybe combined. I don't know but we've got a lot of prizes to get through. So, we're going to get through part of them
right now and as we've mentioned earlier, if you
registered for PSP in 2019, 2020, or 2021, you're automatically registered to win
one of these prizes tonight. So, we did a double random drawing. I don't even know what that is. They got the
mathematicians over at Nasa Dolly and a few other folks to put this together. They randomized and sorted the
registration list randomized and sorted the prize list, put them together, and we have a
set of winners here. So, well, I don't know if you're ready to jump into this. I think a lot of other folks on the stream
are ready right now. I'm going to give away some prizes. I don't know if I'm ready. Joe, can we do something else? I'm
just kidding. I'm just kidding. Alright. so, the first door prize of the night is from
Savanna. It's a sixty millimeter refractor package. We're giving away a telescope folks. what it is and and
winner is Scott Mitchell from Houston, Texas. Our good buddy Scott. I know that guy. Congratulations. Yeah, I know
that guy too. I think I saw a comment from him earlier. Scott, congratulations. You won
the sixty millimeter refractor from our advertisers. Bonnie,
the next door prize is a for Prism Binoculars set seven by 50s from Vixen Optics Stars and
Burb. These folks have been They've given a lot of items for us to give away to everybody here tonight in the
last few nights and we really appreciate everything that they've done but the winner of the binoculars here is Edward
Polos. I hope I pronounced that correctly from Allen, Texas, Edward, congratulations. You won some wonderful binoculars
That's how to pronounce it. Joe and I will put your names on it. That's just the way that's the way it goes. and next, it's
Avani twelve millimeter one and a quarter inch eye piece like we said yesterday will never have too many eye pieces. The
winner of these eye pieces are Rob Moorhead Spring, Texas. Congratulations, Rob. Congrats.
Alright. door prize number Thirty-four. A Celestron Power 10. 5000. I've gotta get my hands on one of these. You
gotta get these little. I mean because you can charge your phone. You can just. Awesome. Just awesome. They look fantastic. I mean, I'm just
looking at it now thinking, man, I wonder if I can. No, I can't mess around with the the winners here. The winner is
Pics from Mission Hills, Kansas, Kansas representing here. Congratulations, Long all
the way from Kansas. There you go. Alright, seven by fifty. binoculars from Vixen Optic
Star Guide Bela winner is Richard from Fort Worth, Texas.
Congratulations, Richard. Nice score, Richard. Two more before
we stop this. Until the next time. Oh, look at this. The Celestial Power Tank Lithium
Pro. This is the that's what I really want right there. I mean, that thing is awesome. It'll power your telescope all night long and then some but
the winner of the Celestial Power Tank Lithium Pro is
Wesley Mcfarland from Fort Davis, Texas. Wow, Wesley. Congratulations. That's a
chance of a location, huh? I mean, that's right. There you
go. Hey, he just has to drive down the street to get there, right? Just roll down the road.
and the last prize for this segment is a Fifty-dollar Astros E gift certificate. We
keep saying this Astros makes wonderful products, great accessories. I've got. Oh man,
I can't tell you how many us that products I have in my bins for when I go out and but one
lucky winner is going away with a $50 gift certificate and that person is Fernando Torres from
Albuquerque, New Mexico. So, that's what we've got right now. Everybody stay tuned for more prizes and we'll be giving
away a lot more of these things as we get through the show tonight. right. will. We've got
a lot of stuff to give away and one of the things that you know, I don't know if y'all
remember this in person where you could go to a thing and like be around other people and it wasn't dangerous but of
times when you went to those things they would throw T shirts or something into the
crowd. We thought it'd be fun to throw something virtually into a virtual crowd and so we
we're, I think we're going to try to throw one of these Virtual Texas Star Party t shirts virtually into a a
virtual Joe, I don't know how we're going to work this. Yeah, we're going to do the cameras
or something. I don't know. Yeah, I think, you know, we might be able to have, you know, Google or somebody like that create one of those
Virtual cannons for us but yeah, we'll find to get one of these T shirts to everybody.
We'll you've come up with a couple of good hashtags over the last few nights, you came up with some more really good
ones right now, #prude Ranch on whatever platform you're on, whether it's Facebook or
YouTube, type in that #right down below #prude Ranch. exactly as you see it with the
hashtag in front to be entered to win AT shirt. So, well, we've had a few people not type
it in exactly the way that it's supposed to be typed in It's gotta be typed in the right way in order to be included in the
drawing. That's right. and you see Tom and Kent, it's got it right, Chad check out, right?
Yeah. And even Hummel is even playing. He's going to be here later. Is that cheating? No, I think well, yeah, I don't know.
You're the toughest No, but throw it. Throw the comment in guys because any platform
you're watching on, whether it's YouTube, Facebook, whatever, wherever you're watching us right now, you will
be entered to win AT shirt. As long as you put #prude Ranch in the chat of the room that
you're in. It doesn't matter where you put it unless in the comment section that's not
associated with this like on some other video that won't get you AT shirt. Sorry, I think here it will. Yeah, we can't we
can't monitor the entire internet but it looks like Joe there is just It's coming
through. Courtney says, I'm just going to steal Will's T shirt. More than likely, Hey,
that's okay. That's certainly okay. But again, #prude Ranch to get entered into the
drawing. Look, you can put as many of those in there as you as you want. You only get one entry though. That's right. So,
but we want everybody to put their entry in and what we wanted to do is give everybody another minute or so a couple
of minutes to get their entries in. Prude Ranch and well, I think it's a good time to hear from some of our Huh? Yeah, we
got some. we're going to go out into the desert at some ranches and some scopes. Let's do it.
And you know what?
There we go. The chile scopes ad is super cool. I'm going to
unmute you, Joe. Oh, I can't unmute you. Sorry, buddy. I'm going to mute myself then. There you go. I'm looking out
for you, buddy but those ads are great, man. Thank you to our advertisers. We've just had
such a cool, cool like camaraderie in that, right? People wanting to work together
to bring this virtual event to you guys and so we really appreciate all of our
advertisers and y'all we've we're going to finish this t shirt thing here in a second. We're going to hear from one more advertiser and then we're
going to have the one and only mister David Levy. It's like
the Charles Messier of our day, right? I mean, let's be real with this. I had a couple idols
growing up, right? Some of them are imaginary like Luke Skywalker and whatnot but
mister David Levy was somebody I always admired because I wanted to discover a comet myself and nobody did it better
than him. It's certainly not in our times. That's right. That's right. He discovered a comment and then it hit Jupiter and
everyone got to watch. Yes. And we're going to talk about some of that coming up but I don't know. Joe. Should we randomly
find a winner for this T shirt thing? And then let's do that. Okay. So, let's see who's going
to win all those prude ranch hashtags. Alright, we're going to go in here. Thirty-four entries it looks like. Alright,
we're going to give away AT shirt. Here it goes. Here it goes. Good luck everybody. Good
luck everybody.
Myra Franz. Congratulations. You are the winner of a wonderful 2021 TSP T shirt Like
we've been saying fresh off the runways at Milan and Paris. All of the fashion shows. These are
the hottest items for summer. So, congratulations Myra. You
you have won one of these things and you're going to be the envy of everybody when there's see you walking down the street with one of these T
shirts on. So, well, we're going to have one more T shirt giveaway before The night's over. That's right. Yeah. And
we do. we will be throwing another Virtual T shirt into the crowd and again, remember those auctions guys, guys and
gals, we are auctioning a two-night stay at the bar, a two-night stay at the Prude
Ranch two awesome ranches, great infrastructure in dark skies. You're going to want to
bid on this because you're going to, you might get a great deal and the money goes to the Texas Star Party to help
further the event. So and the link down there in the in the
chats So you guys can click on them there and I will throw it up here if I can. There it is
and that's the link you're going to want to use for the auction. Again, we've only got what like a little less than 2
hours. Yeah. Less than 2 hours. So, you better get those bids in guys. if that's something you want to do and the option
is always there. We can't afford it but you know, we we can tell you this auction ends at 9:01 PM Central Time. so
anybody can can enter to win these things. I'd highly encourage everybody to give it a shot and again, can bid on
both of them. There's nothing that says you have to bid on one or the other. So, and we've got, like I said, David Levy
coming up. He's going to present a night watchman journey. The road not taken based on his book by the same
title published in 2019 using his meticulous log of observations and his diary, he
write write recounts life and astronomical experiences. We're looking forward to that. Well, I know we showed this, we gave
away this book yesterday, a signed copy of the book from mister David Levy. He's waiting backstage for us that you can
talk to everybody here but before we bring him on stage, we want to hear from Explore Scientific one more time. Hi,
I'm Kent Mars to explore scientific. This is the Explore Scientific two room pop up Observatory tent. It's great
for amateur astronomers and astro photographers. The main room is a place where you put
your table charts, tent, red light, things like that. The door allows easy access. It's
double zippered. The fabric is made from blackout, waterproof material to keep your equipment
dry. It also comes with a tarp that goes over the top of it and guy with that hook on here.
Stakes on the bottom. The great part about it is the panel. This part of the room, Velcro
is together to allow you to get your equipment in. As you can see, we have our new giant binoculars inside right now.
There's also a door here that allows access to the equipment room for more information about
about the pop up Observatory tent, go to explore Scientific.com. Those are cool.
Yeah. And it seems like you're seeing more and more of those types of pop-up tents on the fields. They're really
indispensable especially on those cold nights. So, looking looking forward to seeing what Explore Scientific has there
and possibly picking one up myself. Yeah, you can go to sleep in there if you need to. Yeah, you know, if you want to
hide from people, you know, you can run in there and hide at night. You know, it's it's a good thing to have your own
little shelter. You know, that's exactly exactly but enough talking from us. Well, I
think people are tired of hearing us for the time being. They really came here to Mister David Levy. So, I think he
really needs no introduction but I'm going to do it anyway. So, David was born in Montreal,
Quebec, Canada in 1948. He developed an interest in astronomy at an early age. However, he pursued and pursued
and received a bachelor's and master's degree in English literature Levy went on to discover Twenty-two comet
either independently or with Jean and Carolyn Shoemaker. He's written 34 books mostly on
astronomical subjects. He has written articles for Sky and telescope. Yay Sky and Telescope and astronomy
magazines as well as other publications on February. 28th 2010 Levy was awarded a PHD
from the the Hebrew Hebrew University of Jerusalem for a successful completion of the thesis, the sky and early
modern English literature, A study of illusions to celestial events in Elizabethton and in
writing 1572 to 1620 David has been a frequent attendee and speaker at the Texas Star Party
and is the recipient of the TS P's 1985 Lone Star Gazer in the 1997 Omegas Awards Without
further ado, it's our great pleasure to introduce Mr. David. Levy. David, how are I'm
doing well. Thank you. I hope you can. I hope you can hear me. We certainly can. David
great. Okay. Oh my presentation tonight to you is going to be
very informal. It's called the Night watching This journey in the road not taken and it was
originally going to be just the Night Watchman journey and that book since you're showing it since you're holding it up,
Joe, you can actually get it. You can't get it from Amazon but you can get it from Star,
Arizona, WWW Www. stars. You
can get it from them and I hope that some future Texas Star Party will be able to bring
bring some down in person but anyway, I want to tell you a little bit about my story
because when I watch one's Journey was the original, the original title of the of the
the book that I have and just as it was going to the publisher, I found out that all
of Roberts poetry was now domain since he had been deceased for long enough that
we didn't need permission to use it. So, at the very last minute, I grabbed the road, not
taken and added it as a subtitle and that was really one of the proudest things I've
done with her regarding that book. I started astronomy. very simple. I am primarily a visual
observer. I'm not a I'm certainly not a much of an
astro photographer although I have taken thousands thousands of pictures of the night sky
over the years and I still do and but basically, I love going
out and just looking up at the night sky. about six or 7
months ago, our Observatory which had been having a lot of problems suddenly just stopped
working and it was sort of three quarters open and one quarter closed. and so I was
able to get someone in Tucson named Frank Lopez to come and rebuild the Observatory not is
now complete and I now have essentially a brand-new Observatory that I'm absolutely
just loving to use and tonight, I will be using it again after
our presentation. Today, I started astronomy when I was about eight I was in a summer
camp where I hated that camp. It was Twin Lake Camp in Vermont. I remember the first
year I was there writing letters to mom and dad every day. Please take me out of this
prison camp. I promise that if you take me home, I will keep
my room nice and tidy. I will be a good boy and I won't cause any problems and they were
right back and they say we love you very much but you're going to All of us from a distance.
you are going to stay at this camp. So, I lost that battle.
Anyway, on the fourth of July, they were doing fireworks and of course, being from Canada, I
didn't know from the fourth of July and I was, I guess this is what they do at certain time in
certain countries out there. Independence Day celebrations means a lot more to me now than
it did back then but anyway, the camp like the youngest kids
go back to their cabins just near the end of twilight and so as we're going as we're walking
up the hill, going back to our cabin, I happen to look up at the sky and I saw a shooting
star. It started in the constellation of Draco and sort
of not very bright. It went on near Vega where it disappeared.
and I was startled by it. I might be others and I said, did any of you just a shooting star. and they said no, they
didn't and I thought to myself, was that kind of a message sent
just for me that I should take this more seriously. Why would someone want to send a message
to someone who was just born a few years ago Anyway, I kind of
put it in the back of my Eight-year-old David Brain and I just let it fester for a
while. and then about three or
4 years later while riding my bicycle to our sixth grade class picnic, I fell off the
bike as I was on my way to school and sailed ever so gently over and landed on the
sidewalk and my right arm was in real agonizing pain. and
friend came by and said, do you need some help? And I said, yeah. In fact, if you could
walk my bike to the nurse's office at the school and I will, I'll be able to go and as
I got up my arm was just screeching in pain and I said,
I can't do this. Now, what I'd like you to just leave the bike, you see that policeman
over there at the next corner, I'd like you to go Get him and tell him I need some help. and he went over and I saw him
talking to the policeman and then whatever happened within seconds, the cop was there.
They took me to the children's hospital. I was outfitted with a cast and the cousin of mine
gave me a book as a get well present called Our Son and the World's Around It. and I
remember reading and I remember falling in love with it. I remember reading it again. I remember had a third time and
the fourth time and it's right here in my in my the shelves behind me and I'll probably be
looking at it again tonight. It is that important. and I
decided at the end of that reading that I was going to be an astronomer and I remember
when I was recovering that night at your dinner time dad
would say David, you know, you're you're you're kind of on track. you're talking about the nice guy all the time. The key
is not to focus yourself only on one thing. Keep your feet on the ground even though your
head is in the clouds. Don't don't think of the storm. He is the most important thing in
your life. I thought to myself, okay, dad, I won't. I'll think of it as the only thing in my life and I think that knew that
was going to happen. I don't know. I don't know how but I think I think that's kind of
what happened. anyway. a few nights later, god said, you
know, I just gave you this big speech about not only about a nice car but I'm going to tell
you about my experience with a nice guy when I was when I was
a little older than you. I read this book called Cole of
Spyglass Mountain and it was a story about a young man who is
fascinated with astronomy Excuse me. He built up. I mean,
he saved his money. Build an Observatory, and then one night, he discovered evidence
of life on Mars in an Observatory that he calls
Spyglass Mountains Observatory. At the moment, he discovered the evidence of life on Mars.
Someone trying to steal his money and his telescope started
making Trump hotshots into the Observatory. One of the rifle shots actually hit Joshua Cole
knocked him out He didn't die but he came too and he was
sitting in bed recovering And they said, well, what about this? What did you find about Mars? And he said, oh, it
doesn't matter anymore. and they said, well, maybe it does because look at all these
newspapers that are coming in and the newspapers have all of these announcements. Can't say
Young amateur astronomer beats the professionals discovering evidence of life on the planet.
Mars and dad told me the story and how exciting it was. and
finally, he says that was the special things for first to report Discovery Coal of
Spyglass Mountain famous in a night and I've never forgotten
that and dad said, I know you're not going to help you in just an astronomy but if you
should find that book, I would love to read it again. My dad.
He and I had a difficult but very loving relationship. and
we were talking about things and I remember 1 day later in life He said, remember 1 day
when you were a kid and I said, all you care about is you're darn stars and I said, yeah, I
remember that and dad said, boy, was I ever wrong about that? And I said, dad, you are
not wrong. I was a arrogant kid. didn't know how to shut
his mouth. and then dad said, but you did something with it. You did something and you made
it into a passion. By this time, my father himself was
beginning to lose his memory. He was beginning to to forget the things good places and on
one terrible day, he forgot that I was his son but somehow,
he never forgot Cole of Spyglass Mountain and 1 Day, we're taking a walk and I'm
looking at him and I thought this guy is a stranger to me. He doesn't know who I am. I barely know who he is and
suddenly, he looked at And he said, David, did you ever find
coals? Fiberglass mountain for me? And I just like, you know, you're you're plugging in an
electric light that's burning out and suddenly, it makes a connection and suddenly, you're
there and I had to admit that I have not found it at that time
and he left. He said, I don't worry about it. I wouldn't be able to read it now. Anyway,
Anyway, my father passed away in 1985 and a couple of years later after giving a talk at
one of the Texas Star parties, someone found a copy of the book which I have now, Wendy,
my wife and I have both read it and it is as good a book as God says it was. I know it's it's
absolutely tremendous. So, that's kind of the story about
how I got interested in that part of astronomy. Started searching for Comet in 1965.
found my first Comet 19. years later in 1984, and my second
one in 1987. my third also in 1987, my fourth and
eighty-eight and I fixed eighty-nine, a six to 1990. I was getting really the hang of
it but the most important part of all that I've discovered is
Comet Shoemaker nine. I was joining the team of cheating and shoemaker at the Hallmark
and the day that Carolyn was looking at pictures. we had
taken the night before and she just looks up stunned from the stereo microscope. She looks at
me and she says, David. I don't know what what I've got but looks like a squashed comet and
Jean came in and looked and I'll never forget the look on his face. It was an absolute
puzzle So then I had to take a look at it and it was absolutely wonderful to see
something so unusual in the sky. That was just the first
part of it. 2, months later, we all received the announcement that Shoemaker Eighty-nine was
on a collision course with the planet Jupiter on July the sixteenth. 1994 the shoemaker
and I were in Washington when the comet began to with Jupiter. It was a cosmic
bonanza. It was really something special. We got to
meet the president and all and it was really very pleasant to do that. President Clinton at
the time but I think the highlight of that particular day was not so much meaning as
it was to meet Vice President Al Gore because he came in and he was like an amateur
astronomer at the Texas Star Party. He came and started
talking about it and then he said, you know, and I kind of pinching in the back of my
brain that you may be the vice president of the United States but I'm going to get to see the
impacts before you and then he goes, you know, David, I live
on the grounds the Naval Observatory and I think, don't say it and he says last night,
there was a clearing. I walked over to the telescope. Someone was using it and I asked if I
could show me the impact spots and they did and I thought Al
Gore, you got to see the impact spots before I did. Well, I was really pretty happy to hear
that. I'm really happy that I was able to do and and see them to to stand with the person who
saw the spots before I did. Actually, we were ourselves on the grounds of the Naval
Observatory. a couple of nights later, there was a big huge line and I tapped on being a
posing in front of the line but I wanted to take my time and
finally, there was a woman who was in the line who grabbed me and said, David, you're going to stay here with me and you're
not going to go any further behind. I'm sure I am. I wanted you to see it when I see it. That woman was Vera Rubin and
I'll never forget that night. so much for the story of how I
became interested in astronomy became a comic hunter. Now, I'd like to tell you the other half
of you I was around the fifteen or so and dad started talking
to me about Shakespeare and I really began to get the
impression that if I did not inherit my father's love of Shakespeare, he would disown
me, take me out of the world, It's that simple but I don't think you really meant that. He
just wanted me to get excited about Shakespeare. and we talked about it a little bit
and I began to read a few things. about about Shakespeare
and I'll be able to read a few things from his place. and there's one in particular that
I would like to go to right now that is from the Hamlet and I
didn't read this right away when I was young but much later, I did and I began to
find that William Shakespeare was really able to write nobody
else before or since. he was running a pro section. as the
main character of this play, Hamlet himself was going through a severe depression and
he was writing a somewhat careless speech in pros and I like to think that at that
point, there was a tap on my shoulder as he's writing and he turns around and it's god right
behind him and god says will take a break Get yourself a cup
of coffee. I got this next lines. and this is what I'm
going to go to you right now. This most excellent talent in the air. Look, you this brave
or hanging for women. this majestically shredded with golden fire What a piece of
work as a man. How noble in reason how infinite and faculties informed and moving.
how express and admirable in action are like an angel in
apprehension. I like a god. The beauty of the world. The power of god of and yet to me, what
is this? Queens of Christ. At this point, Shakespeare comes
back. He looks at what god has written and he says, there's no way I can write something like
that and god says, you're right but I'll let you take for granted for it. anyway. There
are a lot of things that Shakespeare has written like that. areas where the writing
is pretty good and then suddenly just soars Anyway, so
I decided to get a try and just in Shakespeare but for the wrong reason for me, when I was
at Acadia, I took a course in Shakespeare. We studied King Lear and I remember in my
Shakespeare book that I used that time, there's a famous line in between eclipses of the
sun and moon. He's laid eclipses in the sun and moon pretend no good to us and I
even marked them but not because they were astronomical just because they were
interesting quotations. and then
and then as I got older, I was doing my master's degree at Queen's University in Kingston,
Ontario, Canada to another Shakespeare. of course, a graduate level course in
Shakespeare and we were then studying a cure and we were studying Gloucester speeches
about the eclipses We're studying about other things and
the instructor said, I just wonder how you feel and if any of you have any comments, about
about what what Shakespeare is trying to present here with the
with the loss of his mind. and really none of the other people
in my class have anything to say. and she looked at me and
said, how about you David? And I said, I have to admit, it's difficult for me to comment on
what Shakespeare's going to do here because as I read this, I'm thinking of my dad, my dad,
who now has Alzheimer's disease barely knows who he is. and I
can't get my head away from him and the Shakespeare right now
the entire class just stopped said. Well, we, well, that
means we're going to stop talking about Shakespeare and we're going to talk about your dad for a while. and it was a
very emotional 15 minutes conversation and I red. We are
a lot more closely after that. Still not realizing
importance that play and others would have for me in my life.
I'm a member observing the lyrics one night I was looking up. It wasn't that great. They
were me here in the media there and I began to think, I'm wondering how many people in
the past observed the same I show and then I thought hit me.
I wonder how many people who have written poems prose
novels. anything like that. have observed the night sky the
next day visiting Norman Mackenzie of Queens. I told him that I wanted to write a
master's thesis about the night sky using one of the poets that
we're studying and right away, he suggested Gerald Bentley Hopkins who happened to be his
favorite poet and very quickly became in mind and this particular poem that I'm going
to quote now Now, those of you who are familiar with me, Hawkins so that he's probably
the toughest poet in the English language to follow. his
sprung rhythm is the way those of us who have dread like the
wind over in high school know how difficult that is and you're probably all saying, oh, let's go on to another. Let's
do some more door prizes. Let's make it about the Levy here. but I noticed that this poem,
Hopkins and Grit when he was in college, and believe it or not,
it was about a comment. and it goes like this. I'm going to see if I can find it to read it
to you but I can't find it. So, I'm just going to quote it from memory I am like a slip of
comet scarce words, discovery, and some corners in bridging the slender difference of two
stars come out of space or suddenly engender by heavy elements for no one knows But
when she cites the sun, she grows and sizes and spins her
skirts out while her central Star shakes its cocoon. miss
and so she comes to fields of light. millions of traveling rays, piercer. She hangs upon
the flame chase sun and sets the light as full as Gideon's
foods but then where Tether calls her, she falls off She
dwindles sheds her smock of gold amidst the sisters and then goes out into the
cavernous Star. So, I go out My little sweet is done. I have
done heat from this contagious sun. Do you know I'm gentle death now for my room? this
poem. If nothing else really told me that there are poem
poets who actually look at the night sky There's Thomas Hardy,
one of the great English novelist who wrote a whole poem about an eclipse of the moon
Tennyson. Alfred Martinez, who actually owned a telescope and at his home in the Isle of
White. couldn't wait for clear night so he had to go up and look for his telescope. although because he was a
famous poet, he was able to use Daw's great refractor in London
almost whenever he wanted to. other poems, poets as well but
when I decided to do my doctoral work not too long ago,
I decided to choose in a way the most difficult poem for the ball and not Shakespeare
Actually, I got my master's degree. The idea came into my head. I want to get a doctorate
but not now. So, I stomped on the idea grounded into the of the dirt. I'm not going to go 5
minutes later, she got my doctor to finish what you started stomped in the ground and it was gone every 5 years.
and then Wendy was in my life and the idea came again and I
told her about it and I said, but don't worry about it. I'm going to stop it in and I don't have to worry about this for
another 5 years. Wendy looked up at me and she said,
Don't stop on it just yet. Let's talk about this. Your
pressure in your life. I'm not going to leave you behind. is dropping You have some time.
Maybe now, you should finish what you started. I was able to
get a professor at the Hebrew University Lawrence Specimen to
direct a PHD thesis that I would do on Shakespeare. It took me 10 years to do it and
you know, there's something about graduate work that is really kind of weird
It's almost as if the graduate studies faculty, or the Department of English or
whatever it is They have meetings from time to time to say, let's make up some new
rules just to throw a monkey wrench into the work for him.
and I decided that this might happen because it happened quite a few times. You know, the paper has to be European
size which you can't get in the United States and it has to do this. There has to be that and
then introduction to the thesis has to be translated into
Hebrew. Doctor Bellman who lost his temper at that. He said, that is the dumbest new rule.
I'm going to fight you on that and I said, I don't It's part of the game. I'm going to do
it. I'm going to raise it. So, I found somebody, a close friend who actually translated
the pre in Geneva Anyway, there was one of the little thing
again about the crazy British European papers size that I wrote to her to them and asked
about it and the next day when he said David, you better come here. I said that it's a
message. I said, she said yes. There's a message from the university and I think you
should see it. Is it good? She said yes but you need to read it. and she simply said that
yesterday, the senate of the university met the thesis has been approved. You have the
title of doctorate and I hope you can come down to get the degree in person. if we ever do
that in 2010, we were Israel.
to get the doctorate in in to get my doctorate and endlessly
Actually, I've been using that doctrine a lot more than I thought I would because with the pandemic, I have been going
to meeting after meeting whether it's this one here at the Texas Star Party one in
Montreal or one in other areas and just to take little quotations to embellish the
world of astronomy just a little bit from a
different point of view to talk about it. a nice guy and what I'm going to do now is I'm
going to ask Wendy if she wouldn't mind joining me so I can close with a with a very
short poem, a final poem. It is by Ralph Hudson and he's
standing on a hill right at the ranch as I hope to be in the next year or two. and it's the
final lines of this poem with the song of honor. I stood and
stared This was lit the sky with stars all over it. I said,
I do not lie without a wish without a will. I stood upon that silent hill and stared
into the sky. I'm until my eyes were blind with the stars and
still I stared into the I thank you all very much.
Fantastic stuff. David. and how cool to bring Wendy in for the
for the final thing that Wendy, That was amazing. It was so beautiful.
We can hear you. We can definitely hear you back there. Wendy, we got you. That's awesome. And Joe, you're still
on me just to let you know but David II know that that was a that's a beautiful talk, man.
It does. it doesn't matter how many times I hear you speak. I always pick up something new from it and it's just an
absolute honor and I think we probably have time for a couple of questions. David if that's
okay. I don't know if I don't know if you guys and gals in the chat rooms on all the
multiple platforms that are out there. If you might have a question for mister David Levy, you kind of have him the phone
here. Absolutely. kind of a phone call here. Yeah. And while we're waiting for those
questions to queue up David, I believe I can read that correctly. That's Minerva right there in front of us. huh? This
is Minerva Us Wonderful. That's a piece of history right there. That's our money. I've had this
telescope since 1967. ow. Well, over 50 years, It is a
beautiful 6 inch reflector. It's had multiple changes of tubes and metals but
the optics are original from 1967. Wow. I just love using
the sauce and how many comet were discovered with Minerva.
None. I've done a lot of comment with it but I've actually never found a combo with this one. I remember I ask
you the same question when you're at the Goldberg's house a couple of years ago before COVID and I was shocked to hear
that. Right? But you'd mentioned that before. I think, you know, a lot of people think that you've used the nervous so
long that you certainly discovered a comet with it but and I have but it's been your
companion. Is it? Did you know that was the last visit that the last trip that I took
before COVID. Was that really closing down the country? Amazing. Yes, that was it. That
was it. Yes. That was you came to Houston and he presented at Rice University and then you
were at the Goldberg's home and they graciously invited me and Scott Mitchell who was on the
comments just a little while ago and a few other people there and we spent a wonderful afternoon with you and it's
still I really I hope we can do that again sometime. Absolutely. Well, go ahead,
sir. I'm just reading. Mira's. Oh, yeah. Sorry, I meet you.
There you go. Out and your philosophy. That's actually the first Shakespeare quarter I
have I ever saw. I was picking up a copy of on a book and
arguing with my older brother about something We had a love-hate relationship when we're kids but now, we're
getting along very, very well in older age and so I threw
this book at him and right at that moment, dad walked in and I thought, oh boy, this isn't
going to be good. And he he said David. I know you're going
to have an argument with your brother. You can even throw something on your brother. I don't care. You heard of what
he says. Let me finish but don't you ever throw a book at him and I said, why not? Let's
do the same thing and he said, because books are friends when you pick up a book. it's like
the author is inviting you into her or his living room to say, this is what life was like when
I was lying. Remember picking up that book. opening it up, and seeing there are more
things in heaven and earth that I've I've of in your philosophy, right? And that's saying, look, I have that book
right here, right now. That's incredible. David. I got a little bit of a chill down my spine because I say the same
thing to my children that books are our friends and you know, treat them with respect and they will love you forever. So,
that's just incredible. Scott Mitchell had asked the question, was there a uniform way? that is Ethan people
regarded the night sky? Was it prophecy or the cusp of science or aesthetic wonder My answer
is the aesthetic Wonder because that's still applies today and I know that Shakespeare himself
He wrote a song about astrology not from the stars Doo. My judgment, pluck. He's guys but
then as he goes on in that side, he's kind of sees what the larger picture is and I
think that I think it was all these things but I think aesthetic wonder was certainly
Shakespeare's goal and in his love of looking up
at the sky, seeing meteors, seeing comments, seeing there's
almost no question that his dad would have taken him out in the backyard to see the at age
eight Chico's Supernova of 1572 Shakespeare is still alive at
the sixteen oh four of Yucca Supernova and he certainly isn't alive when we have the
Twenty-one Supernova which I'm going to go out and see in the next day or so but that's not true. Anyway, But anyway, I
love going out to see things because when you see a comment
or a Nova or a Supernova, what they show is that the sky is acting. It doesn't just stay
there and do nothing. It it it it moves. It talks to you. It
relates to you and you relate to you. I think that's the exciting thing about it's no
and no That is awesome. We had
a question in David from Wallace. Does Wendy have the same love of the night sky as
you do Wendy?
He's calling her in to get the answer direct from the stores here, You're going to get it directly from the stores. I
have a different level of the night sky than David. Does David like David is what I
consider like most of you going to Tsp a real astronomer because he can stay at all my
searching and looking for things that go deeper and deeper and deeper to all they are is very faint posing. I on
the other hand like to look up and see a sky full of stars just like a poem. I like the big, bold, bright, and
beautiful but my forte with the night sky is actually
organizing the star parties and the the star sessions like our retreat that we've had So I can
be the person that gives everybody else the chance to really look at the sky and then they entertain me at night by
showing me what's my telescope. Sweetheart, could you tell a little story about when we were
just starting? Oh, okay. And one of the things David said to
me when we, I think it was on the very first time we ever went out Coming back from the
restaurant and it was like very dusky and it was the kind of Sky where you can see only a star. It was very bright and we
looked up and I said, David, what is that? And he goes, that's you and I looked and
said, David. if I ask you the name of that Star every night,
what would you do? He said, I would tell you the name of that Star every night and I said,
oh, be still my heart. Thank you so much for this patience and that was one things he did
when he does to me still. he fixes the telescope and knock it out of position. and he make
sure that he tells me what the stars are if I haven't learned them yet, Wonderful. Thanks.
Awesome. Thank you, Wendy. Thank you so much. Yeah and we we had an awesome question from
Vas. I think I'm probably, I'm pronouncing that. I'm sorry, mister Coral David. Can you
share another memory from previous Tsp? That's what we're here doing and I'm interested to hear this. I bet you have a
lot of stories about Tsp Oh, I can write a book about Tsp. Can
we urge you to do that actually? Yeah, you into that? many Texas Star parties and I
enjoyed them. The most of them are good memories. There was one night when somebody
inflated a balloon, an eye piece that kind of melted my eye out there. I did not find that a very pleasant experience
but 90% 90.9 99% of the of the
experiences have been wonderful and I'll share just one of them with you the night before
leaving for the Texas Star Party, It was in May of 1990. I
discovered a comment but it hadn't been confirmed yet and I drove to the Texas Star Party.
I arrived there not too long from god on that night and I
parked my car over at the front entrance and I started walking as far as I could and finally,
found. Barbara Wilson. Rest in peace, Barbara Barbara Wilson's
telescope and she had it set up and they were looking not too far from where I needed to
confirm my comment And we we agreed and she said, well, I'm
glad you made it. I said, I've been driving all night but here I am. Can I use your telescope
for a moment? And Barbara looked at me and said, yeah, sure. We're looking at these galaxies and Andromeda and as
soon as that's over, then, let you use the telescope for a bit. and I looked at her and
said, Barbara, she said, yeah. can I use your telescope right
this minute? She said, my god, you found a comment. I said, I think so. The entire crowd just
moved away and I had the telescope and I went right to it and I said, there it is.
It's an eight of a degree since Celeste and the night before and there it is. So, I got my
confirmation of the 1990 comma which became pretty bright at the time. To start point and
that's my favorite GSP story. and I can echo Courtney sentiment. Wow, that's an
amazing story. You know I've I've asked Barbara Wilson to use her telescope. I didn't receive such a pleasant, you
know, response from Barbara was always willing to share.
Absolutely. An eye piece of you. In fact, she would pull us, you know, because we set up in that general area and she'll pull you, you know, she'd pull
you over and like you gotta see this thing will come over here and take a look or Joe. Yeah, absolutely. She always does. I don't think the telescope moved
away from that comet for the rest of that night. Really, really? I'll just watched it go
slowly across, huh? Yeah, it's a special outreach event then.
Yeah, that's that's that's a beautiful and and and David like we were saying, Joe and II
think we we might have to strong arm you into writing that TSP book because I think
that would be fascinating to hear all the the minutia in there of all the the way you
recounting the way you reminisce on things is poetic and it's beautiful and I think
the world needs that book David. I don't know. You might be and I'd be happy to discuss it with you. I do have a
children's book out that I am desperately looking for a publisher for but wow but other
than that, of course, the I'm really glad that you've been pushing my my autobiography so
well but but we've managed to keep that. We got quite the
secret lately. So, we'll well, now that the cat's out of the
bag, I guess now, David Wright Okay, I had another question
there. Tell us before you leave on why you write down each observing session.
My my belief is that if you don't write it down, then you didn't do it. I started my
first session number one is a session that took place on
October the second. 1959. It was a partial eclipse of the sun. Just last part of Zoom
because of clouds. and then I had a few sessions of a to Z
that were held before that including the one at summer camp and right now.
yesterday's solar observing session, I had was session 22 22200 22221 S So, the sessions
a to this one is over 22
thousand times at the top of the night sky. Wow. Twenty 22 thousand times. That's
unbelievable. Incredible. And our friend George Ellis coming in with a comment remembering a
comet hunting game you were. it's great to. I'm so glad you're here. Yeah, George has been with every night it seems
hanging out with us doing the whole thing and he said, he remembers the comet hunting panel you participated in at
RTMC 1985 followed by a comet discovery at that event. Could you please participate in
another one at TSP sometime? We'd love to see that happen again. You may discover yet another Comet David. who knows?
Who knows but I don't do it to you know that I will discover it. I do it because I love it
and I love the guy. That's why I still search. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And lots of
lots of awesome comments coming in from the crowd. I mean, it's it's it's just an honor to have you here David because you
know, again, like Joe said, there are legends in our in our world as time goes on, whether
they wanted that moniker or not. You definitely earned the moniker legend. I can tell you
that II had a high school rock band. As you can see the guitars back here and I've told you the story before we were
called SL nine Shoemaker Levy nine. So You are a third of our
rock band's name. So, Thank you. It's my honor. Thank you.
Yeah. And so, if you guys have any last minute questions for David as we're kind of wrapping things up here, feel free to
throw those in. We wanted to bring David on to because he he is a poetic reminiscing. You
know, he he reminisce on things in a very beautiful way. Absolutely. And I don't think, I don't know Joe. I don't think
there's any better way we could've could've asked David to come on and then like we had him and tonight it was just
amazing. It really was and David every time we talk to you, it's always a treat as well. said the stories are just
absolutely incredible. We could sit here and listen to you talk about them all day and it's it's it never gets old and
tiring but I wanted to ask you a quick question. You said you're working on a children's book. Is there anything else we
can look forward to in the near future? Well, actually it's Wendy's favorite. I mean, Wendy
is my meanest editor. Oh, but I found this book I wrote when I was in fourth grade with an old
corona typewriter about our dog Bingo. There's no astronomy at
all but I've recently revised it and it's flipper becomes a
magic dog and there's a magic telescope that takes this group of children through the
universe from planets all the way up to the great filaments
of galaxies, aids, in about sixty pages
and we'll we had a previous comment. I don't know if we got to it or not but somebody when we are talking about Minerva
had asked who made the optics. I think that's, is that is that John Wagner there? No, the
optics were made by a company called The Optical Craftsman. I don't believe they're still
existing but I don't do what I do. Remember visiting them when I first moved to Tucson and I
was able to come in and see them and but This is was made
by the optical craftsman in 1967. Wow. The optical craftsman that that is. That is
mister Wagner, the discoverer or Nar, I guess of the Stargate, right? The asterisks that we all know and love near
me. 104 the first. I'm asking the question. Yes. Yeah, That's who that was. Yes. Well, thank
you so much for inviting me to come on tonight and I hope to be there in person in some future year. Well, we certainly
look forward to that David and hopefully that might be next year late April, early May when
we look forward to getting back at the Texas Star Party but until then, we'll continue following you online. We know
that you're very active in the Explore Scientific Alliance discussions and have lots of
other talks and we always look forward to hearing from you wherever we can. Thanks Joe.
Banks will and this really was a pleasure. The pleasure is all ours. Thank you, David. Thank
you, David. Thank you so much. Wow. Very good. I think bucket
list item crossed off my list, Joe, I don't know about you, my man but pretty cool. It is.
Like I said, I had an opportunity to spend an afternoon with them in an intimate environment with just
a handful of other friends and David just waxed poetically as somebody else had said about
lots of different tales from, you know, his observing past and things like that and got into some of what he did during
his his studies from from a literature perspective, it was just absolutely incredible. Like I said, I could listen to
him talk all day, not say a word and I'm just mesmerized by the story. So, that's always a treat to hear from David a
living legend. I mean, a living legend said, he said, yeah, he is a living legend. I mean, I don't think anybody ever will
do what he's done and discover as many comments as he has just given, you know, kind of where technology has progressed but
for a lot of people like us growing up who are very into a Deuteronomy. We were just
enamored by David and others like him because the sense of discovery, the sense of, you know, that spirit of
exploration, David really embodies that and it's just something that all of us even as we've gotten older in life
still look at him and say, wow, I want to be like David Levy. I know. Yeah. Unless your name is
like stars or one of these other surveys, you're probably not going to discover a comment
unless you just get absolutely incredibly lucky, right? So, you know, but hey, there's
there might be a chance for that somewhere. Who knows? I mean, people are still discovering them, right? Yeah.
It's not all the automatic surveys and whatnot that are that are doing it but yeah, it's just it's one thing to
have a comet stars or something like that. It's another one to see a comet Levy of, you know, a shoemaker Levy of some sort
knowing that hey, you know, human eyes were the first to say we see something there and it's it's not like the other
background objects. So, Absolutely, absolutely incredible. So, but we I don't
know about you. I think it might be time to give away some swag. What do you think? I think I think we should get in.
Let's do something else. I'm just kidding. I'll do that all night. Now, let's get stuff away because we just got gifted
an awesome talk by David. So, let's play that forward I guess and and give some some stuff
away. Yeah and and by the way folks, our good friend Stephen Hummel is backstage. He's
waiting to come on on here in just a bit. so we're holding him up. I know everybody wants to win some prizes but You
know, Steven's going to come online here. Talk to us, you know, about the Big Bend region. You know, we've we've
spent a lot of time over the last 3 days talking about Big Bend and how special it is but they're really working on
creating an international dark Sky reserve in the Big Bend area that's going to be over seventeen 17 thousand square
miles. It's going to encompass territory from Texas. It's going to encompass territory from Mexico with the purpose of
protecting the pristine night skies in that region. So, if it does get certified by the International dark side Sky
Association. It'll be larger than any currently existing Dark Sky reserve in the world.
So, they're doing a lot of work there to get that certification and in order to get the certification by the
International Dark Sky Association, they are doing a lot of work to extensively
monitor light pollution and address its sources as well as update lighting ordinances to ensure the sky is protected for
future generations. So, Stephen is amongst the and I don't use this term lightly. The Warriors
out there to, you know, they're on the line to ensure that the the night skies are preserved in West Texas and there are a
lot of folks in this battle to make sure that this gift that we've been given does exist not
only for us but for our children going forward. So, we look forward to Steven's talk
but before we get there, let's give away some prizes. Let's do it $50 and $50 from the Texas
Star Party. Yeah, Amazon gift card. The winner is David Wilson of Dallas, Texas.
Congratulations, David Congrats buddy. spin that wisely.
Absolutely. Another Fifty-dollar Amazon gift card from the Texas Star Party
winner of that is Alex Martin all the way in Las Vegas, Nevada. I think that's the first. No, did we get another
Nevada earlier? Nevada? No. no, you're not. Yeah. Or maybe Reno. I don't remember now. I
can't remember but we've got one for sure now. Alex Martin, congratulations for winning that Fifty-dollar Amazon gift
card, right? We're not done with the Amazon gift cards. another Fifty-dollar Amazon gift card here and the winner
of that prize is Ted from Albuquerque, New Mexico. New
Mexico is making a strong push here. A lot of representation from the next
And another Fifty-dollar Amazon gift card. This time from the Houston Astronomical Society.
We love the Houston Astronomical. We're both members of the Houston Astros and that's we have that in
common. Absolutely. We're both members of the Astronomical Society of Southeast Texas too. That's good. But from the
Houston astronomical, the Astronomical Society, I can't speak a Fifty-dollar Amazon gift card and John Cantrell
from Murphy Texas. Congratulations, John. Congrats. Yes, a hub Optics.
Hubble five star artificial Star from Hubble Optics, a
wonderful advertiser for this program and the winner is John Strzok. Meyer from Irving,
Texas, North Texas. Coming in strong here. Congrats, John. Another set of 7x
45 of binoculars from Vixen Optics Star Guy and Bela. The winner of those binoculars
is Beth Watts from Georgetown, Texas just north of Austin there. That's right. Congrats
and enjoy those. Yeah. enjoy those binocular eyepieces for telescope. Beth and then last in this round, we've got
more to come later but the last in this round is another Fifty-dollar Astros Zap E gift certificate These are wonderful
items that as puts out and the winner of that is is yeah Virtual drum roll Howard I hope
I heard AI Hope I pronounced that correctly from Sandy, Oregon, Oregon has now entered the party. So, congratulations
Edward. You're the champ. Congrats to all of our winners here and like we said, we've
got more prizes to give away later on and we still have Trivia. We do but we've got
wonderful prizes to give away there as well. So, thanks for everybody and congratulations to all the winners of these
door prizes. Amazing stuff, man. Such a fun thing to be able to give away, you know,
stuff like this that you know, we can just you know, throw the stuff out into the virtual crowd and everything. Exactly I
did and. Right. We just kind of to it you know, we're just out
here doing our thing but that is so cool. Yeah. And hey,
Will, I think we've got less than an hour we do for our auction items and and end up
closing. So, yeah, $2 for the X Bar Ranch Day and only $100 for
the free ranch. Whoever wins that right now is getting a steal. So everybody get your bids in for the day of winter
weekend. Stay at the Oh, I see a night 0. $50 just went up and
I think. yeah, I think they're including a horseback riding in that too, right? I think that's
everything. you can imagine basically included with the ranch. Yeah, All ranch activities at the prude for
sure. Steal of a deal, man. and that is. yeah, even at twice that price, that's a heck of a
deal. So, that's still ongoing. The XR Ranch auction is still ongoing as well. We have till
9:01 PM Central Time tonight for those auctions. 44 minutes remaining. You can see it right
there folks. and the auctions will be done and we'll announce the winners before the show is
over tonight. This one's man, this one's a hot commodity y'all. This is it's you know,
you gotta bid 302 from here to to beat the current bid. So, there's still a chance for the
X bar and there's definitely still a chance for the Prude Ranch here, man. So get those, get those bids in because again, like Joe said, you only
got 44 minutes and I guarantee you those 44 minutes are going to blow by so fast once we
start talking to mister Stephen Hummel and What's you know, the Trivia is going to come at us.
The the the T shirt giveaways. There's so much about to happen in a short amount of time that
it's almost, it's almost too much I think but I think we're we're going to fit it all into
this nice box and this has been a lot of fun. Joe, this is watching these these auctions
go and yeah, the bird's eye view of this is pretty cool man. Courtney Project Courtney, our good friend says yes at 302
it's still a steal. So in there and start bidding up. Certainly. So, like we said,
we've got Stephen Hummel queued up. We're going to hear from him in just a moment but before we do that, let's hear from one
of our advertisers
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and we are back from that awesome commercial break Before we get into mister Hummel
introduction again, we want to give y'all plenty of opportunity to make sure you
bid on this stuff. So, again, there is the link below. I won't read it. You guys can read that there. Texas Star
Party, blah blah blah blah blah. Type that in. Get that going and if you want those
those stays. If you want one of those, you can bid on that there and our our producer Don
is flooding the chat with those links. Again, that'll make it clickable. Copy and paste, whatever you're going to do
with it, get in there and bid on it and man, we're going to be or we're going to be
announcing a winner for that later. Joe, That's exciting stuff. Alright, looking forward to it. So, everything about
tonight's program has been exciting culminating and you know, all the things that we've done to put this program
together for everyone who's watching and yeah, I just can't wait. It's awesome stuff. Yeah.
But for now, we are joined by our good friend, mister
Stephen. Hummel Stephen is a dark sky specialist at the McDonald Observatory tasked with helping to preserve the
night sky in West Texas through public outreach and community efforts and has been with the Observers Observatory since
2017 In addition, Stephen runs a very popular outreach program
online through the Mcdonald's Observatory and every now and then, he loops us to equipment.
So, a very familiar face. I've seen the three of us on screen lots of times before but it's
our pleasure to have Stephen Hummel with us Stephen. Thank you for joining us tonight. It's a pleasure to be here and
I have to say it is nice to be back in this format again with with with you and and with
Will. It's it's been a while. I've been busy but I think I've
been busy on some worthwhile things which I'm going to share with you tonight. So yeah, I'm very excited But yeah, let me
start sharing my screen here. Alright, we'll look for that.
There you go. Alright. So, again, my name is Stephen Hummel. I am out here at the
University of Texas. It's McDonald Observatory. I know a lot of TSP regulars have have
visited the Observatory or at the very least seen it in the distance. We do usually do for
the Texas Star Party Technical Tours. Yes. And visual Night in my in my office instead of the
dome. What I wouldn't. honestly, I would be in the dome tonight but it's in use.
So, if someone else has claimed it so it's fine. My office will do Yeah, we do usually do
special programs for Tsp. We we have a long history of of of coordinated with TSP for their
events and II. Hope that in the future, you'll be able to come back out in person for sure. I
look forward to meeting some of you out there again next year but I'm going to be talking a
little bit about my work as well as the work of of my colleague Ren here at the Observatory in protecting the
night sky. Now, When I'm speaking to a group of astronomers, I think it's it's
sort of like preaching to acquire to some extent and that you are already sort of get it. You know, you you you know what
it's like to be under a dark sky versus under a light polluted Sky but I want to go
over some of the reasons why preserving the night sky is important. In other words, why
I do what I do, why the Observatory is doing what it's doing because it goes beyond sort of the obvious just
looking up at the stars but yes, protecting the night sky
is important for visual observing and enjoyment as well as for research. We do do a lot
of research at the Observatory that just could not be done under Night polluted skies even
just a little bit especially the hobby, a telescope, Dark energy experiment which Doctor
Carl Gebhardt talked about extensively yesterday. If you haven't seen that watch that. It's he did an amazing talk
yesterday. I know it's recorded YouTube and and and such. You can go back and watch yesterday's program about some
of the research that's being done here at the Observatory but David Levy also highlighted
on what I think is one of the most important reasons to preserve the night sky and that's just a sense of art and
culture, You know, astronomy is the oldest science It's been a part of human existence for as
long as humans have had eyes to look up with, you know, and so it's it's been a part of human
existence forever. It would it would be a shame to lose that part of our culture just like it would be a shame to lose
Natural History Museum. You know, it's it's a natural work
of art and that there is that there's just nothing like or no picture could ever do it justice really and it's also a
source of inspiration that that and David's, you know,
everything he said proves that point. I think so. he proved that point so eloquently but in
addition to that preserving the night sky also helps to preserve our natural environment on the earth but
what I mean It helps to preserve things like a birds
and insects and and nocturnal species which are so critical especially out in the West
Texas. out here especially like in our Big Bend National Park. They've been around state park
as well as for things like migrating birds which navigate by the stars and unfortunately,
I died by the millions every year due to light pollution. It's also important for the
local economy and the economy of many areas around the world because it's it helps promote tourism and tourism locally in
West Texas is a big part of the local the economy here. So, if
we lost the night sky, you know, there's obviously some incentive to preserve it
because that would mean a lot of businesses would simply cease to exist. There's also a
health benefits that's something that that often gets overlooked but over exposure to
blue light at night especially can disrupt your circadian rhythm. Not that I think most astronomers have normal
circadian rhythms but for everybody else's sake, It's important to limit your limit.
Your exposure to artificial light at night because that can have serious health effects
including an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. In fact, the American
Medical Association classifies working at night or night shifts as an increase cancer
risk partly because of that reason. There's also safety concerns, poor lighting, is a
safety concern because it can create more glare and decrease visibility and better lighting.
The kind of lighting we have which I'm going to explain in a minute puts more light where you need it which helps you see
better and it doesn't cause excessive glare and it doesn't it doesn't it basically allows
you to see better when you cross through different environments that are differently lit because your
eyes are going to adjust to the ambient light levels. It's also So, it's important for safety
and security as well. Better lighting. Also, it helps helps
identify possible threats. A lot of people when they hear about night sky preservation efforts, they're like, no, I
need the bright lights to be safe when in reality, there is zero evidence that brighter
lights keep you safer at night either for identifying threats or or hazards. You could trip
over and such like that such things like that. So, Sky friendly lights are safer.
Plus, they use less energy so they're more environmentally friendly in that aspect and they cost less to run at least
and usually they cost less to install too if you do it at least from the start. So, these are all the reasons why I do
the work I do. There's a there's a lot to it. It's it's not just one thing. it's all of
these things combined that or why I do the work I do but a
little bit about what exactly McDonald's Observatory is doing. we quantify the sky
quality in the West Texas region through a variety of methods. So we have an accurate measurement of successful. We
are in our light pollution and mitigation efforts and how this guy is changing. We do
education and outreach efforts so that the public is aware of the benefits and of of night
sky lights and the the the concerns over poor lighting. We
help replace light fixtures in the community. Meaning, if someone has a light that that
may be problematic but they can't afford to replace it. We do offer financial assistance
in certain situations and that is done Who donated funds. We are a state institution. We're
from the University of Texas. We cannot use, you know, public funds to fund that but if you
are interested in supporting our our light mitigation efforts, you can donate to that fund on our website McDonald
Observatory.org slash Dark Skies but we also seek to promote good lighting by
recognizing people who who are doing it right, who are making an effort to protect the night sky and the the The rest of
this talk is we are trying to create an ID, a certified dark sky reserve in the Big Bend
region of West Texas and I'm going to talk a little bit more about about that later on but
first, I'm going to start with quantify in the sky quality which is I'm I know very
important to astronomers and very much in the interest of the Texas Star Party. right? To
know exactly how darker skies are. So, a little bit of background first McDonald's
Observatory already sits in the largest contiguous area in the
world where the night sky is protected by law. There is no other place in the world as big
as this that is that has dark sky ordinances and it's a contiguous area So, that is
what we kind of informally call the McDonald's Observatory Night Sky Reserve and by state
law, the surrounding seven counties have have county
lighting ordinances and municipalities do as well. Fort Davis by the isn't great
because it is not a city. It is unincorporated. So, it's just something to the county but
these ordinances, many of them are out of date. Some of them have been around since the 70s
and and their language. just does not encompass modern lighting technology, especially
LEDs. So, part of the effort today is to update these ordinances and increase
awareness of them but I'm going to overlay on this map a light
pollution map from the viewers instrument on the satellite from January and you can
plainly see that there is a large source of light to our our northeast there and that is
the Permian Basin that is another with oil and gas activity. not just flaring but
all of the industrial lights and things that come with it and that emits more light than
the Midland or Odessa. It's a it's roughly equivalent to to a
major cities such as El Paso and it's much closer. It used to be for many at El Paso was
the brightest thing here. So, unsurprisingly, that's the focus of a lot of our efforts and what we're monitoring very
carefully. So, we we take data of the sky in a variety of
different ways to to kind of quantify how that light is changing and how dark the sky really is. One way we do this
is just with traditional photography. So, I took this picture of this all Sky
panorama with a normal camera and you can see down below behind the hobby Eberly
telescope looking northeast. You can see that glow along the
horizon and that is the the Permian basin there. You can also see some glow from Alpine
on the the top right over here as well as some glow from El
Paso 160 miles away but we have some more scientific methods of
quantify the data to but it's important to point out in this previous picture here that none
of that light extends very far above the horizon. So, the overhead. at McDonald's
Observatory is still as dark as it gets on earth. We still have
some of the darkest of major research Observatory in the world and definitely the
darkest guys of any major research Observatory in the continental United States. So, the sky overhead is still dark.
We want to keep it that way. and again, another method we
have to collect data on the sky is with this little this little guy here called an all odometer
or or Ap. All Sky odometer. This is a CCD. It's a science
grade CCD with a fifty millimeter Nikon lens fifty-one
51.2, and a little celestial and that we've modified and
it's running a script developed in with help from the National Park Service. So, it's such
that it takes pictures of the sky and tiles them all together to a mosaic. So, that's all Sky
optometry. So, we're measuring the brightness of the entire sky. So, we do this about once a month. This is from May 9th
2021. I just took a data set a couple days ago but I just haven't processed It. wasn't
ready in time for this presentation but this is the
this guy from Mount Folks by the Everly telescope and you can you can there's that glow
from the Permian there in the north However, in order to get a useful measurement of the
amount of light pollution from this data, we take all the stars in the Milky Way and all
of the natural sources of light and subtract them and when you do that, when you subtract all
the natural light sources, you're left with the artificial light sources and then we
compare the amount of artificial light that's left over with the amount of light just a completely natural Sky I
would have and so that ratio between them is called the all skylight pollution ratio. Now,
I know a lot of astronomers like their portal scales and things like that. I'm personally not a fan because it
doesn't really tell you it's pretty vague. It doesn't tell you how the lights distributed and you know, where in the sky,
it's dark but they all skylight pollution ratio is a is a little more specific. It tells
us exactly how much brighter the sky is compared to a natural Sky and in this case,
from McDonald's Observatory, it is 33 33% brighter than the
natural Sky. All Skylight pollution ratio is .33 Again, that's all Sky. So, it's all
the light in this case is down low so it doesn't doesn't resolve the problem. the scale has but we have other metrics
too and straight up, it's still is as dark as it gets for reference. it Let's compare
this to Big Bend National Park down to our south a couple hours drive to the south. The
all skylight pollution ratio there and earlier this year was
.1 .12 or 12% Brighter than a totally dark sky and the darkest skies in Texas are not
actually to to big bad National Park. I'll talk about that in a second but because Big Bend
National Park unfortunately also suffers from the light glow from the Permian Basin.
You've been all the way down by the river. You can still see from the Permian Basin oil and
gas activity, You can also see a little glow from El Paso and Chihuahua, Mexico as well as
Presidio and Ohana there as well but the darkest skies in Texas that title goes to Black
Gap Wildlife Management Area and a lot of people haven't heard of Black Gap but I think
think it's a shame it's right next to Big Bend. a borders Big Bend. It's just to the east and
it an all skylight pollution ratio basically of .1 too. but it's a few decimal places
darker than than Big Ben. So, it gets the title, the darkest skies in Texas. and there is an
effort to make black AA an ID, a certified dark sky sanctuary which is basically their their
highest tier. the most difficult to get and that they are usually reserved for the
most remote the the the hardest to get to places as well because there are there are very few places left that are
this Dark on earth and there is nowhere left on the continental
United States. there. That where the sky is actually a zero. that every single point
in the continental United States has at least some detectable light pollution. So,
it has gotten brighter overall in this country. The second method we have to monitor light
pollution in the area is partly with a volunteer effort as well as some of our staff to take
Sky quality measurements with a little handheld meter called the call the sky quality meter. Sm may have seen some of these
before but we have Whole bunch of different locations where we do this every 3 months, We take
a measurement from all these points on the map and so we can have have a very good idea of
how light pollution is changing space and over time, it's a big
treasure trove of data which I'm working on on sorting through because there's a lot of interesting stuff in there
but the overall result of all these methods is is basically kind of summarized in this
chart here. The good is the sky is getting darker over West
Texas. You it's it used used to be from McDonald's Observatory.
The the percentage of natural background level with all skylight pollution ratio reached the peak of about 49%
back in 2019 late late 2019
That was when we kind of had peak flaring in the Permian Basin and since then it's come
down a bit. It's sort of stabilized around a little over 30% just a little However,
there is still no detectable light pollution above 30°. So, there is no detectable light
pollution anywhere we would see or anywhere we would look with a telescope where we aim at a
large telescope. We don't see any light pollution but another
takeaway of this is that just because you are in a rural area does not mean the sky is dark.
That is increasingly a trend we see in the world. Rural is not necessarily Dark. That's
commonly associated. It's it's anymore to just drive away from a major city and and hope to
find a dark sky. and globally this is not the trend of this
chart Globally. light pollution is increasing by 2% per year
and 2% per year does not sound like a lot but it's it's it
adds up quickly and that's about the same rate as the inflation of money with US
currency and you No. a dollar today isn't worth the same as a dollar in 1921. In fact, a
dollar in 1921 would be about fifteen and a half dollars today. Likewise, light
pollution has increased at the same rate. So year to year, it's difficult to detect but it
really does accumulate over time to matter. Some other
findings. where is the light pollution actually coming from? Meaning, what are the actual
light sources that are contributing to the light that we see in the sky and our
location. The the biggest source is is oil and gas activity in the Permian Basin.
flaring is a big part of that but I think a lot of people overestimate the importance of flaring burning off methane
because the flare although they are bright, they emit most of their light and infrared and
and a yellow color which doesn't scatter as much in the atmosphere of more concerned us
are the permanent lights. So, I know when an oil facility sets up. Shop the flaring typically
is a temporary stage in the process. What we care about are all the lights that are
permanent. They're going to stay there because sometimes as we see in the recent crash of the price of oil just because a
company
I had to cut out there a minute for a minute but just because a company is out of business and
not even doing anything in the oil field anymore, that doesn't mean they're turning the lights
off. They may still be leaving their lights on and they may still be aimed up into the sky and so it's a concern for us.
So, industrial lighting is a big focus of our efforts. The second contributor to light
pollution are unhealed lights on businesses and what I mean by unhealed that they're
they're allowing the light to spill up into the sky. or put it another way. The source of
the light is visible from above the mounting point. Another big
are illuminated signs and billboards. These are increasingly a bright those
internally illuminated signs are often on all night and there there's no shielding and
illuminated billboards often spill a lot of their light into the sky and they can be
incredibly bright street. are are not as important as you
would think in our area. They are all amber. Anyway, there aren't really any bright white
LED street lights in our area. Thanks in part to the existing lighting ordinances awareness campaigns but they do but there
are some that are unskilled which which are contributing a little bit and the last two are
residential lights and headlights on cars and the high
beams. Unfortunately, they do contribute quite a bit at certain times of the night but
that's pretty hard to predict and fluctuates quite a bit. but we do have solutions. and this
is what we advocate in the local community. Summarized in this nice graphic which I love
because it just condenses this pretty big topic into one simple graphic. If you do these
steps, you will drastically cut light pollution if not entirely illuminate Sky glow. it's
shielding such as the light is aimed down at the ground using amber colored light because
that does not scatter as much in the atmosphere. It also doesn't attract as many many insects or disrupt your
circadian rhythm as much as white or blue lights and using only the intensity of light that you actually need. So, an
appropriate amount of light for the purpose and lastly, if you aren't using a light, turning it off or putting it on a
motion detector or timer. So, it's only used when it's when necessary. Here are some
success stories. This is a compressor station out in the Permian Basin and a lot of
times people are skeptical that we can do anything about the oil and gas industry and they
get very pessimistic. I do want to point out that it has reduced greatly in the past 2
years and part of that is because of our successful efforts working and consulting
with the oil and gas industry to reduce that light pollution and the the First step, we
often ask is for for operators to simply aim their lights down
because a lot of oil and gas operators or contractors or so
forth, they kind of have to have this assumption that brighter is better that they
should put as much light out as possible. light it up like daylight because that's what's
safe and in the process, they also usually aim their Night sideways to get the greater
reach or or throw far away from the site that but that creates
a lot of glare and that's usually blinding to the people at night. So, the first step we
do is we ask them to turn them down so that the light is aimed on on the ground where they
actually need it on That has the benefit of reducing glare dramatically and and reducing
the amount of light that's spreading into the sky. Some of it may still be bouncing up off
the ground if it's excessively bright but this is the first step and universally, they all
come back and say, oh yeah, that actually works great because it puts more like They need it and illuminates glare.
Therefore, it keeps their workers safer and in this quote, the employees love it.
One commented that he could actually see the equipment and where he was walking. Now, that
says it all right there. Here's a fantastic example of a whole
facility which was designed from the ground up to be a night sky friendly by using the
recommended lighting techniques. This is located near balm Texas. It's at Apache slash Altus Diamond Cryo
Complex It's not, it's not active drilling here. They're they're compressing and
liquefy. Natural gas here but you can see that the the level of illumination is a lot lower.
Let's say the ones there at the road, you can see there's some non non compliant lighting kind
of at the boundary of the property over here for for context and you you can see
just how faint how much dimmer it is but there's still plenty of light. It's still evenly
illuminated so that the workers can see what they're doing and and a lot of these places are in operation 24 hours a day so
that that is crucial to them. We can't to simply turn their lights off continually. It's not practical. Here's an
example of an internally illuminated sign and it's a it's a common thing we see
locally is their their lights. They're they're traditional lights may be great. In this
example, we have using an Amber lights. It's aimed down. It's fully shielded. It's not too intense. It's it checks all the
boxes but then they went and stuck a bright, internally illuminated sign. Then you can see all the light on the roof
and on the power lines I'll just go into the sky. So, this is a pretty big source of light
pollution that I think a lot of people underestimate are these these signs like this. So,
usually we ask that they'd use like an inverted sign. So, instead of a white background
with black text, it would be a black background with white text or simply turn it off us
adaptive controls. It's only used when needed. Here's another example from from Fort Davis. This is a Hotel Olympia
and you can see they have that before they had this bright white light sources outside.
this this row of hotel rooms and they complained actually or
a lot actually, a lot of guests complained that they were too bright and the staff, the ground staff mentioned to us
that sometimes I would walk out and in the morning and they would find those light bulbs
unscrewed and left on the ground because the guests staying there thought they're just so obnoxious and they were
like shining through the curtains. So, we gave We just change the light bulbs we gave them a lower color temperature,
more amber light that is fully shielded so it sticks up into the housing and you can just
see how much more attractive that looks. I think that looks so much better on the right. Here's another community
example is from Be Marie So, this is an example of how we helped a local local facility
or local community members. We donated lights to replace the
at the front and so we we gave them a better lights at the front for free with the with
the idea that if they wanted to cover the rest, they they they could do that themselves and and sure enough once they saw
the difference, the lights on the front made they they they swapped out the lights They
paid for the ones on the side themselves and that's a common theme is is people just need to
see the difference. They just need an example a real world example to to make it click.
and then they realize, oh, this really is a lot better and and then they'll gladly support it.
We're trying to recognize more, more businesses and residents and organizations in the kind
of greater Big Bend area who are using white lights that are a night sky friendly with our
new recognition program. So, we we find we get a lot more success when we use the car
rather than the stick because most of the time, people just don't know. They just don't
realize they're causing a problem. That's the number one issue we come against. So, this
is an example of a recognized location here in Fort Davis. It's the the Jeff Davis County
Courthouse. This is actually their annex building. You can see Foley Shielded and Amber
that's and they only use it when needed. Here's another example. this is a print Co and
Alpine Texas just down the road and they They actually were
ahead of us. They they had this light up and they never even talk to us and they're like, yeah, we we believe in dark
skies and it's like, well, that's great. You know, sometimes some people are already on it again, Amber
color fully shielded ain't down, puts the light where it needs to be and each location
by itself doesn't make a huge impact on the sky. The cumulatively, there is a world
of a difference. It makes now Fort Davis is not 100%, you
know, perfect in our lives. There are definitely some businesses and residents who who are not Dark, Sky,
friendly, who do need some improvement but there's I would
say about 75 or 90% of the lights are pretty good in Fort Davis whereas Alpine is a
bigger city. You know, it's it's about twice the the the surface area and about three
times the population of four Avis. But they are very few
businesses and organizations are are are night sky friendly and Alpine. So, it's no wonder
then that Alpine is many times brighter than Fort Davis even though it's farther away from
the Observatory. So, for day is practically invisible from here
at ten miles away, You almost can't see it. You can't see it naked eye. It only shows up in long exposures. It's a little
bit of glow whereas Pine is is pretty obvious. and you know, again, Alpine is is three times
further away and the inverse Square lodge should be should be much faint if they were the
same brightness. Fort Davis again, it's it's about a dark
sky, not a dark ground. So, just going back to those community examples and in Fort
Davis, right? You still have lights. There's aim down to the
ground so you can see what you're doing. It's still perfectly safe. Businesses can
still operate at night but this is simply adopting those practices. makes a little bit
of a difference. It's about a dark sky, not a dark brown. That's probably the one thing I
want people to take away the most But so we are trying to
implement these these practices throughout the region and we're working with local community
members all the time in that effort but we're also trying to create AA International Dark
Sky Reserve. Now, the IDA has several different recognitions
or several different places essentially that they recognize and they all have little slight
differences. For example, Probably the most popular or
famous Dark Sky place or category. our international
dark sky parks like Big bad National Park Recently, Zion
National Park, Grand Canyon there National Parks State Parks that practice good
lighting are also designations for communities or towns as
well as for remote areas like which will be sanctuaries. We
are after a reserve Now, we already have two Dark Sky parks
in what we are calling the Greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve. but the
reserve is composed of two separate kind categories within
it. The core zones and the peripheral zones and the core
zones are basically the areas that are most sensitive to light. They are areas we are
trying the hardest to protect and zones for us are kind of
clustered in the north and the south. and the peripheral areas
are kind of less stringent So, there doesn't have to be 100%
compliance in the peripheral areas in fact that the the the to get qualified there has to
be about 10% compliance with the commitment to reach 90% or more in the coming years. So,
we're already ahead of that. We already have more than 10% compliance and in the peripheral areas but again,
Reserve will be as Joe mentioned earlier, Absolutely enormous. This is bigger than
Connecticut and Maryland combined. It's got about 17 thousand square miles or a
little under 10 million acres and it will indeed be international because it'll
also include protected lands in Mexico across the border. The the three protected lands
across from Big Bend National Park and will in fact be larger
than all of the existing Dark Sky reserves in the world combined. and I cannot really
stress how how big of an undertaking this is. This is when we we kind of run this by
the IDA and they kind of it was
an Email but II think if if we're talking Face-to-face, they probably would have looked at us like we were crazy
because this is so much bigger than anything that's been attempted before and the I
criteria are pretty strict. We have to get a whole bunch of
different municipalities and governments and parks and other
partners to all cooperate on this. I wanted to have a slide that listed all the partners on
this project but it just got too big. It just got too cluttered. I didn't want to leave anyone else out. so I don't want any hurt feelings
because this is really unprecedented in scale but the course that the area of the
highest or the most stringent lighting rules McDonald's Observatory, our campus, we're
not big but obviously, we're we're trying to protect the sky here too. The Nature Conservancy which is this
little blob of land just kind of almost surrounds us in both sides. The Big Bend National
Park and Big Band Ranch State Park and the Sonata State
Natural area which is administered by Big Red State Park the peripheral areas.
Again, they are, they include these counties as well as a sliver of Reeves County and
Baltimore right on the border of the oil fields. and these
three protected lands in Mexico So, already in this area, there
are several certified dark sky places which makes us dramatically easier because the
work has already been done. Those include a Big Bend National Park, Bien Ranch State Park. They're already 100% done
all the efforts there. Is done. Black App Wildlife Management
area is almost ready to be certified as a sanctuary which is again, the most stringent
category so they may be added to the core later on. Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management
Area. Likewise also going to be a sanctuary. Shout out to Amber Harrison at Big Bend Ranch
State Park for getting Big Bend Ranch Elephant Mountain and
Black Cap all certified. That's a huge amount of work for one person Si Lana's already
certified. They are a dark sky community located just south of Alpine and Togo Ranch is
working towards the community designation as well. but I want to show you kind of where the
reserve is located in terms of the sky and this overlay. You can see that we are located in
a very dark part of the country in Texas. and the brightest light sources within the the
reserve are Alpine and on border here. This is oh, Haga.
So, a lot of work being done. and already within it but we still have a ways to go
internally to improve the light but in terms of what has to
happen in order for the reserve to work, the idea has a long list of criteria. We have to
demonstrate broad-based community support. So, in other words, we we need to make sure people know about this project
and it. So, that's accomplished with town hall events kind of
similar to this but focus locally letters of support. if you want this to happen, send
me an Email, okay? And let me know because any of your support we can get will help
our application to the Ida We're also demonstrating broad-based community support
through our our lighting recognition program. We also have to document the sky quality not just for the
application but in the future. It's important to You can lose an ID. a designation like it
has happened to people before. If you don't keep it up. if you if you don't monitor your lights, you don't do the work,
you can lose the designation. It it does have meaning. We also have to do an inventory of
all of the public lights or at least a representative sample in in the entire area. It's a
huge area. We actually already got that done. We're also additionally, even though it's
not required, we're conducting a of as many private lights as we can too and we do also
already have efforts to mitigate any any light which may prove a problem and the IDA
has a certain set of requirements that you know, lights in the area have to be fully sealed and 2700 K or
below color temperature actually the IDA recommends 3000 Kelvin or soft White. We
are shooting for 2700 Kelvin because we we do not like blue light content in our light. It
is it is not good for astronomy. They also require a
lumens per acre cap. Meaning, that's a way of ensuring that lights aren't too bright, brighter than necessary, and
adaptive controls. So, these things have to not just be
encouraged. These things have to be basically be insured or a
plan has to be in place to to make all the lights in that area compliant in the future
and the way to accomplish that are through ordinances. So, words making it law Now, a lot
of people really don't like this part. They they think, think, oh, what? You know, you're you're forcing your opinion on us. We view
ordinances as a vehicle to raise awareness
Sorry. Microphone keeps cutting out on me. Battery's getting low but ordinances again are
there are a vehicle to raise awareness. So, we view them as as just one method in our
toolbox to get people to to adopt better lighting and we
already have ordinances in the surrounding area. They just need to be made up to date to
include more modern understanding of such as shielding and color and intensity and timing but It's
very rare for anyone to actually be issued a fine. It's really reserved for the sort of worst case scenarios where
someone is really just out to, you know, to to cause trouble
but every almost every single case we have reached a solution before it gets to that point
and and so it's it's not about strict enforcement. It's about it's about awareness and
encouragement and working with people then we do it has to be law because one of the idea
requires it. If we want the reserve status and two, there has to be some sort of
recourse. If someone is is ruining the night sky because that is a threat. Not only did the research here but to to the
local economy which is dependent on a tourism So, in that regard, we have made a lot
of progress and so this is sort of where we are as of today, what we've gotten done and what
we still need to do to make the reserve a reality and We've
already basically done everything in all the core zones. I was almost done before we even started the project. We
have updated lighting ordinances in Jeff Davis County, Brewster County, and
Reeves County Reeves County. That's again, that's where most of the oil and gas industry is
So, that's that's huge for us. We've also updated them in
Valentine, Valerie and just this week, Presidio. So, it's the newest So, we're more than
halfway there. We still need to update the ordinance in Presidio County, Martha Alpine
and we have to tidy up a few things and the biosphere reserves across the river in
Mexico to ensure their partnership as well. I am really excited that this is
it's truly international project because for decades,
there has been talk of a sort of international national park
International Park across the river from between Big Bend and the protected lands in Mexico. It's been a dream for decades.
It's always fall short but it it's this is maybe it's not all the way there. It's not like
there's easy access between the border there or anything. It's just that they're they're taking steps to mitigate
lighting or to use better lighting. That's all it means. I think it's a step in the right direction and and kind of
of a cross border relations as well. I wanted to just give a
few community examples a few more. This is a recent one that
I think a lot of people can relate to or have questions about See on the right here,
there's this light fixture and this is a LED light. It's a at
a slight angle and versus some shielded lights here on the sign for the doughnut shop. So,
this is the same view at night across street. We have two
bright, LED light sources that are so bright. that you can't
even see that there are people in that laundromat and there's actually a person trying to get
right in front of that truck there too. You can't see any of that with the naked eye. You're
totally blinded by the light sources which each emit around
in the neighborhood of 75 thousand lumens. That's That's
enough to light up. Well, 75% of an acre of land. That's that's the equivalent amount of
light and there's two of them. So, it's 150 thousand lumens right here. That's for
reference car. High beams are in the neighborhood. of maybe
depending on the high beam 8000 Lumens or so. This is 150
thousand Lumens and this this went up recently but I talk to
them and they're they're going to change it. So, we didn't
have to, you know, call code enforcement or anything like that. It's almost never
required. We we talked to them and and we make progress. This is across the street. How much
of the light is is spilling out in the surrounding buildings. So, this is a case of light trespass. It's like going
beyond the lines spilling into areas where it should be and again that that light is only
aimed up by about fifteen or 20° but it It's still spilling
out sideways but again, I talk to them. They're going to replace it. I haven't done it
yet. They're working towards it. So, if you're not in the area, if you're not in Texas, I
know a lot of astronomers, a lot of amateur astronomers, they they get really nervous
about talking to their neighbors to, you know, to address light pollution because
it it's kind of makes people anxious. you know, like it's the people don't want to be confrontational. So, I just have here for you know, if
you're already practicing good lighting in your own home, here's how you can convince others to do the same and the
most important one is to remind them that it's that it's about a dark sky, not a dark ground.
People have a light to illuminate, have a right to illuminate their property. Okay, So you're not trying to
keep them in darkness because that's the number one thing people assume is that you just want everyone to have their
lights off 100% of the time whereas It's about using light.
with purpose. Being thoughtful about it but if you're going to talk to your neighbor or or a
local business or something about their lives, I recommend you do. you do your research ahead of time. I have no the
the the pros and cons know what they're likely to say and
always don't lead with an accusation. So, don't come and say your life's too bright or
you're violating the city ordinance or something. They I don't know that. And they
probably are going to immediately become defensive and and and try to defend
themselves against that accusation. but point out, start by pointing out your
concerns and the safety and cost efficiency benefits. Yes, there are benefits to, you
know, health and the environment and astronomy Most
people are actually convinced by the safety and cost benefits. That's most people
more practical if they hear that, you know, they can save money and still be safe. That's more likely to win someone over
and when you're talking with them, ask how you can help them improve their life. What you
can do to help them and also ask them what their light is being used for. A lot of people
don't don't do that. They just they they come in and they ask you know, ask them to without
ever actually asking, you know, why they have the light in the first place and there might be
something you don't expect. So, or it could give you some information to help you work
with them and ask what their concerns are about changing the light. You know, related to that. what the purpose is, you
know, what are their concerns about turning it off and listen to them and actually reply to
their concerns. Don't just say, well, you need to do this or you should do this. It's
important to remember that. using Better Lights is a Win-win solution. It's it
really does benefit basically everything, right? It's safer. It's cheaper. It puts more
light where you need it. It creates less glare. So, there is a solution to their problem.
You just need to listen, listen to them and and and figure it out and if you're talking to
someone, always recommend leaving something physical behind. This is kind of a business trick too but leave
behind a pamphlet or or some way they can learn more or or a light bulb or something that
you would like them to try out and install, you could bring it as a sample light fixture to them or even brownies, a pie or
something like that. It'd be nice but this this is really
effective. It it really has got me a long way and I'm sure it can help you too with your
lighting, with your lighting concerns, and if you do have a
particular situation that Are you think deserves some Expert
input or you're just, you're just not sure? McDonald's Observatory also has a website
McDonald's Observatory.org. You go under the dark skies tab and you can click contacted Expert
and you can contact me or my colleague Bill Wren. We can look into your situation and help you solve your problem
with with with lights and we're we're here to help. So, that's where I'm going to wrap up but
I am happy to take some questions and We have some
questions for you. Stephen. Our our local friend here, Debbie
Moran, Joe. she's a dark sky advocate herself, right? She is. She's with the IDA and I don't know if you've met her
before Stephen but she is the 2017 winner of the Hoag Robinson Award with the
International Dark Sky Association. So, Debbie, congratulations. Yeah, yeah. Debbie is is certainly, I mean
to call it a dark skies advocate is an understatement so but yeah, she has that question there below How do you
teach people to acquire the correct lighting given that there are far more choices online and you need specific
keywords to find it. Yeah. Yeah. I always II. say first to
never buy anything that you can't figure out what it is, right? Like, that's I mean, people can relate to this like,
would you buy you know, food if you if if you not only like
didn't know what was in it but there was no way to know like if if if like if that label on
the back was just like question marks, right? Because because there are some lights out there
like that. Yeah. Like you're if you're spending your money on something you want to know what you're getting. So, I always,
you know, like say dark skies are not like you should know
what you're spending your money on and and what the product is that you're getting. So, that I
start with that and then say, you know, look for, you know, these keywords. Yes.
Unfortunately, right now, do need certain keywords, you know, like like you can search Star. Sky friendly or 2700 K or
fully shielded but I also point to the I DA's website, Dark,
Sky.org. They do have an inventory of of certified lights and links to buy them,
not 100% of them are perfect There are a few that I've noticed in there that aren't
perfect but frankly, I'm I'm willing to take that gamble. They're more, what's more
likely going to be better than what whatever they they currently have. So, again,
Dark, Sky.org, they have an inventory of certified lights I always say to people like, I'm
here to help. That's why I mentioned the link is because if you can't find something, I usually help them find it.
That's also why I recommend like if you have something really specific and you know, it's hard to find and but you
know where it is. Show them that like bring them the bulb, give it to them and give them
the packaging and say, here it is. Here's where you can buy more. Try it out. I'm sure
you'll like it It works It works. It works. it's worked countless times Lily. We went
ahead and put the URL down there. Dark, Sky.org and I also just wanted to share quickly,
you know, Debbie has done a lot of work here in the city of Houston. It seems to be you
know, she's got a lot of headlines because Houston is a large city and there's just a lot to change but she's done
some tremendous work. Her website is Soft Light Houston.com. There are a lot of good tips and tricks and things
like that on her website as well. So, just wanted to mention that and again, she's
doing Lot of good work as as are you Stephen? Yeah. Dark Sky
is a good nickname for right? You heard new social media names. I think I appreciate
everything you're doing. The It's it's I'm I'm in awe honestly that you're you're taking up such a challenge of
of of fighting light pollution in in Houston. That's yeah. I mean, I think I have a big job but you have you have so much
more I have well, but you know, 17 thousand square miles is nothing to scoff at, right
after but yeah, Yeah, that's bigger than all of them. We combine it and Stephen. Do you ever have a problem with people
putting up lights intentionally just so you'll bring them brownies and other baked goods?
It hasn't happened yet but I am wise to that. It's something I'm like, you only get that
once I'm making a note right now. Okay. So Stephen, you said
things seem to peak in their on the rebound a little bit in that area and you kind of eluded to some of the reasons
why are you guys keeping kind of an eye on, you know, other industry trends and whatnot to
see where it might start to go back up again and trying to get ahead of that curve a little. Yeah, it's it's tough. I mean,
the recent crash in the price of oil, you know last year it
was a blessing and a curse. We did see a reduction in light but a of the businesses we're
working with. either had really high turnover or no longer
existed or and you know, the form anymore. So, we have to
remake contacts, right? It got kind of start all over again. So, we we do do training for
for oil gas operators, and sort of safety and health training
and and lights is a is a is a big you know, that's how we get out to people with the field.
You know, it's talking about lights and the safety context. but yes, we we are trying to,
you know, keep abreast. It's an uphill battle. The Permian is huge. There are hundreds of different operators and and we
kind of have to triage and pick the ones that we we think we'll have the most success with and are the the the closest to us
are producing the most light but we are working out it actually we do have just this
week new approach to monitoring light pollution in that region
and I just confirmed this like yesterday, it'll be astronaut photography, Astronauts on the
ISS will be photographing the region every 3 months really to to monitor for changes in the
in the Permian Basin specifically but in the reserve as well. So, that's another
tool to to measure and and try to get ahead of things. That's fantastic. Yeah yeah that's
amazing and one of our Our our buddy Don in the backroom helped us with this one. You
know, Stephen J O'meara was talking about, you know, light pollution and stuff like that
and we, you know, we found out through the whole course of this whole thing that a very small percentage of amateur
astronomers are part of Ida. the part of the IPA and I
forget what the number was Stephen and then I and then I realized that I'm not a member of the IDA and I felt very
cool. What are you doing I'm good on that. Yeah. Yeah. That's 2 years for me. So,
Debbie convinced me. We'll see. I don't have Debbie to in my ear to tell me to do the cool
things. So, that's that's like I don't have Hummel in my ear too though. but the website is
down there. Yeah, I'm trying to find out. See you There.org. Go there and again, it's at the
price of a, you know, an astronomy club membership really helps them do what it is
that they do to combat you know, excessive light pollution, keep our skies Dark and you know, we were joking
with Stephen yesterday while we recorded it previously but I said, yeah, we'd love to come
to Botswana to see these really dark skies and he said, you know what? Really dark skies are actually really bright skies. Yes. Yeah. You see so
much more of the natural light of the universe when you're not having to contend against everything else that we're
putting out there. So and you know, I've always likened it to as a kid growing up. My parents
would get on us for keeping the door open or going in and out because you know, the air is
getting out right? The cold cold air is getting out. You wouldn't you wouldn't run your air condition air conditioner
to to to cool the outside air. So, why have lighting to light up the night sky, right? and II
always tell people the same thing. It's like, look, if you're going to light things up, light em up. Just make sure it's going in the right
direction. You know, don't don't light up the night sky. To me, that's like opening the door to air condition the
outside. That's a great analogy, Joe. That's a great analogy. I actually absolutely right. Yeah. You know, Another
question that we could feel for you Stephen is what in the world can we do to help? I mean, besides Dark, Sky.org and
not yelling at our neighbors and throwing and you know, there's only so much brownie
mix. I think there's only so much you can throw it to the light and talking about. So, what, you know, like what what
other steps can there can we take if maybe, you know, we're we're running into those issues
You can There's a lot you can do. I mean, obviously, it's the first thing you can do is be an
example to others like if you do nothing else, if you don't join the Ida, if you don't talk to your neighbors, if you don't
have any money to anybody who deserves it, just just focus on your own lights at home. You
know, because you know, again, you you benefit. it's it's yours Sky. It's your money.
you're wasting on on on lights that's being spilled into the sky. It's it's your health.
it's your environment. You're living in that. that's that you're protecting. So, You
know, even for the selfish people out there, it it makes sense to do it. in terms of
what else in terms of the next steps. I mean, the joining the IDA is a great first step and
getting involved but the the biggest barrier, the number one barrier to widespread adoption
of of night sky friendly lighting is awareness. So talking about it to people being consistent about it,
bringing it up, pointing it out to people politely really is the best thing you can do and
it may take multiple times but once People see it once. people
and once it clicks, they're like, oh, that light is producing a lot of glare. Yeah. Oh, a lot of that light isn't
going on to the ground. They are cursed for life. right? They have been bestowed the
curse of skiing. what has been in their face, their entire lives and how that's how much
light we waste. Yeah. And then there's no going back and it's just a matter of time Yeah,
you're absolutely right. You know, it's kind of an interesting thing. I, you know, not not to tell a story here but I guess I'll tell a story
recently in my I live in an entertainment district here in Houston and one of the bars had
a kind of a COVID reopening party. Many people may have seen it on TV because they were going to, you know, flaunt the
mask rules and everything else like that several months back but they had these lights just
pointing everywhere over the night sky. These really high beam lights and things like that and you know, somebody
posted on the neighborhood Facebook page to say, oh great look, you know what's happening? This is, you know, just a blight on the on the sky
and everything else like that and a lot of people chimed in and said no, I think this is great. you know, seeing these lights is fantastic and I've mentioned something about.
well, you know, all the things that you've mentioned, you know, this is a shame because it takes away from our our, you
know, night sky. We can't see certain things that we were able to see once before the circadian rhythms, migratory
patterns, things like that and an actual Md, a doctor chimed in and said, hey, these are
pretty incredible claims. If you're going to say this stuff, you better have data to back it up. Hundreds of studies. Yeah,
well, you know, it just kind of shocked me that a doctor would say this and so, you know, of course II did my Facebook thing which is to post all kinds of
links to studies and whatnot and you know, it took a little bit of time but you know,
several people said, thank you. You know, I preach, I did. I didn't know that was a problem, right? I didn't know that hundreds of birds were into
buildings in Galveston during the migration patterns and things like that. So, like you said, all we can do is educate
and hopefully one person at a time and we can get them on board but it starts with us
Absolutely start. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's again, the biggest barrier is is awareness and in
any way you can help with that. It's it's good. It's good work. Yeah. I saw Deborah ask if
we've talked to law enforcement. I'm not sure if she's referring to our area but yeah we we do work with local
enforcement. It it I mean yes they will be believed. We tend to see them as a last resort.
It's it's something that we we don't want to find anybody We
don't want to call the cops on but nobody likes that. It makes enemies. They're they're no more likely to fight it. You
know, next city council meeting, they'll probably be in there saying, I can't believe I got fined $200 for having, you
know, these tiny little Christmas lights and then of course, that's how they're going to portray it. Something like that regardless of how
bright it actually is. It they always say it's just it's just this little thing but
We want to make friends but yes, code enforcement. and law enforcement. We do work with
them and we we do try to train them. Actually, one of the things especially out here
where it's dark especially if you're driving down the highway between like or Fort Davis or
Alpine where where there's nobody out there at night and let's say a cop pulls somebody
over and they have this bright blue flashing lights of times.
Those white. Oh no, I'm sorry. There's blue lights on on emergency vehicles are blinding at night. I don't know if they
realize that. So, it's something we've been mentioning is that, you know, actually like I know you don't want to get hit but you're more likely
to be hit with those lights on than with the lights off because with the lights off the oncoming cars, headlights
illuminate your car and it doesn't blind the driver. So
anyway, it's just on the side and that kind of clues like oh yeah you know it's blue light maybe isn't the greatest. it
kind of scatters in your eye and then they start thinking about it Anyway. yeah. Yeah. Wow. Fascinating stuff and I
mean, you know, you we take that kind of stuff for granted because we've grown up with all
those sorts of things We've all grown up with lights outside. You know, if you live in the suburbs, I guess but if you
don't, then, you know, it's it can be kind of a shock to move somewhere where there are
lights, you know, vice versa, you can be in the city your whole life and then go out and be like, what is this you know,
there's no lights out there so. Right. It's it is education
Stephen and you're doing amazing work, man. I mean, I've always admired you for all the astronomy that you do But on top of that, yes, it's the
saving of astronomy. What you're doing out there and you know, it it takes a team. We
know Bill is an amazing asset for you to have there as well. I know y'all are a great team,
man. Absolutely and and Bill is such a cool laid back dude. Yeah and I love that. you know,
he'll just be like, well, can you turn the lights down a little bit you know, and people you know, you're very convincing. Yes, I will. And
you have it is a very high rate of success. Yeah, you definitely have that that more you know, you get more bees
with honey than vinegar yourself whereas me and maybe Joe and maybe our producer Don
might be a little bit more towards the aggressive side but learning, we're getting better because of people like you and
you know, we'll try not to throw brownies at people as much as possible if we can but also food fights are fun. So,
Alright. I was going to ask you. Oh, there we go. Barry Allen had an educational
approach instead of a punitive approach achieves much better results. Absolutely and that's a great way to put it. Yeah.
Alright, Stephen, I was going to ask, where can we see you next?
I will be what live program will I be doing next? I'm going to do a live stream of the
Persian meter shower in August. Working on on Nice. I'm here at the Observatory borrowing some
techniques from you will using night vision and such. We're going to try that out. See some meteors and have some meteor
and comet experts on as well. So, look for that later in August. In the meantime, you
can find me on Instagram as well. It's at Homo underscore Stephen and yeah, hopefully,
I'll have time for another coffee or an astronomy eventually. It's been a busy summer and I'm I'm hoping I'll
have time. It's been a man. Yeah. And that's going to be awesome. I can't wait to see some meteors from from West
Texas and of if y'all aren't familiar with Stephen Hummel and his work on Red Sprites
they need to check out his Instagram and check out his post. Yes, he's salsa, right?
There's Sprite time, right? exactly and I'm secretly, I'm secretly like, okay, it's going
to get dark enough in about 15 minutes Look at that. You can't see my other monitor but it's a
radar screen. It's a radar. There's signs out there. I gotta I gotta check on him.
Yeah, they're awesome. When we're going after this when we're at Dark Sky sites, you know, I'm always messaging
home. There's a storm by me, know, or vice versa and and we end up photographing sometimes
the same Red Sprites which is pretty amazing. I'm not sure if we've done the same exact one. I know I've done the same story
but I'm hoping. Yeah. Yeah. I get a right from the same angle or or from different angles the
same exact Sprite and then we can. Yeah data somehow. Yeah, I'm hoping hope to convince
Nasa to do that too. Meaning, do that from the ISS at the same time. we're doing that on the ground and oh yes. then
we'll all be. That would be awesome. Yeah. Steven, I believe that's your Instagram
handle right there. Yeah. So, for anybody who's not following Stephen, please give him a follow on Instagram. You will
find pictures of those sprites, other objects that Stephen is
photographing. We didn't even touch on the Astro photography. You do. You are an amazing as a photographer. So, thank you.
give him a follow. He's excellent as a photographer,
researcher, Dark, Sky advocate, real renaissance man.
a great way to put it, Joe. You know, I've been following Homo for a long time. You know, I'm
we're on last name basis as he and I even. So, there you go. First names but you know, it's
called me humble. Exactly. Yeah. So, it's called me. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great pleasure to always have you, man. You're
just absolutely enthusiastic about not only astronomy but the advocacy side of what we do
as well because it's not always just going out for your own personal reasons to do
astronomy and you know that more than anyone doing the amount of outreach you do at the McDonald's and Is that kind
of coming back? Stephen? Is that is are we starting to see a little bit of a little bit of
research back out there? Yeah, we we we're open to the public. We have been since January and
we we are doing Star parties not not the Texas Star Party Donald's Star Party four times
a week. That's Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday reservations are acquired and
they're all sold out. I think through July 0. Wow. That doesn't have anything to do with COVID. That's how it's always been. They always sell
out months in advance. Pent-up demand. Yeah. Yeah. And hopefully, we'll return to fully normal operations later
in early fall or so, and we'll have special viewing nights and things like that. Again, look
for the look for the big scopes just in time for the cool weather and yeah,
yeah. Alright. well, thanks again for having me on. I appreciate the opportunity and and thanks for putting this
whole event together. This has been an amazing show. I enjoyed seeing all the other speakers
and activities. you've you've had this program So, hats off to you. I know how much work you put in this project and it
shows it's great. We appreciate that Stephen and again, thank you for all of the things that you do and others at the
McDonald's Observatory to to, you know, kind of help us out on the Texas Star Party side and it's just a great kind of
relationship that we have there. So, really appreciate everything that you guys do and hopefully we'll see you in
person at the next Texas Star Party in 2022. Alright, see you next year. Take care Stephen. Buh bye. Thank you so much
brother. Awesome. stuff. Joe. I don't even know. So cool man to
have Steven here with us. I mean, you know, like you said, we we hang out on the regular online, right? When doing
astronomy and stuff but it's cool to have Stephen over here to kind of talk about something a little more serious and something that you know, I'm
learning and I need to be a a little bit better, a little bit more diligent about and I need to get in in this thing and
start helping. you know, I really, I really feel that way. I agree, right? It's it's one of these things that you know,
we complain a lot about when we're amateur astronomers about the night sky and the
deteriorating situation and conditions there. You know, we always point to things like Starlink, you know, blame
Travis Yeah, Travis but you know, there are people on the
forefront of this battle and you know, again, I don't use that term lightly. It is a battle like Stephen like Bill
Ren like Debbie Moran and others who are doing the lion share of the work and it's time for the rest of us to really
step up and help them out. I can't remember what the percentage was but it was
something like 1% of amateur astronomers or you know, maybe less than 5% roughly are
members of the International Dark Sky Association. We've got, we've got increase that tremendously. We've gotta get
the resources out there to help combat the light pollution issues that we see. Otherwise, we're not going to have dark
skies to be able to to visit anywhere nearby. You know, we're going to have to go to Botswana to see those dark
skies and then, you know, the cottage industries will pop up there as well to support that you know, are dark skies,
right? So, yeah, that's how it goes, right? Yeah. So, so like Steven said, you know, start with yourself. There's
something that we can do whether it's turning off the lights at night, getting better lighting for our homes and
things like that. Just start there and then talk to people, make sure that they're aware of what's happening. Use the
resources that are on the Dark Sky Association website. Use resources that Debbie Moran has put up on her soft light
Houston website. There are a number of resources there and it doesn't take long to get educated on these things. you
know, go out and be an advocate like Debbie says there. If we don't do it, it'll be twinkle twinkle little star. how I wonder if you are, yes II say,
you know, Houston calls itself Space City. Unfortunately, it's hard to see space in Space City now. you know, we do this
outreach events all the time. 4 years ago, I could see, you know, with my eight inch outreach telescope, the ring
nebula, you know, faintly from from downtown Houston. I can't see it anymore, Right. So, you know, it's even things like
that that are making outreach hard and if we can't do outreach, we can't inspire the next generation of folks who
are going to carry that mantle forward. So, you know, we're at a critical inflection point. We've gotta do all we can to
make sure we preserve the night sky. It's better myself, Joe. That's that's that's that's
exactly right and I think that the only thing that you and I can do to help this whole
situation though right now is probably to give away three
more prizes. How about that? You know, I had a feeling you're going to say that and I
was hoping you were going to say it too because I just had that itch to give away some prizes as well. but you know,
that was just a wonderful talk by step and we really appreciate everything he's doing and again, Debbie, you've
seen her comments here at the bottom. really appreciate her as well. So, alright, we've got
our last three door prizes for the 2021 Texas Star Party Drum roll. You have drum set back
there. I do Okay. we've got a
smartphone adapter. I've never seen one of these. This look absolutely amazing. Look at that. Never used it but it looks pretty interesting. Yeah,
it does. Yeah. So, we're giving away this Bonnie smartphone adapter. And the winner is
Stephanie from Plano, Texas. We had several people from North
Texas win tonight but congratulations Stephanie. Yeah, you're the winner of the smartphone adapter. Oh, look at
this. Oh, man. The sky imaging for That will young when you
when you pull it up but I yeah. So when Don and Carl told us that our friends over at Soft
Biscuit donated a copy of the Sky Imaging to the Texas Star Party to be given away as a door prize. That was the one
thing I said, You know what that and the Celestron Power Tank I want one of those, you
know, all the all the prizes are wonderful but this one was kind of top of mind for me. So, let's see who the lucky is for
this and it's Eric Rumps from Glendale, Arizona. This is going out of state to Eric
Roberts. Congratulations. You're getting the copy of the Sky Imaging from Software Bisque. That's it's not cheap
software. No. And it's great stuff. Software bisque knows what they're doing. Yeah,
absolutely. Yeah. They know what they're doing. Alright, I'm doing last door prize of the night. The Celestron Power
Tank. 0 5000, The winner is Oh, look at that Lloyd overcast of
Spring, Texas slash Fort Davis, right? Yeah. So, We know this
guy. Yeah, we know Lloyd Lloyd is the winner of the Celestron Power Tank and look, congratulations to everybody
who has won one of these prizes. Forty-seven prizes that we've given away over the last three nights will here not
including the T shirts, not including anything that that we've given away through Trivia contests. It's really a
wonderful thing and again, thank you to all the advertisers, everybody who's given a prize to give away to
one of the previous attendees at the Texas Star Party and we that we can see you all again
next year so that we can give away more prizes. So, but we're
not done yet. No, we're not. We have and I looked at the clock here. It's 9:37 PM. Yeah. we
passed that 901 mark. I think we did which is what the auction ended. That's what I thought too. Yeah. And if I if
I bring that up, I don't know Joe. Let's see if I can maybe I should go in here and just
refresh just one more time to make sure. Look at that. that. Okay. That is amazing. So,
let's go into the X bar first, shall we? And check that out. It looks like someone walked
away with a two night 3 day stay at a premium cabin at the one and only X Bar Ranch, home
of the El Dorado Star Party. The winning bid was 277. I don't know. That feels like a
steal of a deal, man. Look at 277. You know, whoever won,
I'll I'll pay you an extra $100 on top of that. No, I don't think I can do that but that is a hell of a deal. So,
congratulations to whoever won that. Awesome. That is awesome. You're going to absolutely enjoy it The night sky out
there is fantastic. Just being out there during the day is is very therapeutic. So,
congratulations to the winner there. Yeah, absolutely. Congratulations there and then
someone else is going to walk away with this one. Joe Three-day two-night stay winter
weekend package at the Prude ranch home of the the Texas Star our home away from home.
Honestly, home away from home. Absolutely and I know that. yeah, that package included a
horse trail ride, all the amenities at the Pruitt's breakfast, everything else like that. 3 days, two nights, $300,
that's a steal. So, congratulations to the winner of that package as well. Will
and I might be making road trips out to each of these places when you guys take advantage of those to sleep on
the porches. So, yeah, that's what I heard. I think you and I agree. a split gas on the way
up there. So, hey, you might have to deal with our telescopes on the field while y'all are out there but
exactly. I don't think they'll mind. So, yeah. Well, congratulations to those
winners. We're not done giving stuff away yet. We've got our Astro trivia contest coming up
in just a little bit but before we get to that, you know, we've run this the last couple of
nights We have had Kelly Beatty. interviewed here and we
have this recording that we wanted to share with everybody. In case you haven't heard it yet, Kelly is a senior editor
at Sky and Telescope Magazine and also runs all of their their their travel programs and
puts in a lot of work to figure out where to go to catch all of these awesome astronomical things and like you said, a lot
of it is the stuff you do when you're not doing astronomy and Sky and telescope just does a
wonderful job with their tours. Will and I were looking at of the things that they have. coming up and thought, you know
what? We've gotta convince the wives to do this stuff. Yeah. Yeah. That's something I'm
working on. actively actually in the back and so, so yeah, we wanted to share this with
everybody here. Our interview with Kelly Beatty with Sky and Telescope Tours
Welcome everybody. We're here with Kelly Dee who is a senior editor with Sky and Telescope
and the man who puts together all of the sky and telescope tours. Kelly, how are you? Hey, it's great to be with you.
Wonderful. We're glad to have you with us. Hey, we've heard a lot about this guy and
telescope tours Can you tell us a little bit about what these tours are and what goes into
creating a tour? Sure. and I'll use the one that's coming up in just on on Thursday as an
example. It's an an eclipse of the sun but the path starts in Canada and heads off, you know,
over the North Pole to Siberia. Not a lot of people are going to see it in the northeast. It'll be a deep partial eclipse. 2. Years ago, I
started planning to fly a plane into the path of the angular so
that a few dozen people with us on the plane could could see it and it's it's taking a long
time a lot of work but it's coming to fruition and going to be leaving from Minneapolis before Dawn fly over Southern
Canada see the annual eclipse and and then Sit back down in Minneapolis after a flight to
about 3 hours. that flight has been 2 years in the making and that's kind of the the cadence
that we work on in planning the tours at Sky and Telescope. Now, there are some tours that
we are doing every year like we do an annual tour to Iceland and in fact, the picture that
you see behind me is my background. I took that picture in 2019. We had an exceptional
year of Aurora's that year and as you might know, we're coming up on solar Just three or 4
years. So, it should get pretty good. That's a tour. That's pretty easy to set up because
it's kind of plug and play but this eclipse flight or or taking people to, you know, to
the Yucatan Peninsula for an eclipse or Easter Island. All of those are coming up. Those take a lot of careful
coordination. We have a couple of companies that we work with that we really trust and and are happy with that provide the
very best accommodations and it's it's it's a lot of work but it's very fulfilling.
Absolutely. Now, with the pandemic, you know, obviously, having hit the entire world and
people staying away for travel for quite some time now and you know, thankfully, it looks like
we're starting to emerge from that a little bit. What's the demand look like for astronomy based or space based type of
travel? Well, like a lot of travel, I think there's plenty of pent-up demand not only because people are tired of
being locked up and they really do want to travel again but also because lot of people had
trips planned that they ended up not going on. They didn't spend that money and a lot of people we find on our tours are
sort of, you know, baby boomers who have lots of free time. They're still adventurous. They
have a lot of disposable income and so they're they're willing to go on interesting trips and
and you mentioned the pandemic, we're not for that. I would just be coming back from a 10 day tour of Italy. Huh? Where
we go to, you know, Galileo place and go visit the Meteorite collection at the
Observatory and that's been rolled over to next year. So,
it's true. The pandemic really hit us hard especially like the total solar eclipse last year
in December. I just, it's it's painful to even think about right There'll be more
eclipses, right? And there are more opportunities and and so we're actually kind of front
loading our tour inventory if you will with lots of places to
go not just for eclipses. We have tours plan for for Botswana and and Australia and
Italy. I mentioned all of which are are not connected to any particular event at all. They're just wonderful places
to go. Wonderful and for somebody who's looking to do one of these tours for the first time, what's the best bit
of advice you can give to one of those first timers as as they embark on one of these tours? what we try to do? You
know, there's an always an astronomical component to the tourist be at an eclipse or or
like the Vatican Observatory but we we're not like it's not like a march from to
Observatory to see everything we possibly can. People go to see eclipses often because
they're in a place where they've always wanted to go. Chile in South America or
Hawaii or there's an eclipse coming up in Easter on Easter Island and who hasn't wanted to
go to Easter Island, right. And it provides a convenient opportunity to to make that
dream come true. So, we we make it a well rounded set of activities not only for the you
know, the the the die hard stargazer in the family but maybe the spouse who may or may
not be as interested or whoever is coming along in that way, everyone has fun. The thing about eclipses in particular,
solar eclipses, you know, it's you're you're depending on the weather and so we want to make
sure that the tour itself is is very satisfying and a great experience so that the eclipse although the highlight of the
tour, it's not a make or break situation if we happen to get clouded that we still have a
great tour Excellent. Well, I know you had a question you wanted to ask as well. Yeah you
know, you've been to a couple of Texas star parties I think, right? and II was wondering you
know, because II seem to be together to ask this question of all of our guests but I'm I'm interested in this sort of
direction of a thing like what is one thing you took away from the Texas Star Party? I know you called it the the land of
large Dobbs, the land of the giant Dobbs. I mean and and and why not, right? You're going to
take advantage of of the the the clarity and and the other darkness of that location. You
might as well bring as much as you possibly can to see all the things that you've you've read in books, you know, like the
Herschel 500 lists and things. Things that you've never been able to see from your home because of light pollution or
lack of aperture, whatever it might be and here, it's like the mecca of big telescopes in
dark skies and so I have not been to TSP in a number of years. I am itching to get back
We have a a lot here soon and we're we're hoping to all go back to you know, with the
whole last couple of years having to cancel. Of course, it's not been that fun and so hopefully you can join us out
there. maybe have the Sky and telescope tour, bring some people to Texas our party and then we can all just have a
good time out there. That'll be pretty cool. Interesting. You should mention that because of course, we have a tour to Texas
for the eclipse in 2024. We thought about making our way out to McDonald's Observatory
in Fort Davis and we're still working on that possibility. We'll be there and you won't because you'll be in the path
of the eclipse somewhere. Yes, Excellent. Last question I've
got for you, Kelly. You've obviously traveled the world to observe a lot of these
wonderful astronomical phenomenon Had an opportunity to see a lot of the sites and and and whatnot. Is there
something that's still on your bucket list that you would like to do that that you haven't done yet? in terms of visiting
places in the world and within an astronomy? Yes, it's coming up this December Sky Telescope
has a tour to a total solar eclipse. the only places you can see are Antarctica. Wow
it's too cold. I'm sorry. and and out in the middle of the ocean and so I'm going to be on
a cruise ship that as you know, it's summer in the Southern Hemisphere December is and so
there are a lot of cruise ships and in this particular cruise as many will will get to set
foot on the Antarctica. I get to play with the penguins and that is definitely on my bucket list and my wife, she would not
be denied. She is definitely coming along and we're really looking forward to that one. Cool, Excellent. Alright and
for anybody who wants to get more information about these tours, where can they go just our telescope website, Sky and
telescope.org and there's a nav button at the on the homepage. Big one that says tours and
just click. We've got ten active tours right now with two
more that I'm about to load that II. Can't tell you about but okay. It's it's a great
selection and II encourage people to have a look and you know, if they have questions, fire off a message to me, KB at
Sky and Telescope.org and I will happily get back to you. Excellent and they can you
online. You've got a podcast as well that people can subscribe to. I do. It's a once a month
podcast basically for beginners, you know, for people who who are just getting an understanding of the sky. It's
like 12 minutes long, no equipment required. Just as I say, just bring your curiosity at my podcast and I'll and I'll
show you the night sky. Excellent. Well, Kelly, we really appreciate everything that you're doing. Can't wait
to participate in our first guy and telescope tour. That's something that I was hoping to do this here in Chile but
obviously wasn't able to do that because of COVID but we look forward to all the wonderful things that you and your team are putting together.
So, thank you very much for joining us today. It's my great pleasure guys. Thanks so much for having me. Absolutely. Take
care. Take care.
Alright and we are back everybody and we have a lot more show coming. I mean, not a
lot but we have some. this is like the the cherry on top for all the stuff. It's all it's all come to this moment, Joe,
where everyone's Trivia skills will be put on display for all
the world to see, right? That's right. So, we've done this trivia contest now going on the
third night The last two nights were just absolutely fantastic fun. We had a great time with it and a little too, right?
That's part of what we do at Tsp. We we have fun. We learn a little bit and you know, we hope we capture that with and
we give away stuff. So, that's what we're doing here. So, yeah, let's get right into the
trivia contest if you're good with that. Yeah and also, do we want to mention really quick. We're going to throw another
Virtual T shirt into the class in a little bit and I think you know, maybe should I show it?
Should I should II don't know? do they deserve it? Yeah, they deserve it. They deserve it but
they've been here for three and a half hours with this. No, I guess they deserve AT shirt so I think y'all what to do if
you've ever been to the Prude Ranch and you've ever driven out to the gate either leaving the star party going into Fort
Davis to get a bite to eat or something like that, going to Porters to get something, you know, some more drinks for your
ice chest. You've seen this statement on the outside or I'm
sorry, on the inside wall facing on their way out of the Prude ranch, right? It doesn't
have the hashtag in front of it because I don't think those were invented in those days not in 1997 but it does have on the
gate which means so long friend and in no less terms but we
want you to type in hashtag Dios if you want one of these amazing T shirts and maybe Joe,
maybe I can add Don's screen here. There we go. Let's do that. If y'all do want to order
a shirt, maybe you didn't win one tonight or any of the other nights and you want one for the family or your or whatever
you're going to want to go to Texas Star party.ORG and on there, you'll find on the
second banner. up top is the T shirt online store. sign up
sheet. You can get that and get in your info, your size and all
that and AT shirt will magically arrive at your house in not too long of a time period. It's amazing how that
works, right? It's it's like some sort of magic. I don't know. it's magic but end it like I said, the summer fashion
scene is going to be nothing without these shirts. So, you know, get yours while you can.
These things are going to fly off the shelves. Like I said, you know, Paris Milan, New
York, they're everywhere. when it comes to fashion. So, make sure you get your Texas Star Party shirt for 2021 and be the
envy of everybody as you walk outside and look, all the comments are coming in. with
the can. That's it. Yeah. This is your last chance to win one these things. Otherwise, you've
gotta buy one. We've got one to sell. We want you to buy one as well but we want to give one
away. in addition. so, Well, yeah, let's jump into Trivia if
you're ready for it, I am ready for some. I cannot wait to see what Dawn has has in store for
us and these these rocking out aliens are at the you know, those might be the the folks
over in Marfa that or maybe it's Stephen O'meara and his buddies with green Lasers, right? Yeah, maybe So, let me
go ahead and make this big for everybody. We are going to jump right into this. We're going to
get into the rules real quick so everybody knows what's going on and we're going to have some fun. So, as we mentioned
earlier, here are the rules when you log in to Mentee, use your real name so that we can
verify who you are if you win, don't use nicknames that wants to give you a nickname and as soon as you jump in, cancel
that out. Put your real name in and then click join Quiz. Don't just hit Join quiz and jump in
because we're not going to be able to know who you know, horse is or you know, baseball
or or whatever it is that they assign you Each question you're
going to have 20 seconds to answer and the the thing with it is you're going to get points if you answer correctly,
you're not going to get points. If you miss the question. However, the faster you answer
the question, the more points you're going to get. It's a scale of I think zero to 1000. So, if you answer it really
quickly, you're going to get close to a thousand points. If you take a little longer, you're getting closer to, you know, using all 20 seconds
there, you're going to more points. So, the faster you answer, the more points you're going to get and what we're
going to do is give away three prizes. Will, should I show them the prizes real quick? I
think maybe it'll be a nice incentive if you. yeah, let me switch over here if you don't
mind. get. So, get your names in there guys. Get it done.
because we want y'all to play. We want want to see record number of participants playing for these prizes because look
at that power tank. This is a lithium ion battery, You know, bottle guys. It is. yeah, a
power tank. It's not huge in form factor but this thing will keep you going for days. Yes.
And god, man, I wish I could jump into this to this game here. No, I know to win this
thing. not that I would win it. There are a lot of smart people that are playing as well but that is a nice prize. So, first
place winner of the trivia contest gets a Celestron power tank lithium The second place
winner gets a Fifty-dollar Amazon gift card from the Houston Astronomical Society.
Yeah. and third place gets AT shirt and hat combo from our friends over at Infinity. They
make some really cool T shirts and hats and other apparel as well. So, the third place
winner is going to come away with something that's really cool. Sure. that not quite as cool as the Texas Star Party
shirt but it comes close. Yeah, that's really close. Five different vibe Dark does an
amazing job. Does he really does II really like hanging out with him too because you can just go by his booth and he's
always got everything so tidy and he's just a chill guy. Such a cool guy to talk to. He loves
astronomy and you can tell because he puts that love into his artwork. He does that himself and he really does. He
does everything himself. It's truly a home brew business and infinity is somebody that we
love to to work with and just amazing stuff but mint to
Me.com is the place you want to go and I think we even have a QR code for that, Joe, do we
need that? Yeah, we do. Let's get to it. So, two ways to the trivia contest here tonight. You can either open up your
smart device, your laptop, whatever you want to use. Go to WWW.mentee.com. MENTI and use
the code 64821692. Again, that's
64821692 or you can use the QR Code here. Most modern smart devices allow you to open up
your camera app, scan that QR code. It'll take you right there and you'll be able join
in the fun. So, I see a lot of people jumping in right now. We're going to give everybody a minute or two to jump in and
will I figured, you know, if there are any comments that we can flash up right now just to give people some time to jump
into the trivia contest here. let's go ahead and do that. Yeah, we have a lot of cons in
there again and if you want AT shirt after the Trivia, we're going to draw one of y'all
lucky winners. All you have to do is do a Bob Snyder did. It's super simple. Yeah, that wasn't
too tough, was it? I don't think so. Yeah. Hopefully it wasn't. Hopefully, Bob will comment here in just a minute
and let us know just how tough it was. Shouldn't be too tough. Well, he tried earlier. It
looks like he missed a little bit. I'm so sorry. but he did
but he came back. you know, he came correct. Yeah, sorry Bob. I had to I had to use you as an example My brother Bob is one
of my good buddies from out on the observing field. He's just he's a cool dude and so super
cool to have him here with us and he knows how to laugh. He knows. he said it was hard for
me. I got via
So, it has to be in exactly the way that will showed it earlier. via Con Dios, all one
word and that'll get you entered into the prize giveaway for that last T shirts. Last
one and there's the last one and it's the last one we're going to give away and again, y'all can, you know while we're
getting set up for the minty stuff and y'all are getting your codes in for the minty again, I put the code in the
chat. So all you gotta do is go to minty Meter.com and type that code in and you're in the room with us but last call T
shirts. I think we're going to be selling this for a little while after the event, We will but don't wait, Don't sleep on
this and then wake up next week and go, oh, you know what? I need that t-shirt because you never know when this kind of
limited kind of thing is going to stop. So, just make sure you get your, you secure your T
shirt early. You want to do that at the regular Star Party too and we're actually at 1
year. I didn't do it and I didn't get AT shirt. I had to have one mailed to me which was sad but it it was great. I got
and because if you didn't get the t-shirt, Joe, you didn't go. Yeah, that's it. It's that
whole fomo thing, right? Fear of missing out. So, make sure you get your T shirts in. We've got a few more people trickling
into the quiz here. We're going to give you another 10 seconds or so. So to in and then we're going to go jump right into the
quiz one last call for me, Trivia. So, alright. Well, I
think we're going to go ahead and advance to the next screen again. remember everybody questions. 20 seconds To answer
each question, answer it right? You get points. You don't answer it correctly, You don't get points. The faster you
answer, you get more points and well, I think we've seen this a lot over the last couple of
days. Somebody might be in the in the lead there but then all
of a sudden they lose it. They they miss a question and somebody else jumps in. So, just because you see somebody
with what appears to be a large lead, these things change quickly. Yeah, I saw Elsa said you jump in. We've got a number
of people in. Try to give it another shot. Salsa. We'll give you another ten to 15 seconds
to jump in. Yeah, definitely. We want to get, we want to let everybody have a fair chance here and I saw Christopher said
his iphone won't let him do it Sometimes when you're watching, you know, a live stream like this and then you're trying to
do another thing on the cellphone or whatever. sometimes the smartphones can get kind of kind of dumb. So
hopefully y'all can find AA laptop or a desktop web browser
that allow you to go to Minty.com and use that code
64821692. It's in all the chats, all the, all the different places have it. Yeah. And it seems like we got a
couple of people not being able to join but then we've got Thirty-three people in. So, I'm not sure if you can't use the
QR code, try the code. If you can't use the code, try the QR code. Let's let's do it that way. So, whatever doesn't seem
to be working, we'll Try the other way. Yeah. Alright, we
see people starting to come in. I've been there and again, we're going to give just another 10 seconds or so for
other people to try to jump in. We see more people coming in. Oh, look at that. They are
coming in. So, things seem to be working. Okay. Alright, here we go. Question number one.
What was the next to the common name of the comet that was visible to the naked eye in July of 2020? Was it Comet Neo
Howie's comet Comet, or Halbach? Oh, This is the time
to watch. Yeah. What's that? Will I have a picture of it? Yeah, I do too. a great one but
it's it's a picture. 3 seconds left. Time is up. Alright.
Twenty-five people got it correct. Comet Neo wise was the name of the the common name of the comment that was visible to
the naked eye in July. 2020. So, Comet Neo is is more formally known as C slash 2020
F three Neowwww and that was a picture of it. Although I didn't get anything that closely resembled that at all.
So, no, like that's amazing. Alright, let's see who's in the
lead here. Look at Israel Israel he won
contests the fastest for the first question and it's pretty close from the get go. Mike Napper and Debbie Moran
rounding out the top three Alright. Alright, let's go to
question number two.
Capela the sixth, the brightest star in the night sky is located in this constellation. Is it Orion Aids? Ursa Major or
Aiga? This do I know You know, at
first, I saw Ryan and I thought it said, I need, onion. onions,
onion. Yes. you gotta peel the layers back. They make you cry.
Alright, Nineteen people got it. correct. Is the constellation at Capela? Is it
There it is. Yeah. Capela located in the Constellation Aiga, the brightest star in the
constellation Aura Beautiful start. Alright, let's see where things are. It was the fastest
here. Oh, Tom Weidman was the fastest and that malted him in
the third place and Debbie Moran is now the new leader. Alright, this is interesting. So far, I see Matt Devore is
coming in in the top five. Yeah, Matt by the way, you gotta mention from Stephen
O'meara the other day. So, hopefully you got a chance to watch that interview. Absolutely. Alright, question
three, here we go. Not so fast to get more points which planets had a very close
conjunction on December 21st 2020. was a Jupiter and Mars, Saturn and Venus, Saturn and
Jupiter, Jupiter, and Pluto and Mars and Venus
This one was a pretty spectacular event and then a lot of people, even those non
astronomers that I know observe this cool. I'm glad. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Alright, most
of the the people got It was Saturn and Jupiter. There was a very close conjunction between those two planets on December
2120 twenty. As a matter of fact, there were less than .1 Arc minutes apart. On that particular night. it was a
beautiful sight indeed. Very beautiful. Alright, let's check
out the leader board.
a little bit of a flip. Mike Napper was fastest in that catapults him up to the top. Matt Devore comes in second.
Stephen went to third. Debbie Moran in fourth place. Alright, let's keep it going here.
Question four, who's credited
with the first reported observation of Mone hint. if it wasn't Charles Messier, the lord was with his Leviathan
telescope, John Herschel or Chinese astronomers Oh, I see
what Don did here. Sneaky devil dog. He's in the background
laughing here. Time is up. Alright. Alright. Yes. Yeah.
You know, he was able to get a few people but not everybody there. So, the Chinese astronomers didn't know the
bright guest star in the year 1054 and that guest star which was visible during the daytime
is is the Star that exploded and left us with the remnant that became known as Mone. So,
nice tricky question there. Don. Let's see what that did to our leader board things up here.
Debbie Moran back in the lead by thirteen points and over
David driven and David's we've got Mike Napper close on your tail. The top three there. Look
at others coming in Salsa very strong showing. Yeah. awesome.
You got to see she was able to get into the the quiz as well. Definitely. Alright, Question
five, this is once we get through this, it'll be the halfway mark based on the tilt of it's North Pole relative to
earth. This planet has the most extreme of liquidity also known as axial tilt in the solar system. Is it Venus Uranus,
Neptune Bars, or Saturn? It's a tough question. It's my second
left. Yeah, this is a cup. Time is up Wow. Look at that. It's
actually Venus and a lot of people. Yes. A lot of people miss this one but we'll explain
why. Venus nearly spins on its head. When you look at Venus spin relative to the other
planets, it spins the other way and so, looking at the diagram there, it's it's at 177 177°. A
lot of people select Uranus because it's on its side and think that's it but it's indeed Venus I have a feeling this
completely wrecked the leader board here. I agree with you. Look at Joe Dellinger and Ken
Francis coming in. Oh, that's the catapult. Stephen Wicker
and Kent to the top. Debbie Moran holding on the third place. Joe Dillinger was the fastest and that puts him back
in contention here Alright, we're halfway through. So, we're getting to the second
half now. Question six of ten.
scientists were able to image a black hole for the first time in which galaxy. Oh, he drop
it. A galaxy Virgo AM Eighty-seven Milky Way Galaxy or the Triangle Galaxy M. 33.
How many pallets I know. It's almost like there's a universe full of them. I would imagine 3
Seconds to get your answers in. everyone. and time is up. and
most people got this one. correct as well. It is indeed. Virgo A. So you can see that
picture of Virgo A. they're massive galaxy and in Virgo of course and you can see that
blue jet coming off the side there and over to the right which is just an incredible
image to be able to catch and if you could see it in the telescope even more incredible. I've seen that in Larry
Mitchell's Thirty-six-inch telescope. Yes, I have. Yeah. Alright, let's see the leader
board again. These questions are a little tough. It's changing kind of the face of this contest here. Oh, Stephen
Winter holds on the first place. Can Francis in second. Mike Napper third. So, alright. This is getting interesting.
Tom Whiteman was the fastest with that question. Question
seven of ten. This cluster contains more
stars than any other in the Milky Way Galaxy. and which cluster has the most stars is
an omega. The great Hercules cluster and forty-seven tone or
two at it. wow, it's coming now or
later. Time's up everybody. and
yeah, most of the people got this one, right? Omega and Tori Omega for contains an estimated
10 million stars and will you and I had the opportunity to observe it when we're at the
Bar Ranch a month and a half ago or so. Oh yeah and it it just never gets old and it's favorite thing. It's the first
thing I always observe out on the field at the Texas Star Party as well. Yes sir.
Alright, let's see what's going on here with the leader board. Oh It slipped here.
What's that do? Oh, Kent Francis Bolts to the lead. Yeah. Kent Francis coming in
strong. That's a pretty strong lead here, Mike. Now for a second. Montero excuse me in
third place. So Kent holding on to that strong lead. You know, I'm not, you know, anything can
happen. So, if can't misses a question, it opens the door for anybody else to jump in and our
fastest. No, yeah, Debbie was absolutely, he's coming on strong to the end here. Alright, question number eight,
the astronomer doubled the size of the universe in 1952. Was it
Walter Bod? Fritz or Harlow Chaffle, Ingle handedly doubled
with one sniper there with her wrist. Just yeah, a snap of the fingers.
I say yet. two. One lift off. Oh, I'm sorry. Time is up.
Carlos Chale. No, it was Walter. Oh, this is going to change things, Joe. Yes. Walter
Bott. 1893 to 1960. Improved variable brightness is and corrected. Hubbs Constant. So,
that was a tough question by Don there and I know a lot of people are cursing Don right now because of that question.
Send all you said, no complaints to and she is
Question nine. Alright, we're not showing the leader board right now. This cluster is the nearest of cluster to earth.
with the star cluster. the hiatus, the butterfly cluster, trapezius, or the wild duck
cluster. I've seen the show off the top of my head. I don't.
Yeah, II Do. Just because I came up with this question. How
dare you? It'll surprise you when you hear it. Oh, what it is the highest. It is the
closest open cluster to the earth. So, the high and located in Taurus approximately 150 153
light years from the earth and a beautiful open cluster. A lot of people think it's the
pleats. It's indeed the hiatus which is the closest open cluster. Awesome. Wow. Learn
something new every day. Yeah, that's why we're here. right? We're all learning. Last question, this is your last
chance to answer and hopefully come from behind and win or if you're in first place right now
to hold on to that lead and bring home that prize. this
amateur astronomer uses new fangled specs scope to observe the cats. Nebula ushered in the new astronomy. Was it John
Herschel, EE Bernard, William Huggins, or James Bradley have
a knee jerk reaction to this one but I bet I'm wrong. yeah III. Yeah, I know. I just got
it wrong though.
most people selected Bernard. No, it's actually William Huggins and that's what I would have said to be. yeah II was
thinking the same thing. William Huggins Twenty-four to 1910 became the most decorated astronomer since William
Herschel. Wow. And the winners
Winner, Winner. Calm down. That's what this guy's name. We'll announce the winners in
just a minute. because we can't just like do that right away, right? I mean, no, not not. I
know a lot of people are hissing and moaning at us right now but well, let's give away
AT shirt. We should do that. I mean, we've had the Via Con Dios on the screen for far too
long. Yes. And I'll I'll put it up there one more time. So, if you're not entered, then you can't the free t-shirt and
we'll give it just a few more seconds, Joe, I think. Yeah. And throw that T shirt
someone's direction again. if you win the T shirt, Tonight, you're going to want to.
Where's the Email? There it is. You're going to throw an Email to VT SP at Tech Star
Party.org. with your T shirt size and our friend Don will
throw AT shirt at you. Throw AT shirt with this Virtual T shirt cannon again, got a few more
seconds to get that hashtag in whatever platform you're on whether it's on YouTube or Facebook. watching either to
explore scientific deep Sky dude, Sky, and telescope
wherever it may be. Houston Astronomical Society get those entries in because we're about to start the drawing and we're
going to tumble them all around and shake em up and then someone's going to come out. The winner. I wonder who it
will be, Joe. Oh, somebody just got in at the last second. So, we're going to go ahead and draw Ready? Three, two,
The tension is just
Martin's is the winner of the T shirt. Congratulations, Martin. You are amongst the very few
right now who are in this elite club of Texas Star Party 2021 T
shirt winners and owners. So, congratulations Martin Email, V TSP at Texas Star Party.org so
we can get your size and contact information and we'll send that t shirt over your way. Awesome. Man. Congrats.
I've been seeing Martin chatting all three nights in our chat rooms. you know, because we we get all the
comments from all the different sources all in one place. Yeah. Well, that's good to see that we had some friends. We had
some new faces win. Amazing stuff, Joe. It's just it's a lot of fun to give stuff away, isn't it? It really is and just
wonderful to see somebody like Martin who's been with us for the three nights get something like this and hey look, we're
we love giving away other people's stuff we do but couldn't happen without the
generosity of all who have advertised and given prizes so that we can pass those over to
the folks that are with us. So, I think we give a little bit of time to some of those folks,
our advertisers here so we can let everybody know who's helping to support the Virtual Texas Star Party this year.
Let's do it.
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from the time it took voyager to leave the earth and reached the edge of the solar system. I went from being a baby to a
high schooler, to a university graduate, to a worker, to a business owner, and now I'm a husband, a father, a post grad
student, a science communicator, a musician, a YouTuber, and a backyard astronomer. I've been lucky to
reach this point to be able to buy some of the best equipment and amateur astronomer could dream of. There's one thing I
can't afford and that's time Astronomy has made me a more patient person and the constant
drive to get better and collect more data to capture the wonder of the cosmos is something I
have to balance with everything else in my life. So, when I see a telescope with a lower F number, I know that it's valued
to me is far greater than money alone. The telescopes value is not just the sum of its parts.
It comes from how can get it outside and how much you can get out of it. That's why I
jumped to buy the celestial and and Schmidt It's 620 millimeter
focal length that Ftwo allows me to capture the incredible Southern Hemisphere Nepali. Sometimes within a single
night. but always with revealing depth and signal.
I've been shooting the universe with the Rs eleven for years now and it's allowed me not only the satisfaction of
sharing these unique views from my end of the world but also to and track which is an area I'd
love to explore further. The Rs Ale easily crosses that divide between a consumer scope vs
scientific grade observational telescope for discovery and analysis. The real limit for
the Rasa is really how far I'm willing to take it and it's
nice to have a telescope that I won't outgrow for a long time because time is the only thing
we don't get more often.
and we're back after that awesome commercial break and you know, Celestron just had
the greatest ads. I love. I love that. Yeah. And it's just so cool. Yeah. Celest on a wonderful advertiser here this
week. Plenty of prizes. I mean, you guys have seen a lot of the the the trivia contest prizes
and and door prizes that they've given away. Celestron has been very generous as has explore scientific. So, we
wanted to give a nod to our friends over at Explore Scientific as well here. Hey, everyone. Scott Roberts and
Mike Hatch here and we're really happy to talk about something that's new and
explore scientific. We've got Observatory domes manufactured from Pulsar Observatory, right?
So, that's that's big news for us. Tell me a little bit about the story of how we got the
distributor. So, the distributor came from Pulsar who Gary Walker is the founder
and the owner and Steve Collingswood is the director and so Steve actually reached out us. Is that right? That's
right. And started talking to us about these domes and we're just excited right off the bat.
They're beautiful. They're very well, easy to assemble and just felt that it was a great fit for the Us. Yes. Yes. Now, they
have been shipping some of these to the United States but they really did need a distributor ship and a place
where you know, any kind of customer service issues might be able to be handled here in this time zone. So, but the
domes are pretty March. I mean, they're so rugged that that you know, they're trouble free and
you're going to find out that you know, they're a beautiful addition to, you know, if you put them in your backyard, you
put them out on the Observatory field wherever you are not only going going to look great but
they're going to perform great This the domes have electronics that are functional with
Bluetooth and ASC so that you can get full robotic remote
with these Observatory Anyways, if you need more information about them, you can
call us at 866-252-3811 and you
can visit our website at explore Scientific.com and chat with us live. Thanks and keep
looking up. and we've got one more spot
from Explore Scientific Really quick before we show the winners of the trivia contest.
So, bear with us just one more moment and we'll get to those winners here in a sec. Hey, everybody. This is Scott
Roberts from Marts here and we're here to talk about the Explorer Alliance, the Explorer
Alliance is explore scientific way of formalize all of our outreach, our training, our
events that we do door prizes that we give away and all the rest of it. It is a membership program and we have a couple of
different levels. One of them is free, okay? And the other one is a our platinum
membership which cost $100 but here's the deal, we're going to give you back that $100 and a
gift certificate. So, if you're buying something from Explore Scientific cost more than $100, this is a no brainer. You gotta
go ahead and join up with the Platinum membership because there are major advantages to this. Lots of benefits
including our extended care program and advanced product replacement, you'll want to
join and join today to access these member benefits, just go to explore Scientific.com and
select the Alliance Plus to choose your membership either a platinum or a legacy
It's awesome stuff there. Yeah, man. That's that's a cool program and they give you the money back when you join. It's
like it's it is a no brainer like Skype. I mean, do it. There's no reason not to but
again, we're really grateful to everything that Scott and Team at Explore Scientific have done to help support us, allowing us
to stream on their platform here and everything else that they've done. I really appreciate that. Scott and and
the rest of the team at Explore Scientific but I think everybody is tired of listening to Well, yeah, probably at this
point. I mean, I think they don't want to. Yeah, They want to get to some winners, right? Yeah, let's do it. You guys ready for some winners? I hear,
yeah, I can't hear you.
Debbie coming in strong there. Ken Francis is the winner. He
held on. Awesome. awesome stuff there. Congratulations. You are
the winner of of the Celestial Power Tank Lithium and Mike Napper finished in second place
strong showing Mike, you've got the $50 gift card from the Houston Astronomical Society
and Cameron Gillis strong showing the third place You are the winner of the Infinity T
Shirt and hat combo and our friend Deb Moran who is the fastest that last question
finished in fourth place. and Israel Montero. The winner from yesterday. So, I really
appreciate everybody joining in on this contest. I think it's a lot of fun. I really like asking this question to see
what the answers are. It just makes this event that much even
that much better. So, we'll. what do do you I think that's awesome, man. I think the only
thing I was saying about is I couldn't participate and I'm glad because it's pretty tough there so that That was fun.
Yeah, absolutely. So, for those people who won, let's show them where they can send their Email
and or where they can Email us to get their information. Pull
that up. That's the one. You got that. There you go. Yes. There we go. V TSP at Texas
Stop Hot Tea.ORG it all, right. There you go. Alright. So yeah.
to all the winners, congratulations. Send your Emails there. We'll make sure to get your contact information
so we can get those prizes over to you and again, congratulations and a great congratulations to everybody who won. and for those who
maybe didn't walk away with the prize this time, look, I never win anything at the Texas Star Party like that. I still had a
heck of a time and I'm hoping that you did too well, Joe, you did win something. 1 day at the
Texas Star Party and I wanted to mention this ion, you know when we started this but you're in Omega Sri Award recipient,
my brother. That's a pretty incredible honor to be bestowed with and I was there for that.
So it was an honor to watch you watch you get that award and you know it's it's worthy of
mention. I think I appreciate that and no it was certainly an honor and it's just sites like
me when I want it and to to hear people like Stephen J O'meara and John Dobson being previous winners. Debbie Moran,
previous winners of this award. It's pretty humbling. So, I appreciate that mention Will and as always, I enjoy doing
this stuff with you. You do a of outreach. I wouldn't be surprised to see you as a an omega century winner 1 day as
well. So, yeah, no but we'll get to some of the comments if we can here. look, I think it
was a fantastic day event. Tonight's speakers were just absolutely wonderful Time. We
get a chance to hear from David Levy. It's like hearing a rock star, right? A rock star that
waxes poetic. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, as a guy who, you
know, you and I have talked about this, we looked up to David Levy so often and they have the opportunity to talk to
him like this. It's just crazy. You know, a couple of guys who just love astronomy like you and I to get a chance to talk
to to, you know, people who are going to be in the history books. It's incredible. Who let us do this? Like, who in the
world put us at the driver's seat? I think that we bring it
on. Let's bring on. Let's bring him on as a as a way to cap the evening. I think we should
bring in mister Don Sully. There he is. There's a guy you're going to send all your hate mail. The questions were
too hard. You're on mute there, Don. Let's let's hear. Let's hear your voice there. Thank
you guys. I appreciate it III knew you'd do a great job and
I've always best in the background. Trust me. The the beauty of this whole thing was
that is that that II just managed to find the resources and got the will and Joe what
they needed and turn them loose and I think they did an awesome job. The only thing I'm the
question I have to ask is whether Carl Waltz is going to pay for security for him. He's
for these terrible Trivia questions. You know, that's a good question because he is
head of security and yes, that is true. You might need an entourage just to you know, get
around the Prude Ranch next year because I bet you there's going to be some people that are going to seek you out and
try to say, hey, why did you change the order of Jupiter and Saturn conjunction with Saturn
and Jupiter? Just trying to be sneaky. anyway III. really want to
thank. thank you both and I want to thank the folks who are behind the scenes on this.
Chris. So, carts, Rick Kirk,
you know, everybody on the TSP Operations Committee and Will
and Joe, you just made it all look so effortless IIIII. think it was wonderful. Thank you so
much guys. Yeah, you made it a blast for us. You really paved the way for it to be really simple, will and I just show
up. they put a little makeup on us. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, my **** That's the problem. You can't put enough
makeup on me. You're you've got a natural beauty to you. Do. There you go. You did it. You
did a great, a natural glow. It's like that in the nebula right there. You go meet that glow. Is that glow is the is
the happiness, the elation that he has for stomping. some people out there? That's. Yeah, absolutely. I look for that.
I'll tell you. Hey, your tough questions but they're fair. so really appreciate everything you did. again, Don to help put
this together and Dean I'm watching this one again II. Don't blame you. It's it's pretty awesome. Wash your hands
is another comment that comes up. Wash the hands. Just wash, wash, wash, wash, wash. That's important. And Courtney says,
see y'all at TSP 2022. That is an absolute absolute. We've been scrolling the the star
parties of our friends and colleagues of their Star parties as well. Down below. you can always get those and
again, the dates for the Texas Star Party Joe April 24th through May 1st I am chomping
at the bit. I can't wait. You know, just like everybody else, I was a little disappointed
when we couldn't get together this year but totally make sense. I totally get it. You know, it's it's for the best interest and the safety of
everybody involved but it looks like things are starting to get better and just keeping my
fingers crossed that everything goes according to plan and we can be together next year. Yeah and Courtney brings up a good
point. Make sure where we can find y'all you can find
at. There it is right there below his name. The Astro Joe. You're on Instagram. You're on
Facebook. You're on all these social media platforms. They got the. yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to, I'm just taking the lead
from you will, you know, at Deep Sky dude over there. If you if you are not following
Will at at the sky dude, give him a follow. Lots of cool photos, lots of cool videos.
The guy lives the life. I wish I could live. He's all over the place watching Rocket launches, capturing Sprites with Night Vision. things like that but
you know, primarily, Facebook, Instagram, and you know, all the other social medias as well. Lots of cool content out
there will give him a follow. If you're not already, that means a lot coming from you, Joe because you're a seasoned
observer and it's always a pleasure to go out and observe with my friends. I can't wait to be out. I think at Ot maybe
is the next one with Don and Joe and the rest of them. We'll all be out there. We'll be bringing beers probably
probably sharing stories and maybe throwing brownies at each other like
and I've never met a brownie. I didn't like. There you go. And a lot of people are asking that
if we're going to stream it next year, we have no idea y'all. There was this was never in the cards. This was a fly by
night operation that we threw together for y'all and I mean, we had a great time. We really
did. We had a super fun time putting this together and it's been a lot of long meetings and
a lot of technical issues and stuff but we got through it all and we did it and we had we had a laugh or two as well. I think
maybe a few left a few laughs and and again you know, for people like us. Some dreams
come true. It's like, oh, we're going to interview Stephen J. O'meara. Okay. Okay. What?
What? What? What? What? what now, what do I say? What do I do? Yeah, no, it's just
absolutely fantastic and Don, I mean, you put together a wonderful program for this year and I just have to thank
everybody who joined us Tonight David Levy Stephen Hummel, our good friend, even though we
talk to him often, it's always a pleasure to hear him and for others to get the opportunity to hear him who may not have
heard him before last night, we had the legendary Stephen Jay O'meara and got a chance to
hear what he's doing down in Botswana and then Doctor Carl Gebhardt. Like I said, I heard him before was absolutely
fascinated by the way he's able to approach these complicated topics and subjects and simplify them for common people
like like us but Doctor Gebhardt is doing amazing work at the Hobby Hobby Everly
telescope and the experiments that they're doing down there. I can't wait to see what comes out of that and on opening
night, if you want an open One of the one and only mister Larry Mitchell joining us. The
man who puts together the advanced observing program year after year. The guy, the guy
discovered Supernova and just no big deal. It's got rid of
the Supernova, right? It shouldn't be. There is what he said when he looked at it like That's not supposed to be there
and he was right. Yeah And you know, Larry is always at the upper field with his thirty-six
inch telescope but is always approachable. You can walk up
to him. Hey, can I take a look? See what's what you're doing? And he's more than willing to let you walk up that really
tall ladder in pure darkness to take a look but Larry is a
scholar and a gentleman and we really appreciate everything that he's done for Texas Star
Hardy and for our efforts here to put this together for everybody and the Fort Bend Astronomy Club. We can't finish
this off without giving them a huge thank you. and you know, they they turned lemonade
lemons into Lemonade for us. You know, when the when the weather got bad and they did a great job Yeah. Yeah. So,
thanks to Tony Wheezy, The rest of the folks who joined us, Jeff left. I'm going to forget
everybody's brewer, Brewer, Manly, Sonny Manley and there's
one more I'm missing, right? Yeah, maybe there is. I'm not sure. Oh, gosh II knew I would
do this but to the to the folks with Fort Bend and the Fort Bend Astronomy Club, we really thank you for everything that
you guys did to help bring this together as well. It was a wonderful event. We all learned quite a bit from that presentation So, we did and
thank you to I think. Oh, go ahead. Sorry. I was going to say, I think the common
denominator of everybody that was on this event was that they knew about TSP. They love Tsp.
They stepped up and helped us out and I really appreciate all the speakers, all the people
that that helped us and Will and Joey did a great job. Thank you, Don. Really appreciate that and yeah, well, I think
you were going to say something about our our advertisers and the partners We have to thank
our advertisers in telescope, The one and only. We got a chance to work with them on
their platforms. What a dream come true. We got to interview David Levy and work with Sky and tell and all this stuff.
Just ridiculousness. and explore scientific. Thank you
guys so much for everything y'all do for the community. It's they're really not just a
company that sells telescopes. They really do care about us as amateur astronomers, software bisque, Thank you for the
awesome prizes that you guys were able to get it to us and the wonderful work that they do with the Mounts and the
software bis and all that stuff. Biscuits. Delicious and so it is, is, it's starts the
roux. That's right. You got it really quick. Nancy and Sky. Thank you guys so much. Great
story in Houston. If you're in the Houston area and you're not, if you haven't visited Lansing and Sky, get out there
and and visit Lansing and Sky. They're super awesome people. The Lance the Reflections. Yeah and even if you're not in
Houston, an online store as well. So, you can shop for them. We always advocate for
shopping local where we can and shopping with those organizations like Explore Scientific, who really help promote amateur astronomy.
Yeah. And we got what Star Guy. Vixen Optics. Oh, I'm sorry II pushed the button when someone else did Star Vixen Optics and
what was the other one? It was I bought it. I bought it. I believe. Yeah, it's hard to
read because it's it's it's so small. Yeah. I'm sorry. Yeah.
lean in there. So many, so many name is that? we'll we'll butcher them all. I promise you. Joe and I are great at butchering names. That's the
way we go. The Astros Zap as well. Thank you Astros Zap for your participation. Celestron,
it's the household name. I mean, everybody. it's a Celestron item, right? I've got
three celestial telescopes right now. just downstairs from me. So, I've got at least two
or three probably ten items total. Yes, IG Xyz. You know,
they put out some really great products and really appreciate everything that they did to
make sure that we got prizes in the hands of the observers and viewers over the 3 days here.
That's right. What's Infinity? I think we can't leave them out. Dark over there making
awesome T shirts and really helping make go to Star parties. Awesome with the vendor aspects. So, Dark, thank
you for your help and thank you for hanging with us. Yes. SV Bonnie, we can't Bonnie Bonnie,
thank you for your prize donations as well. Awesome, awesome stuff. X Bar Ranch. How
could we forget the of the beautiful Luscious X Bar Ranch? It's a guys, look into it and
come out there and hang out with us. You might catch us. You never know when it's new moon. We're probably out there. Who knows? Right? Right. Hubba
Optics is another one that we should think it is and we shouldn't forget to also thank,
you know, Hubba Optics for their great participation here. Thank you Hubba Optics but also the ranch as well for their for
their Prize that they donated and or that the auction that we had as well and I think that's
that's the vast majority of them I forgot someone. I don't know. Yeah. No Houston
Astronomical Society. Really appreciate them for donating prizes as well and I know we're
forgetting folks. the Texas Star Party was also instrumental in getting prizes
in the in the hands of folks. So, really a big team effort to bring this all together. Look,
you and I talked about this the other day to a person when we interviewed folks like Stephen
O'Mara, Larry Mitchell, Beatty. right, folks? Like that. The
word that came up time and time again was camaraderie and we can talk about how dark the
skies are there in West Texas. We can talk about the, you know, the land of the giant Dobbs and and things like that
but it really is about the camaraderie and that's one of the things that you know, we all sorely miss and hopefully
we brought a little bit of that to this live stream over the last 3 days. so I certainly
miss it but being here with you guys, it helps bring a lot of that back getting a chance to talk to folks online. certainly
does bring back that sense of camaraderie and seeing people chime in in the comments that
help bring it back too. So, I can't wait to put some faces or you know, faces or physical
faces to the names, the Facebook names that we're seeing. our YouTube names down in the comment section next
year and hope to see a lot of the folks that have participated online with us here in person next year.
Absolutely and Joe, great job hosting the event. keeping the
keeping the program going. Joe was our our main button pusher guy. I'm going to buttons,
right? You did great. You did a great job, guys. None of us are pros at putting a show together. You know, Joe and I
have done shows in the past but you know, this is Don's first time organizing being an executive. Absolutely. First
time and and I have to say all of the glitches were my fault. Okay, you guys. You guys are
awesome. Yeah and and last but not the least, will, you know, you make it seem like this is
just second nature to you So you're able to just jump in, lead and put together Really
entertaining. entertaining show. Like I said, you are a lot of the times, the glue that makes this the really fun event
that happens. So, I certainly enjoyed working alongside you like I always do. This is
always a fun time. Anytime we get the opportunity to live stream and be in front of a bunch of people. like we said, it's just amazing. People will
want to get on and listen to a couple of guys like us just riff about astronomy but II.
see why when whenever I see you on screen and certainly understand why want to listen to you. So, appreciate
everything that you did this these last 3 days as well. Thank you, brother and I appreciate you guys. of course
because none of us could have done this alone. It took a team effort and it was just a lot of
fun, man. I had a lot of fun doing this and I hope that y'all in the crowd did George
Ellis and everybody thank you so much. We you know, we hope that we could have brought a little taste of the Texas Star
Party to you in in this pretty dark times that we're coming out There is light at the end of the tunnel and we hope that
you know, we could at least, you know, we can't meet in person out there this year. Hopefully, this kind of
supplemented that and brought y'all back to the ranch if nothing but you know, just in in your in your mind's eye and
so thank you all so much for joining us. I mean, oh Debbie, you're so you're so kind.
Debbie's so awesome. That's right. Hanging out with our family out there, man. It really do and it's it's been a
rough couple of couple of cancellations I think you feel the same way. Yeah I know you
do the same and we just, you know, we we try to do the best we could to bring a thing
together and and remind y'all of Texas Star Party. I think we did it, Joe. I think we did. I
think we did and again, kudos to everybody involved. You know, we can be here all night.
just really congratulating everybody for for the wonderful stuff that's happening but again it's it's hard to hard to
overestimate the work that's on into putting this together but it really was a labor of love
for everybody involved. I mean, I looked at Don and just saw, you know, all the effort he did and he did it because he loves the Texans Star Party. Well, I
saw the work that you did to put a lot of these awesome videos together again because you love the Texas Star Party
and everybody else who wasn't on screen with us but did everything to make sure that this was put on properly. same
thing and really appreciate everybody's. I had a blast. We had a blast and and I hope you
guys did too and you You did a great job too, Joe. It was an amazing thing and I I've heard
a lot of people say they they're like, they're really mad that we, you know, it's going to covid's going to be
over and the Virtual thing is going to be over. Don't don't count the eggs before they check in or however that
saying. Yeah. count the chickens before they hatch the road or I don't know. the egg
crossing the road. Yeah. Yeah. Come on in. We'll see what happens. Hey, who knows y'all
but I look forward to seeing my three brothers or my two brothers. No, I'm not a brother
of myself, amigos. Yeah, Amigos Amigos. I look forward to seeing you guys back out at the ranch again and the astronomy
Illuminati. I saw that earlier getting thrown around. So, yeah, I think I think it's now AT shirt that we need to make
it is I'm going to get in touch with the infinity folks. Yeah, for me, there's no, how about
we we let you cap the night with a little cherry and then we'll say goodnight. How's that sound? Sounds good. You know,
for everybody like Will said, we're about to turn the corner Things look to be getting
better but we're not quite there yet. Let's do our to make sure that we're getting past
this COVID thing. Let's be kind one another. Let's make sure we're taking care of one another so that we can see each
other at TSP next year.Good evening. Once again, Here we are on a Saturday night. The
last night of a three night event. Virtual Texas Star Party. I got this thing out of the archive back there. I was
given this hat long ago. You can see it says Texas Star Party, right there. It's it's
an old school hat. Let me tell you. Dig deep for that one, Will, huh? Yeah, I had to dig deep and but yeah so I figured
I would wear it tonight at least for the first few seconds of the show any bit anyway but welcome to night three The 2021
Texas Star Party Live. the virtual event. We've got an amazing lineup tonight. We've
got the one and only David Levy. Yes, he will be joining us shortly. We have the one and
only mister Stephen Hummel who will be with us shortly and thank you, George. Appreciate
that. I mean, it's a little tight. It's a little you might hear, you know, I'm losing circulation in my brain in
places will passes out. Yeah, we'll probably have to pull somebody in as an emergency guest house. So, That's right.
Yeah. And my name is Will y'all. I am at the deep Sky. Dude, if you can find me on all the social media stuffs and
right next to me, right over here is my really good friend, mister Joe Cali, a fellow president. He's the president
of the Houston Astronomical Society. I'm the president of the Astronomical Society of Southeast Texas Assets. So,
it's good to have a fellow president here, Joe for the last night of Texas Star Party, right? absolutely II kind of feel like those we're in those
exclusive clubs kind of like when Clinton and Bush and the rest of them guys get together. You know, I feel like I'm in
the same rare fight there whenever I'm in the same room as you will. So like, yeah, like astronomy, Illuminati.
That's it. Now, we're going to have have some conspiracy. We're the Illuminati is right.
There you go. I like that. We got so much tonight. I mean, it's going to be crazy.
jam-packed evening but one thing we should just do right off the bat here is say that
the Texas Star Party in person, the in person version of what we're doing here and what we've done in the past is right down
there, April 24th through May, 1st 2022. I think you're
planning to be there, right? Maybe I am looking forward to that more than just about anything else right now. You know, we've we've got a few
summer trips lined up but I'm way past that to April 24th. when I could be back at the
Texas Star Party. That's right. Yeah. And I'll be there a couple of days early to help with gate duties and things like that. There's a there's a
chance you may see me at the gate checking you in when you come in the door. Maybe even Joe, our friend Carl, eight and
he makes us work, man. He puts us out in the field with nothing's free out there. Not that it was free anyway. Right.
But yeah, he does put us to work but that's okay but yeah and so we we've got so much
stuff guys. We're just going to kind of we're going to greet you guys as we're coming in. Appreciate all y'all watching
from Canada from all over the place. I see comments coming in from like Florida all over the
Us. Everybody's here. All the all the faces we've been seeing for the last several nights.
Thank you guys and gals for joining us. We appreciate y'all. and Joe, you know, we've
been working with a lot of cool people, Sky and telescope Celestron Explore Scientific.
We have And what do you say? I guess maybe we should hear from one of them now, huh? Yeah, let's listen. our good buddies
over at Explore Scientific and see what they have to say to welcome everybody to the Virtual Texas Star Party. Hey,
everybody. Scott Roberts and Ken Martz here from Explore Scientific and we're at the
world famous Texas Star Party. One of the dates again, the dates are June 10, eleven, and
twelve in the evenings and you know, the Texas Star Party is one of the world's greatest Star fights. Super dark skies
out there in West Texas near Fort Davis. This is a star party. That's a lot of us love
to get to deep Sky observers Astro photographers. It's beautiful and a really friendly
staff. We think you'll love it. The main thing about the Texas Star Party is is that, you
know, the camaraderie you've been to the Texas. I haven't been to the Texas Star Party. I've been, I've been to Mcdonald's Observatory in Fort.
Okay. But I've never been out there, Right? But folks, it's dark out there. If you ever get a chance, you need to make the
trip. That's right. Yeah. We'll see you there. We're here for the virtual event and we'll be showing you lots of stuff. Stay
tuned.
and I think we say it every night, Joe. But those hats are cool. My hat can't even compare
and there's just not too tight, right? So, I don't think they're going to suffer from potentially from an aneurysm or
anything like that but it's awesome to have Scott and Kent kick us off like that to welcome everybody to the
Virtual Texas Star Party and you know, they kind of hit the the nail on the head. about the camaraderie. We've heard that
from a lot of people and we look forward to bringing that back next year and hopefully we're bringing that to the
virtual event this year as well. I hope so man. That's what we Do you know Joe Don And I when we got our heads
together for this, we're kind of just like throwing ideas at the wall, see what's stuck and we hope we landed somewhere that has made everybody
reminisce about Texas Star Party. That's what we wanted to do is force y'all to remember
why we go out there where we go and what it's like to be a part of it and like Joe said, man,
it is the camaraderie, the yeah, The community that has arisen from all these forty
something years of the Texas Star Party being out at the Prude Ranch And that area, man.
That Big Bend area. I don't think it can be really really
overstated how beautiful it is and how how magical I guess it is. Yeah, You hit the nail on
the head, will. you know, one of the things that we've tried to do with this virtual event is to kind of transport
everybody to the Big Bend area and then eventually on the prude ranch itself but for
those of you who've never been to Big Bend, like we say it's a magical area. It's like any other on earth and it's one of
the kind of big draws and the reasons why we do the Texas Star Party where we do it. It's just a fantastic place to do
things during the day as well as at night. So, let's go ahead and transport everybody to the
Big Bend region of Texas
There's an old adage by William Blakely that says Texas is neither southern nor Western
Texas is Texas and for anyone who's been to the Lone Star
State, they know that the different parts of Texas are just as varied from one another as we are from our neighbors
across our borders. Whether you're deep in the thick of the Piney woods and the lush
marshes of the Gulf Coast and the plains at the Panhandle or on the limestone cliffs and
caverns that can be found in the Hill Country Texas landscape is more varied than
those of many countries but no region seems to capture the true essence of what Texas is
more than Big Bend though people may think of Texas as a desolate place. It's a
destination that folks come from around the world to visit big national parks saw almost
half a million visitors in twenty-nineteen alone with people coming in from all corners of the world to take
part in the world class hiking, hiking water activities, or to
take in the natural beauty that is like no other place in the world. Big Bend also boasts
some of the best dining destinations and international festivals anywhere around
but for astronomers, the Big Bend region is unique and unlike any other in the United
States. when the sun goes down, this landscape is transformed into something that cannot be
described until you've looked up into the Big Ben night sky and got lost in the heavens above very few places. both
skies as dark as they are here and on a cloudless mindless, Night, the Milky way can shine
bright and stretch from horizon to Horizon.
and as the song deep in the heart of Texas goes the stars at night are big and bright and
nowhere is that more true than here. For those looking to peer through their telescopes in
order to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos, Big Bend is more than just an international
destination but rather it's our gateway to the universe.
This is a beautiful piece, man. Fantastic job, Joe. Appreciate that, Will and you know, as as
I was putting that together, I just had this deep longing to get back out to the Big Bend area and and and out to the
ranch, right? It's just like I said, unlike any other place in the world but you know, when
we're out there, we are at the ranch and one of the things that we like to do when we're at TSP is to get on TSP time
and for everybody who's been with us all 3 days, I don't know if you've noticed it the first night we actually showed
everybody entering Psp so we wanted to give you that feeling of arriving on the ranch. The second night was really about
the star parties getting set up and things like that and Saturday night is usually the night when we have our prize
giveaways. It's the last big night to observe and things like that. So, TSP time tonight
is really going to kind of be focused on that and the journey home. so will anything you want to add before we get the TSP
time? I can't wait to get on TSP time is where I'll add. So let's get on TSP time.
And now, thanks to miss Molly Wakelin for her awesome footage. that II with my own in
there. Great stuff. Molly is an amazing astro photographer,
Astro Molly. I believe she is known. So, check her out where you can on all those social media platforms and I don't
know, man. I feel like I feel like we're there now, right? I don't know. I think so too. You
know, Well, you did a fantastic job of putting all of those together and really kind of capturing the sentiment and whatnot but I think we're on
TSP time and Saturday night TSP that you means giveaways,
right? It usually does and you know, there's always cool
prizes to win at Texas Star Party and the kind of the
emceeing that goes on, you know, like during the giveaway is that it's super fun and
it's, you know, hey, there's always a chance you'll win something but it's one of those things that you know, you must
be present to win but now, I think it's you must not be present to win but socially
distant to win You want to do it? So, yeah, I mean, it's
that's that's why we go right just to win prizes. That's it. Well, that's not really it but
that's one of the things that we wanted to do today was to give away prizes and you know, we have our Saturday Trivia
giveaway tonight as well. So, let's go ahead and get that on the screen and let everybody get used to what going to do for the Trivia giveaway
tonight. So, for those of you who've joined us the last couple of nights you're probably used to this already but we're using this platform
to do Trivia quizzes and the prize giveaways. So, we're
going to just go ahead and jump into the test. So, this doesn't count for anything but this gives everybody an opportunity
to kind of figure out how to play along and see how to participate in this. So, we set
up the last two nights. Nothing changes here. Here are the rules. when you log in to me, to me, please log in with your
real name. Don't use a nickname that wants to assign a nickname from the time you jump in.
Don't you know, please change that to your real name. You won't get cute. won't call myself. You know, Joe. no abs
or anything else like that but use your real name to log in before you click on join Quiz.
We're doing 20 seconds per question. So, you have 20 Seconds to answer each question correctly. You get points for
answering the questions correctly. You don't get points if you miss it. However, the faster you answer these
questions, the more points you're going to actually get and even though the at the end, we're going to show the grand
prize winner, The top three finishers are actually going to win a prize in tonight's giveaway. So, Those are the
rules. Will. I hope I didn't miss anything else but I wanted to go ahead. Sorry, I know you
covered it all. Just get those names in. and there's the code right there. I think you can
hold a smartphone up these days with the camera app on. It's fancy New fangled. That's right. It's just like it's like
RTC Clark. Any technology is indistinguishable from magic. Just hold that phone with the camera open on that screen that
Joe has. It's over there and it will take you to. It's like there's no It's one button to
push it. That's right. Enter the code. That's it. Or if you want to do it the hard way, right? We can go to Mentee.com
using your smartphone or your web browser, whatever you'd like there, your your ipad or other smart device and type in
the code 41050065. Again, that's
41050065 and that'll take you right into the game. It'll get you queued up, ready to go or it will set. You can actually
click on the code there. scan the code the QR code and have that take you directly to the
site. So, we've got a bunch of people queuing up right now. We wanted to give everybody else another 20 seconds or so to get
ready to jump in the game and remember, this is just a practice. So, if you've done this before, this is old hat.
Don't feel a rush to to join in or anything else like that. We're just going to ask two questions and for those of you
who just want to get familiar with the system by all means, join us here. Well, I think
we're about ready to go. I think so. I mean, these questions range from Novice
What in the world? But when Don Sully has done a great job
curating these questions for us. Yes, they're fun. They're, if they're fascinating, they're interesting and you gotta put
your thinking caps on. Like I've been saying. so, get get your stuff in, get your names
in and I guess here we go. Looks like we got some emojis jumping in The emojis are
jumping in again. last chance to jump in and this is just a quiz. These are really simple
silly questions. Nothing like the ones that will had mentioned that Donna put together for us but again,
we're we're just getting our fingers warm for the trivia contest itself. Alright, we're ready for question number one.
Number one, the Texas Star Party is routinely held at this ranch Rancho Cucamonga, Hidden
Valley Ranch, the South Fork Ranch, or the Prude Ranch. I have to say Hidden Valley Ranch
is my favorite with salads. That's the one I'd like to. Yeah. Yeah. To eat
Alright. Yeah. Most of you got that right. South Fork Ranch for those of you old timers
like myself, that's where the show Dallas was held at the South Fork Ranch. Wow. For
Hidden Valley Ranch is a wonderful dress. To add to any salad. Yeah. One person agreed with this Joe. They they they
enjoy that ranch as well. Alright. So, if all the folks who jumped in, who got there
the fastest after question one. Oh, look at all those names. Yeah, Mike Napper barely eking
out Kelly Miller by by just a single point and Keith there right behind him and S look at S coming in fourth place. Yeah.
Alright. Here's question number two. The final question for this practice quiz. Here we go.
The James Webb Space Telescope is a
microscope. telescope. stethoscope, or kaleidoscope If you ask my neighbor, it's a
stethoscope. There you go. You will don't give it away.
Whoops. Alright, we got a jokester in the crowd. They selected kaleidoscope. It is a
telescope. So, again, after most of these questions, we'll get to a leader board like this
so you could see who's answering, you know, more quickly, how many points that you get as we get towards the end, we take the leader board
away to add a little bit of mystery but according to this quiz, Kelly Miller is the winner. So, congratulations
Kelly on winning our practice quiz here and unfortunately like a There's no price for
this one but you get the prize of being first for this one. Absolutely and there will be
prizes later. There will be great stuff for the top three like Joe said. So, be ready, be
on the lookout because this is happening. not very, not very long, not very far away. Yeah.
So will I was wondering what are people saying out there? Well, there's a lot of people
hanging out with us. We got Christopher. He said he's setting up his telescope soon. Awesome. Christopher,
hopefully, we keep you company tonight with some astronomy goodness while you're hanging out under the stars. Travis is
saying good morning. So, it must be somewhere on the other side of the globe and yes, we do live on a globe. We know
because Enrique says hello from Honduras. Hello, Enrique. And we got Christopher Mick in the
house. So many familiar faces out here. Wallace from the Fountain Hills, Arizona, a dark
sky community. It's so nice in the dark skies. We have a dark sky specialist coming on tonight. Mister Stephen Hummel,
good friend of mine, fellow Sprite Hunter which we probably won't about that. But y'all
most of y'all know what Sprites are. I think so and we've got all the way from the UK man Wilma in Dark Skies, Scotland.
This is this is incredible. Hey, Wilma. How are you? and Angie out there and you know,
while we've been doing this live stream, we've really been trying to to focus on the the
participation in the crowd you guys from Ontario out here. Look a lot of Ontario. Check it
out. Look at that Ontario representing. Yeah, somebody in Ontario put us in the newspaper That's it. Welcome everybody
Coming in from Ontario and from everywhere else. It's wonderful to see people from the UK from Australia, Honduras, everywhere
else. So, thank you all for joining us and Gab down there. Just join us and see you. There you go and yeah and so while
we've been doing this live event y'all, we've been running a couple of things in the background and one of those things happens to be an
auction. Yes. And I believe I have that I can add right here
if you're interested in a two-night 3 day stay at either of these fine locations. We
have the prude ranch or the Bar Ranch. Now, the Prude Ranch is where we normally have the Texas Star Party, The Bar Ranch
is where we normally have the El Dorado Star Party Prude Ranch, or I'm sorry, spring
like April like we said, the dates for for TSP 2022 is coming up in April and then we go to the bar in the fall.
usually October, November range and you know, Joe and I just got back from the bar just not
long ago and it was beautiful. We had a great The skies were amazing. They were, we got a lot of work done. We looked at
some faint galaxies and all kinds of fun stuff but the the idea behind this auction guys
is is to let y'all bid on a two-night stay at one of the
premium cabins here at the X Bar Ranch or a winter weekend stay at the Prude Ranch. Both
of them are great values and you might be able to get an amazing on this and I think there's there's quite a few
bids in there for both of them Joe. there are and I think I've just been out bid on the prude Ranch. So, I've gotta get my phone and get back to to
bidding there but oh, you got out bid Joe. We have, I have been out bid. I've gotta get
back into this right now but we've got a little bit over 2 hours will before this auction closes. It closes at 9:01 PM
Central Time Central Time. So, it's 652 Central. So, we've got a little bit over 2 hours right
now. So, while we've got an opportunity, you know, take advantage of this. Get your bid in. win one of those packages
to either the XR Ranch or the ranch neither will disappoint. That's right. And our producer
done. So, it's fun to say that our producer but he's a producer. Yeah. Yeah. He hasn't, you know, he really has. Yes. That's the website
that Don just dropped on all the platforms. You can click on it there. Go directly over throw some cash at the thing.
See if you see if you win or you can see the the auction banner down there. Texas Star
Party dot Better World.org slash auctions slash VTSP dash Auction and you can go bid Good
luck everybody. I hope and again, like Joe said, there's only, there's a limited amount of time here. Only a couple of
hours left until someone is going to win a night stay at the bar and a night stay or two
nights stay at each one at the bar and one at the at the Prude and that's going to be awesome
for somebody and I guess we'll we'll hopefully be able to announce that winner tonight Joe's I guess if that's the way it works. Yeah I think we'll
we'll be able to do that and and look you don't have to bid on just one or the other. You can bid on them both and you know, that I'm thinking about
it. I might just do that myself. So, you know, get in there and try to beat me if you
can but yeah, like I said, both of those places are wonderful. We're really thankful for the
graciousness of both X Bar and the Prude Ranch for for donating those to the Texas Star Party and the money that
we raise as part of these auctions does go back to the Texas Star Party so that we can continue to put on a wonderful
Star Party moving forward in the future. That's right, man and so so gracious of the Bar Ranch and the Prude Ranch to do
that and a great opportunity for somebody to get a nice deal on on a nice day at a dark
place. Yes. bring your scope, man. Have a great time and try to do it on a new moon, right? Look at this. Look at the
calendar. You know, make sure you're good and all that. It should be good. Yeah. So that is again, very limited time
only about 2 hours left. So, get those, get those get those
in right now if you can. Yeah and will you know, yesterday when we were going through the show, we talk about Friday.
Normally being the day where the TSP group photos happen and we showed some of those photos as well and went through them
but wanted to take another trip down memory lane and show folks what some of those photos are
like just to again give everybody a sense of what Texas Star Party is like we wanted to, you know, transport
everybody who's with us to the Texas Star Party. Hopefully we're doing that with the TSP
time videos and things like that but wanted to share with you some of those additional group photos so that you can
what it's like and hopefully, when you join us next year, you'll take part in those photos as well. Yeah,
absolutely. It's a fun thing. You meet at like 1 PM after lunch on the Friday out at the
thing and Robert takes a picture for us and it's just a cool thing and you and throughout the years, you'll
see the faces, some of the faces change, some of the faces stay the same. The wardrobes
definitely change. That's one thing
So, if you can't get out to Texas Star Party, hopefully, we can bring again that vibe to
y'all of standing out in the hot sun waiting to get your picture taken by
Awesome. awesome stuff, man. You know, and II, I've seen some people say that they saw
themselves in those pictures over the last couple of days or since yesterday and that's fun. You know, it's fun to try to
play. where's Waldo with yourself or your friends? Find them in there. So yeah, we
we've played that you know a couple nights and I've noticed different people in each of the nights so it's it's always a
treat to go ahead and see that and again it's it's part of the camaraderie and seeing some of the same people there year
after year and really getting a chance to enjoy the the night skies with those folks. Yeah,
it's like a family reunion man. Every time you meet new people, they become your family and then, you know, it's like, I'll
see you next year, you know? Yeah. Vortex, whichever one comes first, right? Yeah. You know, for for some of us, the
wait for the next Texas Star Party is just a little too long and there are other Star parties that we can hopefully
get a little bit of what we get at Tsp. You know, nothing quite compares to TSP but there are
other Star parties out there where we can kind of get our fill what it is we love about the star party. So, well, I
just figured we'd share with a few folks what some of those Star parties are when they're going to be happening and
hopefully some of those watching will be able to attend those. So, the next star party
that we're really excited about is the Nebraska Star Party. That one's going to start at the beginning of August run for
a week and we've said this for two nights in a row. Well, neither of us have been there but we hear the skies there are
just absolutely fantastic, really dark and it's a wonderful Star Party Absolutely
can't wait to go. Absolutely. The next one is the Oregon Star Party. Again, starting in the
beginning of August, 3rd through the eighth 2021. Never been myself again for this one
but also here, it's wonderful. So, if you're looking to go, you can get more details at Oregon Star Party.org. the
world famous Cellophane Convention. A lot of folks from TSP love attending St. Lehane
as well. So, that's going to be going on again in early August, August 5th, and ninth. So many people Might have to make a
quick, you know. you know, hop from one place to another to another to attend these
conventions and Star parties but that one is going on again at the beginning of August, August 5th and ninth
registration is open now so you can visit Cellophane.org to get more details there and to register your one of your
favorites. will the OT Star Party, the beginning of October, October, 1st through the ninth 2021. I registered
today, Joe, I did you going to Ot, sir? Yeah, I've gotta get my in myself. Yeah. Look at S.
She's going to be going to be a cellophane as well I know Larry Mitchell often speaks at Cellophane. That's right. Yeah.
So, yeah, you guys. Hopefully, I don't know if I'll be able to be there but hopefully
everything goes well with you guys up there. Absolutely. Over to our west, our friends in New
Mexico have the Enchanted Sky Star Party in Socorro. So, that's going to be going on October 1st through the third
coincide a little bit with 0 Te If you're looking for more information there, go to Janet
Skies.org. The El Dorado Star Party. The Last Star Party. both you and I attended Will. It's a wonderful El Dorado
Texas at the Bar Ranch who as we mentioned earlier, have donated the stay item that
we're auctioning right now that's going to be happening on my birthday, November 5th. So, November 1st through the sixth
2021, El Dorado Star Party.org to get more information there. The Winter Star Party and we've
said this a couple of times known for its seeing steady skies because it's right there off the coast. January 31st
through February 2nd and as we mentioned earlier. The Texas Star Party next year, April
24th through the May 1st Texas Star Party.org and will you and I, we're talking about the
registration. Normally, those Emails come out at around Halloween time. I believe right at the end of October. Yeah.
Yeah. I think it's in that fall range in November. somewhere in
there and you just gotta be watching your Emails like a Hawk and then 1 Day, you'll get
that that tingle up your spine You're feeling good. Disturbance in the floor. Yeah,
I agree. Disturbance. Yes. but it'll it'll happen. 1 day when you least expect it and then,
you know, you start feverishly typing in your information and your PayPal stuff to get get
everything going. So, yeah, it's it's amazing. It's a cool rush to sign up for a star party. I know it sounds geeky
and and whatever but it it is a cool rush to sign up for a star party because you know, in just
a few months, you're going to probably see some great skies or maybe hang out in your
camper a tent for a few days. You know, just depends. You never know what you're going to get at the star party but typically you see some stars
promise you Absolutely. As long as it's not cloudy. So, yeah, as long as it's not cloudy but then if it is cloudy, there are
other things you can do at a star party. You camaraderie, hang out with your friends,
make your friends cook for you. You can fellowship. Yeah. yeah. Yeah. And you know, there's always a chance you could win a
door prizes and stuff like that and I think Joe, is that what we're going to go to next? We're going to that next.
Absolutely. So, this is the final night of the Virtual Texas Star Party and we're
going to give away even more prizes and I think tonight, we might have more prizes to give away than the other two nights
maybe combined. I don't know but we've got a lot of prizes to get through. So, we're going to get through part of them
right now and as we've mentioned earlier, if you
registered for PSP in 2019, 2020, or 2021, you're automatically registered to win
one of these prizes tonight. So, we did a double random drawing. I don't even know what that is. They got the
mathematicians over at Nasa Dolly and a few other folks to put this together. They randomized and sorted the
registration list randomized and sorted the prize list, put them together, and we have a
set of winners here. So, well, I don't know if you're ready to jump into this. I think a lot of other folks on the stream
are ready right now. I'm going to give away some prizes. I don't know if I'm ready. Joe, can we do something else? I'm
just kidding. I'm just kidding. Alright. so, the first door prize of the night is from
Savanna. It's a 60mm refractor package. We're giving away a telescope folks. what it is and and
winner is Scott Mitchell from Houston, Texas. Our good buddy Scott. I know that guy. Congratulations. Yeah, I know
that guy too. I think I saw a comment from him earlier. Scott, congratulations. You won
the sixty millimeter refractor from our advertisers. Bonnie,
the next door prize is a for Prism Binoculars set seven by 50s from Vixen Optics Stars and
Burb. These folks have been They've given a lot of items for us to give away to everybody here tonight in the
last few nights and we really appreciate everything that they've done but the winner of the binoculars here is Edward
Polos. I hope I pronounced that correctly from Allen, Texas, Edward, congratulations. You won some wonderful binoculars
That's how to pronounce it. Joe and I will put your names on it. That's just the way that's the way it goes. and next, it's
Avani twelve millimeter one and a quarter inch eye piece like we said yesterday will never have too many eye pieces. The
winner of these eye pieces are Rob Moorhead Spring, Texas. Congratulations, Rob. Congrats.
Alright. door prize number Thirty-four. A Celestron Power 10. 5000. I've gotta get my hands on one of these. You
gotta get these little. I mean because you can charge your phone. You can just. Awesome. Just awesome. They look fantastic. I mean, I'm just
looking at it now thinking, man, I wonder if I can. No, I can't mess around with the the winners here. The winner is
Pics from Mission Hills, Kansas, Kansas representing here. Congratulations, Long all
the way from Kansas. There you go. Alright, 7x50 binoculars from Vixen Optic
Star Guide Bela winner is Richard from Fort Worth, Texas.
Congratulations, Richard. Nice score, Richard. Two more before
we stop this. Until the next time. Oh, look at this. The Celestial Power Tank Lithium
Pro. This is the that's what I really want right there. I mean, that thing is awesome. It'll power your telescope all night long and then some but
the winner of the Celestial Power Tank Lithium Pro is
Wesley Mcfarland from Fort Davis, Texas. Wow, Wesley. Congratulations. That's a
chance of a location, huh? I mean, that's right. There you
go. Hey, he just has to drive down the street to get there, right? Just roll down the road.
and the last prize for this segment is a Fifty-dollar Astros E gift certificate. We
keep saying this Astros makes wonderful products, great accessories. I've got. Oh man,
I can't tell you how many us that products I have in my bins for when I go out and but one
lucky winner is going away with a $50 gift certificate and that person is Fernando Torres from
Albuquerque, New Mexico. So, that's what we've got right now. Everybody stay tuned for more prizes and we'll be giving
away a lot more of these things as we get through the show tonight. right. will. We've got
a lot of stuff to give away and one of the things that you know, I don't know if y'all
remember this in person where you could go to a thing and like be around other people and it wasn't dangerous but of
times when you went to those things they would throw T shirts or something into the
crowd. We thought it'd be fun to throw something virtually into a virtual crowd and so we
we're, I think we're going to try to throw one of these Virtual Texas Star Party t shirts virtually into a a
virtual Joe, I don't know how we're going to work this. Yeah, we're going to do the cameras
or something. I don't know. Yeah, I think, you know, we might be able to have, you know, Google or somebody like that create one of those
Virtual cannons for us but yeah, we'll find to get one of these T shirts to everybody.
We'll you've come up with a couple of good hashtags over the last few nights, you came up with some more really good
ones right now, #prude Ranch on whatever platform you're on, whether it's Facebook or
YouTube, type in that #right down below #prude Ranch. exactly as you see it with the
hashtag in front to be entered to win AT shirt. So, well, we've had a few people not type
it in exactly the way that it's supposed to be typed in It's gotta be typed in the right way in order to be included in the
drawing. That's right. and you see Tom and Kent, it's got it right, Chad check out, right?
Yeah. And even Hummel is even playing. He's going to be here later. Is that cheating? No, I think well, yeah, I don't know.
You're the toughest No, but throw it. Throw the comment in guys because any platform
you're watching on, whether it's YouTube, Facebook, whatever, wherever you're watching us right now, you will
be entered to win AT shirt. As long as you put #prude Ranch in the chat of the room that
you're in. It doesn't matter where you put it unless in the comment section that's not
associated with this like on some other video that won't get you AT shirt. Sorry, I think here it will. Yeah, we can't we
can't monitor the entire internet but it looks like Joe there is just It's coming
through. Courtney says, I'm just going to steal Will's T shirt. More than likely, Hey,
that's okay. That's certainly okay. But again, #prude Ranch to get entered into the
drawing. Look, you can put as many of those in there as you as you want. You only get one entry though. That's right. So,
but we want everybody to put their entry in and what we wanted to do is give everybody another minute or so a couple
of minutes to get their entries in. Prude Ranch and well, I think it's a good time to hear from some of our Huh? Yeah, we
got some. we're going to go out into the desert at some ranches and some scopes. Let's do it.
And you know what?
There we go. The chile scopes ad is super cool. I'm going to
unmute you, Joe. Oh, I can't unmute you. Sorry, buddy. I'm going to mute myself then. There you go. I'm looking out
for you, buddy but those ads are great, man. Thank you to our advertisers. We've just had
such a cool, cool like camaraderie in that, right? People wanting to work together
to bring this virtual event to you guys and so we really appreciate all of our
advertisers and y'all we've we're going to finish this t shirt thing here in a second. We're going to hear from one more advertiser and then we're
going to have the one and only mister David Levy. It's like
the Charles Messier of our day, right? I mean, let's be real with this. I had a couple idols
growing up, right? Some of them are imaginary like Luke Skywalker and whatnot but
mister David Levy was somebody I always admired because I wanted to discover a comet myself and nobody did it better
than him. It's certainly not in our times. That's right. That's right. He discovered a comment and then it hit Jupiter and
everyone got to watch. Yes. And we're going to talk about some of that coming up but I don't know. Joe. Should we randomly
find a winner for this T shirt thing? And then let's do that. Okay. So, let's see who's going
to win all those prude ranch hashtags. Alright, we're going to go in here. Thirty-four entries it looks like. Alright,
we're going to give away AT shirt. Here it goes. Here it goes. Good luck everybody. Good
luck everybody.
Myra Franz. Congratulations. You are the winner of a wonderful 2021 TSP T shirt Like
we've been saying fresh off the runways at Milan and Paris. All of the fashion shows. These are
the hottest items for summer. So, congratulations Myra. You
you have won one of these things and you're going to be the envy of everybody when there's see you walking down the street with one of these T
shirts on. So, well, we're going to have one more T shirt giveaway before The night's over. That's right. Yeah. And
we do. we will be throwing another Virtual T shirt into the crowd and again, remember those auctions guys, guys and
gals, we are auctioning a two-night stay at the bar, a two-night stay at the Prude
Ranch two awesome ranches, great infrastructure in dark skies. You're going to want to
bid on this because you're going to, you might get a great deal and the money goes to the Texas Star Party to help
further the event. So and the link down there in the in the
chats So you guys can click on them there and I will throw it up here if I can. There it is
and that's the link you're going to want to use for the auction. Again, we've only got what like a little less than 2
hours. Yeah. Less than 2 hours. So, you better get those bids in guys. if that's something you want to do and the option
is always there. We can't afford it but you know, we we can tell you this auction ends at 9:01 PM Central Time. so
anybody can can enter to win these things. I'd highly encourage everybody to give it a shot and again, can bid on
both of them. There's nothing that says you have to bid on one or the other. So, and we've got, like I said, David Levy
coming up. He's going to present a night watchman journey. The road not taken based on his book by the same
title published in 2019 using his meticulous log of observations and his diary, he
write write recounts life and astronomical experiences. We're looking forward to that. Well, I know we showed this, we gave
away this book yesterday, a signed copy of the book from mister David Levy. He's waiting backstage for us that you can
talk to everybody here but before we bring him on stage, we want to hear from Explore Scientific one more time. Hi,
I'm Kent Mars to explore scientific. This is the Explore Scientific two room pop up Observatory tent. It's great
for amateur astronomers and astro photographers. The main room is a place where you put
your table charts, tent, red light, things like that. The door allows easy access. It's
double zippered. The fabric is made from blackout, waterproof material to keep your equipment
dry. It also comes with a tarp that goes over the top of it and guy with that hook on here.
Stakes on the bottom. The great part about it is the panel. This part of the room, Velcro
is together to allow you to get your equipment in. As you can see, we have our new giant binoculars inside right now.
There's also a door here that allows access to the equipment room for more information about
about the pop up Observatory tent, go to explore Scientific.com. Those are cool.
Yeah. And it seems like you're seeing more and more of those types of pop-up tents on the fields. They're really
indispensable especially on those cold nights. So, looking looking forward to seeing what Explore Scientific has there
and possibly picking one up myself. Yeah, you can go to sleep in there if you need to. Yeah, you know, if you want to
hide from people, you know, you can run in there and hide at night. You know, it's it's a good thing to have your own
little shelter. You know, that's exactly exactly but enough talking from us. Well, I
think people are tired of hearing us for the time being. They really came here to Mister David Levy. So, I think he
really needs no introduction but I'm going to do it anyway. So, David was born in Montreal,
Quebec, Canada in 1948. He developed an interest in astronomy at an early age. However, he pursued and pursued
and received a bachelor's and master's degree in English literature Levy went on to discover Twenty-two comet
either independently or with Jean and Carolyn Shoemaker. He's written 34 books mostly on
astronomical subjects. He has written articles for Sky and telescope. Yay Sky and Telescope and astronomy
magazines as well as other publications on February. 28th 2010 Levy was awarded a PHD
from the the Hebrew Hebrew University of Jerusalem for a successful completion of the thesis, the sky and early
modern English literature, A study of illusions to celestial events in Elizabethton and in
writing 1572 to 1620 David has been a frequent attendee and speaker at the Texas Star Party
and is the recipient of the TS P's 1985 Lone Star Gazer in the 1997 Omegas Awards Without
further ado, it's our great pleasure to introduce Mr. David. Levy. David, how are I'm
doing well. Thank you. I hope you can. I hope you can hear me. We certainly can. David
great. Okay. Oh my presentation tonight to you is going to be
very informal. It's called the Night watching This journey in the road not taken and it was
originally going to be just the Night Watchman journey and that book since you're showing it since you're holding it up,
Joe, you can actually get it. You can't get it from Amazon but you can get it from Star,
Arizona, WWW Www. stars. You
can get it from them and I hope that some future Texas Star Party will be able to bring
bring some down in person but anyway, I want to tell you a little bit about my story
because when I watch one's Journey was the original, the original title of the of the
the book that I have and just as it was going to the publisher, I found out that all
of Roberts poetry was now domain since he had been deceased for long enough that
we didn't need permission to use it. So, at the very last minute, I grabbed the road, not
taken and added it as a subtitle and that was really one of the proudest things I've
done with her regarding that book. I started astronomy. very simple. I am primarily a visual
observer. I'm not a I'm certainly not a much of an
astro photographer although I have taken thousands thousands of pictures of the night sky
over the years and I still do and but basically, I love going
out and just looking up at the night sky. about six or 7
months ago, our Observatory which had been having a lot of problems suddenly just stopped
working and it was sort of three quarters open and one quarter closed. and so I was
able to get someone in Tucson named Frank Lopez to come and rebuild the Observatory not is
now complete and I now have essentially a brand-new Observatory that I'm absolutely
just loving to use and tonight, I will be using it again after
our presentation. Today, I started astronomy when I was about eight I was in a summer
camp where I hated that camp. It was Twin Lake Camp in Vermont. I remember the first
year I was there writing letters to mom and dad every day. Please take me out of this
prison camp. I promise that if you take me home, I will keep
my room nice and tidy. I will be a good boy and I won't cause any problems and they were
right back and they say we love you very much but you're going to All of us from a distance.
you are going to stay at this camp. So, I lost that battle.
Anyway, on the fourth of July, they were doing fireworks and of course, being from Canada, I
didn't know from the fourth of July and I was, I guess this is what they do at certain time in
certain countries out there. Independence Day celebrations means a lot more to me now than
it did back then but anyway, the camp like the youngest kids
go back to their cabins just near the end of twilight and so as we're going as we're walking
up the hill, going back to our cabin, I happen to look up at the sky and I saw a shooting
star. It started in the constellation of Draco and sort
of not very bright. It went on near Vega where it disappeared.
and I was startled by it. I might be others and I said, did any of you just a shooting star. and they said no, they
didn't and I thought to myself, was that kind of a message sent
just for me that I should take this more seriously. Why would someone want to send a message
to someone who was just born a few years ago Anyway, I kind of
put it in the back of my Eight-year-old David Brain and I just let it fester for a
while. and then about three or
4 years later while riding my bicycle to our sixth grade class picnic, I fell off the
bike as I was on my way to school and sailed ever so gently over and landed on the
sidewalk and my right arm was in real agonizing pain. and
friend came by and said, do you need some help? And I said, yeah. In fact, if you could
walk my bike to the nurse's office at the school and I will, I'll be able to go and as
I got up my arm was just screeching in pain and I said,
I can't do this. Now, what I'd like you to just leave the bike, you see that policeman
over there at the next corner, I'd like you to go Get him and tell him I need some help. and he went over and I saw him
talking to the policeman and then whatever happened within seconds, the cop was there.
They took me to the children's hospital. I was outfitted with a cast and the cousin of mine
gave me a book as a get well present called Our Son and the World's Around It. and I
remember reading and I remember falling in love with it. I remember reading it again. I remember had a third time and
the fourth time and it's right here in my in my the shelves behind me and I'll probably be
looking at it again tonight. It is that important. and I
decided at the end of that reading that I was going to be an astronomer and I remember
when I was recovering that night at your dinner time dad
would say David, you know, you're you're you're kind of on track. you're talking about the nice guy all the time. The key
is not to focus yourself only on one thing. Keep your feet on the ground even though your
head is in the clouds. Don't don't think of the storm. He is the most important thing in
your life. I thought to myself, okay, dad, I won't. I'll think of it as the only thing in my life and I think that knew that
was going to happen. I don't know. I don't know how but I think I think that's kind of
what happened. anyway. a few nights later, god said, you
know, I just gave you this big speech about not only about a nice car but I'm going to tell
you about my experience with a nice guy when I was when I was
a little older than you. I read this book called Cole of
Spyglass Mountain and it was a story about a young man who is
fascinated with astronomy Excuse me. He built up. I mean,
he saved his money. Build an Observatory, and then one night, he discovered evidence
of life on Mars in an Observatory that he calls
Spyglass Mountains Observatory. At the moment, he discovered the evidence of life on Mars.
Someone trying to steal his money and his telescope started
making Trump hotshots into the Observatory. One of the rifle shots actually hit Joshua Cole
knocked him out He didn't die but he came too and he was
sitting in bed recovering And they said, well, what about this? What did you find about Mars? And he said, oh, it
doesn't matter anymore. and they said, well, maybe it does because look at all these
newspapers that are coming in and the newspapers have all of these announcements. Can't say
Young amateur astronomer beats the professionals discovering evidence of life on the planet.
Mars and dad told me the story and how exciting it was. and
finally, he says that was the special things for first to report Discovery Coal of
Spyglass Mountain famous in a night and I've never forgotten
that and dad said, I know you're not going to help you in just an astronomy but if you
should find that book, I would love to read it again. My dad.
He and I had a difficult but very loving relationship. and
we were talking about things and I remember 1 day later in life He said, remember 1 day
when you were a kid and I said, all you care about is you're darn stars and I said, yeah, I
remember that and dad said, boy, was I ever wrong about that? And I said, dad, you are
not wrong. I was a arrogant kid. didn't know how to shut
his mouth. and then dad said, but you did something with it. You did something and you made
it into a passion. By this time, my father himself was
beginning to lose his memory. He was beginning to to forget the things good places and on
one terrible day, he forgot that I was his son but somehow,
he never forgot Cole of Spyglass Mountain and 1 Day, we're taking a walk and I'm
looking at him and I thought this guy is a stranger to me. He doesn't know who I am. I barely know who he is and
suddenly, he looked at And he said, David, did you ever find
coals? Fiberglass mountain for me? And I just like, you know, you're you're plugging in an
electric light that's burning out and suddenly, it makes a connection and suddenly, you're
there and I had to admit that I have not found it at that time
and he left. He said, I don't worry about it. I wouldn't be able to read it now. Anyway,
Anyway, my father passed away in 1985 and a couple of years later after giving a talk at
one of the Texas Star parties, someone found a copy of the book which I have now, Wendy,
my wife and I have both read it and it is as good a book as God says it was. I know it's it's
absolutely tremendous. So, that's kind of the story about
how I got interested in that part of astronomy. Started searching for Comet in 1965.
found my first Comet 19. years later in 1984, and my second
one in 1987. my third also in 1987, my fourth and
eighty-eight and I fixed eighty-nine, a six to 1990. I was getting really the hang of
it but the most important part of all that I've discovered is
Comet Shoemaker nine. I was joining the team of cheating and shoemaker at the Hallmark
and the day that Carolyn was looking at pictures. we had
taken the night before and she just looks up stunned from the stereo microscope. She looks at
me and she says, David. I don't know what what I've got but looks like a squashed comet and
Jean came in and looked and I'll never forget the look on his face. It was an absolute
puzzle So then I had to take a look at it and it was absolutely wonderful to see
something so unusual in the sky. That was just the first
part of it. 2, months later, we all received the announcement that Shoemaker Eighty-nine was
on a collision course with the planet Jupiter on July the sixteenth. 1994 the shoemaker
and I were in Washington when the comet began to with Jupiter. It was a cosmic
bonanza. It was really something special. We got to
meet the president and all and it was really very pleasant to do that. President Clinton at
the time but I think the highlight of that particular day was not so much meaning as
it was to meet Vice President Al Gore because he came in and he was like an amateur
astronomer at the Texas Star Party. He came and started
talking about it and then he said, you know, and I kind of pinching in the back of my
brain that you may be the vice president of the United States but I'm going to get to see the
impacts before you and then he goes, you know, David, I live
on the grounds the Naval Observatory and I think, don't say it and he says last night,
there was a clearing. I walked over to the telescope. Someone was using it and I asked if I
could show me the impact spots and they did and I thought Al
Gore, you got to see the impact spots before I did. Well, I was really pretty happy to hear
that. I'm really happy that I was able to do and and see them to to stand with the person who
saw the spots before I did. Actually, we were ourselves on the grounds of the Naval
Observatory. a couple of nights later, there was a big huge line and I tapped on being a
posing in front of the line but I wanted to take my time and
finally, there was a woman who was in the line who grabbed me and said, David, you're going to stay here with me and you're
not going to go any further behind. I'm sure I am. I wanted you to see it when I see it. That woman was Vera Rubin and
I'll never forget that night. so much for the story of how I
became interested in astronomy became a comic hunter. Now, I'd like to tell you the other half
of you I was around the fifteen or so and dad started talking
to me about Shakespeare and I really began to get the
impression that if I did not inherit my father's love of Shakespeare, he would disown
me, take me out of the world, It's that simple but I don't think you really meant that. He
just wanted me to get excited about Shakespeare. and we talked about it a little bit
and I began to read a few things. about about Shakespeare
and I'll be able to read a few things from his place. and there's one in particular that
I would like to go to right now that is from the Hamlet and I
didn't read this right away when I was young but much later, I did and I began to
find that William Shakespeare was really able to write nobody
else before or since. he was running a pro section. as the
main character of this play, Hamlet himself was going through a severe depression and
he was writing a somewhat careless speech in pros and I like to think that at that
point, there was a tap on my shoulder as he's writing and he turns around and it's god right
behind him and god says will take a break Get yourself a cup
of coffee. I got this next lines. and this is what I'm
going to go to you right now. This most excellent talent in the air. Look, you this brave
or hanging for women. this majestically shredded with golden fire What a piece of
work as a man. How noble in reason how infinite and faculties informed and moving.
how express and admirable in action are like an angel in
apprehension. I like a god. The beauty of the world. The power of god of and yet to me, what
is this? Queens of Christ. At this point, Shakespeare comes
back. He looks at what god has written and he says, there's no way I can write something like
that and god says, you're right but I'll let you take for granted for it. anyway. There
are a lot of things that Shakespeare has written like that. areas where the writing
is pretty good and then suddenly just soars Anyway, so
I decided to get a try and just in Shakespeare but for the wrong reason for me, when I was
at Acadia, I took a course in Shakespeare. We studied King Lear and I remember in my
Shakespeare book that I used that time, there's a famous line in between eclipses of the
sun and moon. He's laid eclipses in the sun and moon pretend no good to us and I
even marked them but not because they were astronomical just because they were
interesting quotations. and then
and then as I got older, I was doing my master's degree at Queen's University in Kingston,
Ontario, Canada to another Shakespeare. of course, a graduate level course in
Shakespeare and we were then studying a cure and we were studying Gloucester speeches
about the eclipses We're studying about other things and
the instructor said, I just wonder how you feel and if any of you have any comments, about
about what what Shakespeare is trying to present here with the
with the loss of his mind. and really none of the other people
in my class have anything to say. and she looked at me and
said, how about you David? And I said, I have to admit, it's difficult for me to comment on
what Shakespeare's going to do here because as I read this, I'm thinking of my dad, my dad,
who now has Alzheimer's disease barely knows who he is. and I
can't get my head away from him and the Shakespeare right now
the entire class just stopped said. Well, we, well, that
means we're going to stop talking about Shakespeare and we're going to talk about your dad for a while. and it was a
very emotional 15 minutes conversation and I red. We are
a lot more closely after that. Still not realizing
importance that play and others would have for me in my life.
I'm a member observing the lyrics one night I was looking up. It wasn't that great. They
were me here in the media there and I began to think, I'm wondering how many people in
the past observed the same I show and then I thought hit me.
I wonder how many people who have written poems prose
novels. anything like that. have observed the night sky the
next day visiting Norman Mackenzie of Queens. I told him that I wanted to write a
master's thesis about the night sky using one of the poets that
we're studying and right away, he suggested Gerald Bentley Hopkins who happened to be his
favorite poet and very quickly became in mind and this particular poem that I'm going
to quote now Now, those of you who are familiar with me, Hawkins so that he's probably
the toughest poet in the English language to follow. his
sprung rhythm is the way those of us who have dread like the
wind over in high school know how difficult that is and you're probably all saying, oh, let's go on to another. Let's
do some more door prizes. Let's make it about the Levy here. but I noticed that this poem,
Hopkins and Grit when he was in college, and believe it or not,
it was about a comment. and it goes like this. I'm going to see if I can find it to read it
to you but I can't find it. So, I'm just going to quote it from memory I am like a slip of
comet scarce words, discovery, and some corners in bridging the slender difference of two
stars come out of space or suddenly engender by heavy elements for no one knows But
when she cites the sun, she grows and sizes and spins her
skirts out while her central Star shakes its cocoon. miss
and so she comes to fields of light. millions of traveling rays, piercer. She hangs upon
the flame chase sun and sets the light as full as Gideon's
foods but then where Tether calls her, she falls off She
dwindles sheds her smock of gold amidst the sisters and then goes out into the
cavernous Star. So, I go out My little sweet is done. I have
done heat from this contagious sun. Do you know I'm gentle death now for my room? this
poem. If nothing else really told me that there are poem
poets who actually look at the night sky There's Thomas Hardy,
one of the great English novelist who wrote a whole poem about an eclipse of the moon
Tennyson. Alfred Martinez, who actually owned a telescope and at his home in the Isle of
White. couldn't wait for clear night so he had to go up and look for his telescope. although because he was a
famous poet, he was able to use Daw's great refractor in London
almost whenever he wanted to. other poems, poets as well but
when I decided to do my doctoral work not too long ago,
I decided to choose in a way the most difficult poem for the ball and not Shakespeare
Actually, I got my master's degree. The idea came into my head. I want to get a doctorate
but not now. So, I stomped on the idea grounded into the of the dirt. I'm not going to go 5
minutes later, she got my doctor to finish what you started stomped in the ground and it was gone every 5 years.
and then Wendy was in my life and the idea came again and I
told her about it and I said, but don't worry about it. I'm going to stop it in and I don't have to worry about this for
another 5 years. Wendy looked up at me and she said,
Don't stop on it just yet. Let's talk about this. Your
pressure in your life. I'm not going to leave you behind. is dropping You have some time.
Maybe now, you should finish what you started. I was able to
get a professor at the Hebrew University Lawrence Specimen to
direct a PHD thesis that I would do on Shakespeare. It took me 10 years to do it and
you know, there's something about graduate work that is really kind of weird
It's almost as if the graduate studies faculty, or the Department of English or
whatever it is They have meetings from time to time to say, let's make up some new
rules just to throw a monkey wrench into the work for him.
and I decided that this might happen because it happened quite a few times. You know, the paper has to be European
size which you can't get in the United States and it has to do this. There has to be that and
then introduction to the thesis has to be translated into
Hebrew. Doctor Bellman who lost his temper at that. He said, that is the dumbest new rule.
I'm going to fight you on that and I said, I don't It's part of the game. I'm going to do
it. I'm going to raise it. So, I found somebody, a close friend who actually translated
the pre in Geneva Anyway, there was one of the little thing
again about the crazy British European papers size that I wrote to her to them and asked
about it and the next day when he said David, you better come here. I said that it's a
message. I said, she said yes. There's a message from the university and I think you
should see it. Is it good? She said yes but you need to read it. and she simply said that
yesterday, the senate of the university met the thesis has been approved. You have the
title of doctorate and I hope you can come down to get the degree in person. if we ever do
that in 2010, we were Israel.
to get the doctorate in in to get my doctorate and endlessly
Actually, I've been using that doctrine a lot more than I thought I would because with the pandemic, I have been going
to meeting after meeting whether it's this one here at the Texas Star Party one in
Montreal or one in other areas and just to take little quotations to embellish the
world of astronomy just a little bit from a
different point of view to talk about it. a nice guy and what I'm going to do now is I'm
going to ask Wendy if she wouldn't mind joining me so I can close with a with a very
short poem, a final poem. It is by Ralph Hudson and he's
standing on a hill right at the ranch as I hope to be in the next year or two. and it's the
final lines of this poem with the song of honor. I stood and
stared This was lit the sky with stars all over it. I said,
I do not lie without a wish without a will. I stood upon that silent hill and stared
into the sky. I'm until my eyes were blind with the stars and
still I stared into the I thank you all very much.
Fantastic stuff. David. and how cool to bring Wendy in for the
for the final thing that Wendy, That was amazing. It was so beautiful.
We can hear you. We can definitely hear you back there. Wendy, we got you. That's awesome. And Joe, you're still
on me just to let you know but David II know that that was a that's a beautiful talk, man.
It does. it doesn't matter how many times I hear you speak. I always pick up something new from it and it's just an
absolute honor and I think we probably have time for a couple of questions. David if that's
okay. I don't know if I don't know if you guys and gals in the chat rooms on all the
multiple platforms that are out there. If you might have a question for mister David Levy, you kind of have him the phone
here. Absolutely. kind of a phone call here. Yeah. And while we're waiting for those
questions to queue up David, I believe I can read that correctly. That's Minerva right there in front of us. huh? This
is Minerva Us Wonderful. That's a piece of history right there. That's our money. I've had this
telescope since 1967. Wow. Well, over 50 years, It is a
beautiful six inch four reflector. It's had multiple changes of tubes and metals but
the optics are original from 1967. Wow. I just love using
the sauce and how many comet were discovered with Minerva.
None. I've done a lot of comment with it but I've actually never found a combo with this one. I remember I ask
you the same question when you're at the Goldberg's house a couple of years ago before COVID and I was shocked to hear
that. Right? But you'd mentioned that before. I think, you know, a lot of people think that you've used the nervous so
long that you certainly discovered a comet with it but and I have but it's been your
companion. Is it? Did you know that was the last visit that the last trip that I took
before COVID. Was that really closing down the country? Amazing. Yes, that was it. That
was it. Yes. That was you came to Houston and he presented at Rice University and then you
were at the Goldberg's home and they graciously invited me and Scott Mitchell who was on the
comments just a little while ago and a few other people there and we spent a wonderful afternoon with you and it's
still I really I hope we can do that again sometime. Absolutely. Well, go ahead,
sir. I'm just reading. Mira's. Oh, yeah. Sorry, I meet you.
There you go. Out and your philosophy. That's actually the first Shakespeare quarter I
have I ever saw. I was picking up a copy of on a book and
arguing with my older brother about something We had a love-hate relationship when we're kids but now, we're
getting along very, very well in older age and so I threw
this book at him and right at that moment, dad walked in and I thought, oh boy, this isn't
going to be good. And he he said David. I know you're going
to have an argument with your brother. You can even throw something on your brother. I don't care. You heard of what
he says. Let me finish but don't you ever throw a book at him and I said, why not? Let's
do the same thing and he said, because books are friends when you pick up a book. it's like
the author is inviting you into her or his living room to say, this is what life was like when
I was lying. Remember picking up that book. opening it up, and seeing there are more
things in heaven and earth that I've I've of in your philosophy, right? And that's saying, look, I have that book
right here, right now. That's incredible. David. I got a little bit of a chill down my spine because I say the same
thing to my children that books are our friends and you know, treat them with respect and they will love you forever. So,
that's just incredible. Scott Mitchell had asked the question, was there a uniform way? that is Ethan people
regarded the night sky? Was it prophecy or the cusp of science or aesthetic wonder My answer
is the aesthetic Wonder because that's still applies today and I know that Shakespeare himself
He wrote a song about astrology not from the stars Doo. My judgment, pluck. He's guys but
then as he goes on in that side, he's kind of sees what the larger picture is and I
think that I think it was all these things but I think aesthetic wonder was certainly
Shakespeare's goal and in his love of looking up
at the sky, seeing meteors, seeing comments, seeing there's
almost no question that his dad would have taken him out in the backyard to see the at age
eight Chico's Supernova of 1572 Shakespeare is still alive at
the sixteen oh four of Yucca Supernova and he certainly isn't alive when we have the
Twenty-one Supernova which I'm going to go out and see in the next day or so but that's not true. Anyway, But anyway, I
love going out to see things because when you see a comment
or a Nova or a Supernova, what they show is that the sky is acting. It doesn't just stay
there and do nothing. It it it it moves. It talks to you. It
relates to you and you relate to you. I think that's the exciting thing about it's no
and no That is awesome. We had
a question in David from Wallace. Does Wendy have the same love of the night sky as
you do Wendy?
He's calling her in to get the answer direct from the stores here, You're going to get it directly from the stores. I
have a different level of the night sky than David. Does David like David is what I
consider like most of you going to Tsp a real astronomer because he can stay at all my
searching and looking for things that go deeper and deeper and deeper to all they are is very faint posing. I on
the other hand like to look up and see a sky full of stars just like a poem. I like the big, bold, bright, and
beautiful but my forte with the night sky is actually
organizing the star parties and the the star sessions like our retreat that we've had So I can
be the person that gives everybody else the chance to really look at the sky and then they entertain me at night by
showing me what's my telescope. Sweetheart, could you tell a little story about when we were
just starting? Oh, okay. And one of the things David said to
me when we, I think it was on the very first time we ever went out Coming back from the
restaurant and it was like very dusky and it was the kind of Sky where you can see only a star. It was very bright and we
looked up and I said, David, what is that? And he goes, that's you and I looked and
said, David. if I ask you the name of that Star every night,
what would you do? He said, I would tell you the name of that Star every night and I said,
oh, be still my heart. Thank you so much for this patience and that was one things he did
when he does to me still. he fixes the telescope and knock it out of position. and he make
sure that he tells me what the stars are if I haven't learned them yet, Wonderful. Thanks.
Awesome. Thank you, Wendy. Thank you so much. Yeah and we we had an awesome question from
Vas. I think I'm probably, I'm pronouncing that. I'm sorry, mister Coral David. Can you
share another memory from previous Tsp? That's what we're here doing and I'm interested to hear this. I bet you have a
lot of stories about Tsp Oh, I can write a book about Tsp. Can
we urge you to do that actually? Yeah, you into that? many Texas Star parties and I
enjoyed them. The most of them are good memories. There was one night when somebody
inflated a balloon, an eye piece that kind of melted my eye out there. I did not find that a very pleasant experience
but 90% 90.9 99% of the of the
experiences have been wonderful and I'll share just one of them with you the night before
leaving for the Texas Star Party, It was in May of 1990. I
discovered a comment but it hadn't been confirmed yet and I drove to the Texas Star Party.
I arrived there not too long from god on that night and I
parked my car over at the front entrance and I started walking as far as I could and finally,
found. Barbara Wilson. Rest in peace, Barbara Barbara Wilson's
telescope and she had it set up and they were looking not too far from where I needed to
confirm my comment And we we agreed and she said, well, I'm
glad you made it. I said, I've been driving all night but here I am. Can I use your telescope
for a moment? And Barbara looked at me and said, yeah, sure. We're looking at these galaxies and Andromeda and as
soon as that's over, then, let you use the telescope for a bit. and I looked at her and
said, Barbara, she said, yeah. can I use your telescope right
this minute? She said, my god, you found a comment. I said, I think so. The entire crowd just
moved away and I had the telescope and I went right to it and I said, there it is.
It's an eight of a degree since Celeste and the night before and there it is. So, I got my
confirmation of the 1990 comma which became pretty bright at the time. To start point and
that's my favorite GSP story. and I can echo Courtney sentiment. Wow, that's an
amazing story. You know I've I've asked Barbara Wilson to use her telescope. I didn't receive such a pleasant, you
know, response from Barbara was always willing to share.
Absolutely. An eye piece of you. In fact, she would pull us, you know, because we set up in that general area and she'll pull you, you know, she'd pull
you over and like you gotta see this thing will come over here and take a look or Joe. Yeah, absolutely. She always does. I don't think the telescope moved
away from that comet for the rest of that night. Really, really? I'll just watched it go
slowly across, huh? Yeah, it's a special outreach event then.
Yeah, that's that's that's a beautiful and and and David like we were saying, Joe and II
think we we might have to strong arm you into writing that TSP book because I think
that would be fascinating to hear all the the minutia in there of all the the way you
recounting the way you reminisce on things is poetic and it's beautiful and I think
the world needs that book David. I don't know. You might be and I'd be happy to discuss it with you. I do have a
children's book out that I am desperately looking for a publisher for but wow but other
than that, of course, the I'm really glad that you've been pushing my my autobiography so
well but but we've managed to keep that. We got quite the
secret lately. So, we'll well, now that the cat's out of the
bag, I guess now, David Wright Okay, I had another question
there. Tell us before you leave on why you write down each observing session.
My my belief is that if you don't write it down, then you didn't do it. I started my
first session number one is a session that took place on
October the second. 1959. It was a partial eclipse of the sun. Just last part of Zoom
because of clouds. and then I had a few sessions of a to Z
that were held before that including the one at summer camp and right now.
yesterday's solar observing session, I had was session 22 22200 22221 S So, the sessions
a to this one is over 22
thousand times at the top of the night sky. Wow. Twenty 22 thousand times. That's
unbelievable. Incredible. And our friend George Ellis coming in with a comment remembering a
comet hunting game you were. it's great to. I'm so glad you're here. Yeah, George has been with every night it seems
hanging out with us doing the whole thing and he said, he remembers the comet hunting panel you participated in at
RTMC 1985 followed by a comet discovery at that event. Could you please participate in
another one at TSP sometime? We'd love to see that happen again. You may discover yet another Comet David. who knows?
Who knows but I don't do it to you know that I will discover it. I do it because I love it
and I love the guy. That's why I still search. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And lots of
lots of awesome comments coming in from the crowd. I mean, it's it's it's just an honor to have you here David because you
know, again, like Joe said, there are legends in our in our world as time goes on, whether
they wanted that moniker or not. You definitely earned the moniker legend. I can tell you
that II had a high school rock band. As you can see the guitars back here and I've told you the story before we were
called SL nine Shoemaker Levy nine. So You are a third of our
rock band's name. So, Thank you. It's my honor. Thank you.
Yeah. And so, if you guys have any last minute questions for David as we're kind of wrapping things up here, feel free to
throw those in. We wanted to bring David on to because he he is a poetic reminiscing. You
know, he he reminisce on things in a very beautiful way. Absolutely. And I don't think, I don't know Joe. I don't think
there's any better way we could've could've asked David to come on and then like we had him and tonight it was just
amazing. It really was and David every time we talk to you, it's always a treat as well. said the stories are just
absolutely incredible. We could sit here and listen to you talk about them all day and it's it's it never gets old and
tiring but I wanted to ask you a quick question. You said you're working on a children's book. Is there anything else we
can look forward to in the near future? Well, actually it's Wendy's favorite. I mean, Wendy
is my meanest editor. Oh, but I found this book I wrote when I was in fourth grade with an old
corona typewriter about our dog Bingo. There's no astronomy at
all but I've recently revised it and it's flipper becomes a
magic dog and there's a magic telescope that takes this group of children through the
universe from planets all the way up to the great filaments
of galaxies, aids, in about sixty pages
and we'll we had a previous comment. I don't know if we got to it or not but somebody when we are talking about Minerva
had asked who made the optics. I think that's, is that is that John Wagner there? No, the
optics were made by a company called The Optical Craftsman. I don't believe they're still
existing but I don't do what I do. Remember visiting them when I first moved to Tucson and I
was able to come in and see them and but This is was made
by the optical craftsman in 1967. Wow. The optical craftsman that that is. That is
mister Wagner, the discoverer or Nar, I guess of the Stargate, right? The asterisks that we all know and love near
me. 104 the first. I'm asking the question. Yes. Yeah, That's who that was. Yes. Well, thank
you so much for inviting me to come on tonight and I hope to be there in person in some future year. Well, we certainly
look forward to that David and hopefully that might be next year late April, early May when
we look forward to getting back at the Texas Star Party but until then, we'll continue following you online. We know
that you're very active in the Explore Scientific Alliance discussions and have lots of
other talks and we always look forward to hearing from you wherever we can. Thanks Joe.
Banks will and this really was a pleasure. The pleasure is all ours. Thank you, David. Thank
you, David. Thank you so much. Wow. Very good. I think bucket
list item crossed off my list, Joe, I don't know about you, my man but pretty cool. It is.
Like I said, I had an opportunity to spend an afternoon with them in an intimate environment with just
a handful of other friends and David just waxed poetically as somebody else had said about
lots of different tales from, you know, his observing past and things like that and got into some of what he did during
his his studies from from a literature perspective, it was just absolutely incredible. Like I said, I could listen to
him talk all day, not say a word and I'm just mesmerized by the story. So, that's always a treat to hear from David a
living legend. I mean, a living legend said, he said, yeah, he is a living legend. I mean, I don't think anybody ever will
do what he's done and discover as many comments as he has just given, you know, kind of where technology has progressed but
for a lot of people like us growing up who are very into a Deuteronomy. We were just
enamored by David and others like him because the sense of discovery, the sense of, you know, that spirit of
exploration, David really embodies that and it's just something that all of us even as we've gotten older in life
still look at him and say, wow, I want to be like David Levy. I know. Yeah. Unless your name is
like stars or one of these other surveys, you're probably not going to discover a comment
unless you just get absolutely incredibly lucky, right? So, you know, but hey, there's
there might be a chance for that somewhere. Who knows? I mean, people are still discovering them, right? Yeah.
It's not all the automatic surveys and whatnot that are that are doing it but yeah, it's just it's one thing to
have a comet stars or something like that. It's another one to see a comet Levy of, you know, a shoemaker Levy of some sort
knowing that hey, you know, human eyes were the first to say we see something there and it's it's not like the other
background objects. So, Absolutely, absolutely incredible. So, but we I don't
know about you. I think it might be time to give away some swag. What do you think? I think I think we should get in.
Let's do something else. I'm just kidding. I'll do that all night. Now, let's get stuff away because we just got gifted
an awesome talk by David. So, let's play that forward I guess and and give some some stuff
away. Yeah and and by the way folks, our good friend Stephen Hummel is backstage. He's
waiting to come on on here in just a bit. so we're holding him up. I know everybody wants to win some prizes but You
know, Steven's going to come online here. Talk to us, you know, about the Big Bend region. You know, we've we've
spent a lot of time over the last 3 days talking about Big Bend and how special it is but they're really working on
creating an international dark Sky reserve in the Big Bend area that's going to be over seventeen 17 thousand square
miles. It's going to encompass territory from Texas. It's going to encompass territory from Mexico with the purpose of
protecting the pristine night skies in that region. So, if it does get certified by the International dark side Sky
Association. It'll be larger than any currently existing Dark Sky reserve in the world.
So, they're doing a lot of work there to get that certification and in order to get the certification by the
International Dark Sky Association, they are doing a lot of work to extensively
monitor light pollution and address its sources as well as update lighting ordinances to ensure the sky is protected for
future generations. So, Stephen is amongst the and I don't use this term lightly. The Warriors
out there to, you know, they're on the line to ensure that the the night skies are preserved in West Texas and there are a
lot of folks in this battle to make sure that this gift that we've been given does exist not
only for us but for our children going forward. So, we look forward to Steven's talk
but before we get there, let's give away some prizes. Let's do it $50 and $50 from the Texas
Star Party. Yeah, Amazon gift card. The winner is David Wilson of Dallas, Texas.
Congratulations, David Congrats buddy. spin that wisely.
Absolutely. Another Fifty-dollar Amazon gift card from the Texas Star Party
winner of that is Alex Martin all the way in Las Vegas, Nevada. I think that's the first. No, did we get another
Nevada earlier? Nevada? No. no, you're not. Yeah. Or maybe Reno. I don't remember now. I
can't remember but we've got one for sure now. Alex Martin, congratulations for winning that Fifty-dollar Amazon gift
card, right? We're not done with the Amazon gift cards. another Fifty-dollar Amazon gift card here and the winner
of that prize is Ted from Albuquerque, New Mexico. New
Mexico is making a strong push here. A lot of representation from the next
And another Fifty-dollar Amazon gift card. This time from the Houston Astronomical Society.
We love the Houston Astronomical. We're both members of the Houston Astros and that's we have that in
common. Absolutely. We're both members of the Astronomical Society of Southeast Texas too. That's good. But from the
Houston astronomical, the Astronomical Society, I can't speak a Fifty-dollar Amazon gift card and John Cantrell
from Murphy Texas. Congratulations, John. Congrats. Yes, a hub Optics.
Hubble five star artificial Star from Hubble Optics, a
wonderful advertiser for this program and the winner is John Strzok. Meyer from Irving,
Texas, North Texas. Coming in strong here. Congrats, John. Another set of seven by
Fifty-four of binoculars from Vixen Optics Star Guy and Bela. The winner of those binoculars
is Beth Watts from Georgetown, Texas just north of Austin there. That's right. Congrats
and enjoy those. Yeah. enjoy those binoculars. Beth and then last in this round, we've got
more to come later but the last in this round is another Fifty-dollar Astros Zap E gift certificate These are wonderful
items that as puts out and the winner of that is is yeah Virtual drum roll Howard I hope
I heard AI Hope I pronounced that correctly from Sandy, Oregon, Oregon has now entered the party. So, congratulations
Edward. You're the champ. Congrats to all of our winners here and like we said, we've
got more prizes to give away later on and we still have Trivia. We do but we've got
wonderful prizes to give away there as well. So, thanks for everybody and congratulations to all the winners of these
door prizes. Amazing stuff, man. Such a fun thing to be able to give away, you know,
stuff like this that you know, we can just you know, throw the stuff out into the virtual crowd and everything. Exactly I
did and. Right. We just kind of to it you know, we're just out
here doing our thing but that is so cool. Yeah. And hey,
Will, I think we've got less than an hour we do for our auction items and and end up
closing. So, yeah, $2 for the X Bar Ranch Day and only $100 for
the free ranch. Whoever wins that right now is getting a steal. So everybody get your bids in for the day of winter
weekend. Stay at the Oh, I see a night 0. $50 just went up and
I think. yeah, I think they're including a horseback riding in that too, right? I think that's
everything. you can imagine basically included with the ranch. Yeah, All ranch activities at the prude for
sure. Steal of a deal, man. and that is. yeah, even at twice that price, that's a heck of a
deal. So, that's still ongoing. The XR Ranch auction is still ongoing as well. We have till
9:01 PM Central Time tonight for those auctions. 44 minutes remaining. You can see it right
there folks. and the auctions will be done and we'll announce the winners before the show is
over tonight. This one's man, this one's a hot commodity y'all. This is it's you know,
you gotta bid 302 from here to to beat the current bid. So, there's still a chance for the
X bar and there's definitely still a chance for the Prude Ranch here, man. So get those, get those bids in because again, like Joe said, you only
got 44 minutes and I guarantee you those 44 minutes are going to blow by so fast once we
start talking to mister Stephen Hummel and What's you know, the Trivia is going to come at us.
The the the T shirt giveaways. There's so much about to happen in a short amount of time that
it's almost, it's almost too much I think but I think we're we're going to fit it all into
this nice box and this has been a lot of fun. Joe, this is watching these these auctions
go and yeah, the bird's eye view of this is pretty cool man. Courtney Project Courtney, our good friend says yes at 302
it's still a steal. So in there and start bidding up. Certainly. So, like we said,
we've got Stephen Hummel queued up. We're going to hear from him in just a moment but before we do that, let's hear from one
of our advertisers
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and we are back from that awesome commercial break Before we get into mister Hummel
introduction again, we want to give y'all plenty of opportunity to make sure you
bid on this stuff. So, again, there is the link below. I won't read it. You guys can read that there. Texas Star
Party, blah blah blah blah blah. Type that in. Get that going and if you want those
those stays. If you want one of those, you can bid on that there and our our producer Don
is flooding the chat with those links. Again, that'll make it clickable. Copy and paste, whatever you're going to do
with it, get in there and bid on it and man, we're going to be or we're going to be
announcing a winner for that later. Joe, That's exciting stuff. Alright, looking forward to it. So, everything about
tonight's program has been exciting culminating and you know, all the things that we've done to put this program
together for everyone who's watching and yeah, I just can't wait. It's awesome stuff. Yeah.
But for now, we are joined by our good friend, mister
Stephen. Hummel Stephen is a dark sky specialist at the McDonald Observatory tasked with helping to preserve the
night sky in West Texas through public outreach and community efforts and has been with the Observers Observatory since
2017 In addition, Stephen runs a very popular outreach program
online through the Mcdonald's Observatory and every now and then, he loops us to equipment.
So, a very familiar face. I've seen the three of us on screen lots of times before but it's
our pleasure to have Stephen Hummel with us Stephen. Thank you for joining us tonight. It's a pleasure to be here and
I have to say it is nice to be back in this format again with with with you and and with
Will. It's it's been a while. I've been busy but I think I've
been busy on some worthwhile things which I'm going to share with you tonight. So yeah, I'm very excited But yeah, let me
start sharing my screen here. Alright, we'll look for that.
There you go. Alright. So, again, my name is Stephen Hummel. I am out here at the
University of Texas. It's McDonald Observatory. I know a lot of TSP regulars have have
visited the Observatory or at the very least seen it in the distance. We do usually do for
the Texas Star Party Technical Tours. Yes. And visual Night in my in my office instead of the
dome. What I wouldn't. honestly, I would be in the dome tonight but it's in use.
So, if someone else has claimed it so it's fine. My office will do Yeah, we do usually do
special programs for Tsp. We we have a long history of of of coordinated with TSP for their
events and II. Hope that in the future, you'll be able to come back out in person for sure. I
look forward to meeting some of you out there again next year but I'm going to be talking a
little bit about my work as well as the work of of my colleague Ren here at the Observatory in protecting the
night sky. Now, When I'm speaking to a group of astronomers, I think it's it's
sort of like preaching to acquire to some extent and that you are already sort of get it. You know, you you you know what
it's like to be under a dark sky versus under a light polluted Sky but I want to go
over some of the reasons why preserving the night sky is important. In other words, why
I do what I do, why the Observatory is doing what it's doing because it goes beyond sort of the obvious just
looking up at the stars but yes, protecting the night sky
is important for visual observing and enjoyment as well as for research. We do do a lot
of research at the Observatory that just could not be done under Night polluted skies even
just a little bit especially the hobby, a telescope, Dark energy experiment which Doctor
Carl Gebhardt talked about extensively yesterday. If you haven't seen that watch that. It's he did an amazing talk
yesterday. I know it's recorded YouTube and and and such. You can go back and watch yesterday's program about some
of the research that's being done here at the Observatory but David Levy also highlighted
on what I think is one of the most important reasons to preserve the night sky and that's just a sense of art and
culture, You know, astronomy is the oldest science It's been a part of human existence for as
long as humans have had eyes to look up with, you know, and so it's it's been a part of human
existence forever. It would it would be a shame to lose that part of our culture just like it would be a shame to lose
Natural History Museum. You know, it's it's a natural work
of art and that there is that there's just nothing like or no picture could ever do it justice really and it's also a
source of inspiration that that and David's, you know,
everything he said proves that point. I think so. he proved that point so eloquently but in
addition to that preserving the night sky also helps to preserve our natural environment on the earth but
what I mean It helps to preserve things like a birds
and insects and and nocturnal species which are so critical especially out in the West
Texas. out here especially like in our Big Bend National Park. They've been around state park
as well as for things like migrating birds which navigate by the stars and unfortunately,
I died by the millions every year due to light pollution. It's also important for the
local economy and the economy of many areas around the world because it's it helps promote tourism and tourism locally in
West Texas is a big part of the local the economy here. So, if
we lost the night sky, you know, there's obviously some incentive to preserve it
because that would mean a lot of businesses would simply cease to exist. There's also a
health benefits that's something that that often gets overlooked but over exposure to
blue light at night especially can disrupt your circadian rhythm. Not that I think most astronomers have normal
circadian rhythms but for everybody else's sake, It's important to limit your limit.
Your exposure to artificial light at night because that can have serious health effects
including an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. In fact, the American
Medical Association classifies working at night or night shifts as an increase cancer
risk partly because of that reason. There's also safety concerns, poor lighting, is a
safety concern because it can create more glare and decrease visibility and better lighting.
The kind of lighting we have which I'm going to explain in a minute puts more light where you need it which helps you see
better and it doesn't cause excessive glare and it doesn't it doesn't it basically allows
you to see better when you cross through different environments that are differently lit because your
eyes are going to adjust to the ambient light levels. It's also So, it's important for safety
and security as well. Better lighting. Also, it helps helps
identify possible threats. A lot of people when they hear about night sky preservation efforts, they're like, no, I
need the bright lights to be safe when in reality, there is zero evidence that brighter
lights keep you safer at night either for identifying threats or or hazards. You could trip
over and such like that such things like that. So, Sky friendly lights are safer.
Plus, they use less energy so they're more environmentally friendly in that aspect and they cost less to run at least
and usually they cost less to install too if you do it at least from the start. So, these are all the reasons why I do
the work I do. There's a there's a lot to it. It's it's not just one thing. it's all of
these things combined that or why I do the work I do but a
little bit about what exactly McDonald's Observatory is doing. we quantify the sky
quality in the West Texas region through a variety of methods. So we have an accurate measurement of successful. We
are in our light pollution and mitigation efforts and how this guy is changing. We do
education and outreach efforts so that the public is aware of the benefits and of of night
sky lights and the the the concerns over poor lighting. We
help replace light fixtures in the community. Meaning, if someone has a light that that
may be problematic but they can't afford to replace it. We do offer financial assistance
in certain situations and that is done Who donated funds. We are a state institution. We're
from the University of Texas. We cannot use, you know, public funds to fund that but if you
are interested in supporting our our light mitigation efforts, you can donate to that fund on our website McDonald
Observatory.org slash Dark Skies but we also seek to promote good lighting by
recognizing people who who are doing it right, who are making an effort to protect the night sky and the the The rest of
this talk is we are trying to create an ID, a certified dark sky reserve in the Big Bend
region of West Texas and I'm going to talk a little bit more about about that later on but
first, I'm going to start with quantify in the sky quality which is I'm I know very
important to astronomers and very much in the interest of the Texas Star Party. right? To
know exactly how darker skies are. So, a little bit of background first McDonald's
Observatory already sits in the largest contiguous area in the
world where the night sky is protected by law. There is no other place in the world as big
as this that is that has dark sky ordinances and it's a contiguous area So, that is
what we kind of informally call the McDonald's Observatory Night Sky Reserve and by state
law, the surrounding seven counties have have county
lighting ordinances and municipalities do as well. Fort Davis by the isn't great
because it is not a city. It is unincorporated. So, it's just something to the county but
these ordinances, many of them are out of date. Some of them have been around since the 70s
and and their language. just does not encompass modern lighting technology, especially
LEDs. So, part of the effort today is to update these ordinances and increase
awareness of them but I'm going to overlay on this map a light
pollution map from the viewers instrument on the satellite from January and you can
plainly see that there is a large source of light to our our northeast there and that is
the Permian Basin that is another with oil and gas activity. not just flaring but
all of the industrial lights and things that come with it and that emits more light than
the Midland or Odessa. It's a it's roughly equivalent to to a
major cities such as El Paso and it's much closer. It used to be for many at El Paso was
the brightest thing here. So, unsurprisingly, that's the focus of a lot of our efforts and what we're monitoring very
carefully. So, we we take data of the sky in a variety of
different ways to to kind of quantify how that light is changing and how dark the sky really is. One way we do this
is just with traditional photography. So, I took this picture of this all Sky
panorama with a normal camera and you can see down below behind the hobby Eberly
telescope looking northeast. You can see that glow along the
horizon and that is the the Permian basin there. You can also see some glow from Alpine
on the the top right over here as well as some glow from El
Paso 160 miles away but we have some more scientific methods of
quantify the data to but it's important to point out in this previous picture here that none
of that light extends very far above the horizon. So, the overhead. at McDonald's
Observatory is still as dark as it gets on earth. We still have
some of the darkest of major research Observatory in the world and definitely the
darkest guys of any major research Observatory in the continental United States. So, the sky overhead is still dark.
We want to keep it that way. and again, another method we
have to collect data on the sky is with this little this little guy here called an all odometer
or or Ap. All Sky odometer. This is a CCD. It's a science
grade CCD with a fifty millimeter Nikon lens fifty-one
51.2, and a little celestial and that we've modified and
it's running a script developed in with help from the National Park Service. So, it's such
that it takes pictures of the sky and tiles them all together to a mosaic. So, that's all Sky
optometry. So, we're measuring the brightness of the entire sky. So, we do this about once a month. This is from May 9th
2021. I just took a data set a couple days ago but I just haven't processed It. wasn't
ready in time for this presentation but this is the
this guy from Mount Folks by the Everly telescope and you can you can there's that glow
from the Permian there in the north However, in order to get a useful measurement of the
amount of light pollution from this data, we take all the stars in the Milky Way and all
of the natural sources of light and subtract them and when you do that, when you subtract all
the natural light sources, you're left with the artificial light sources and then we
compare the amount of artificial light that's left over with the amount of light just a completely natural Sky I
would have and so that ratio between them is called the all skylight pollution ratio. Now,
I know a lot of astronomers like their portal scales and things like that. I'm personally not a fan because it
doesn't really tell you it's pretty vague. It doesn't tell you how the lights distributed and you know, where in the sky,
it's dark but they all skylight pollution ratio is a is a little more specific. It tells
us exactly how much brighter the sky is compared to a natural Sky and in this case,
from McDonald's Observatory, it is 33 33% brighter than the
natural Sky. All Skylight pollution ratio is .33 Again, that's all Sky. So, it's all
the light in this case is down low so it doesn't doesn't resolve the problem. the scale has but we have other metrics
too and straight up, it's still is as dark as it gets for reference. it Let's compare
this to Big Bend National Park down to our south a couple hours drive to the south. The
all skylight pollution ratio there and earlier this year was
.1 .12 or 12% Brighter than a totally dark sky and the darkest skies in Texas are not
actually to to big bad National Park. I'll talk about that in a second but because Big Bend
National Park unfortunately also suffers from the light glow from the Permian Basin.
You've been all the way down by the river. You can still see from the Permian Basin oil and
gas activity, You can also see a little glow from El Paso and Chihuahua, Mexico as well as
Presidio and Ohana there as well but the darkest skies in Texas that title goes to Black
Gap Wildlife Management Area and a lot of people haven't heard of Black Gap but I think
think it's a shame it's right next to Big Bend. a borders Big Bend. It's just to the east and
it an all skylight pollution ratio basically of .1 too. but it's a few decimal places
darker than than Big Ben. So, it gets the title, the darkest skies in Texas. and there is an
effort to make black AA an ID, a certified dark sky sanctuary which is basically their their
highest tier. the most difficult to get and that they are usually reserved for the
most remote the the the hardest to get to places as well because there are there are very few places left that are
this Dark on earth and there is nowhere left on the continental
United States. there. That where the sky is actually a zero. that every single point
in the continental United States has at least some detectable light pollution. So,
it has gotten brighter overall in this country. The second method we have to monitor light
pollution in the area is partly with a volunteer effort as well as some of our staff to take
Sky quality measurements with a little handheld meter called the call the sky quality meter. Sm may have seen some of these
before but we have Whole bunch of different locations where we do this every 3 months, We take
a measurement from all these points on the map and so we can have have a very good idea of
how light pollution is changing space and over time, it's a big
treasure trove of data which I'm working on on sorting through because there's a lot of interesting stuff in there
but the overall result of all these methods is is basically kind of summarized in this
chart here. The good is the sky is getting darker over West
Texas. You it's it used used to be from McDonald's Observatory.
The the percentage of natural background level with all skylight pollution ratio reached the peak of about 49%
back in 2019 late late 2019
That was when we kind of had peak flaring in the Permian Basin and since then it's come
down a bit. It's sort of stabilized around a little over 30% just a little However,
there is still no detectable light pollution above 30°. So, there is no detectable light
pollution anywhere we would see or anywhere we would look with a telescope where we aim at a
large telescope. We don't see any light pollution but another
takeaway of this is that just because you are in a rural area does not mean the sky is dark.
That is increasingly a trend we see in the world. Rural is not necessarily Dark. That's
commonly associated. It's it's anymore to just drive away from a major city and and hope to
find a dark sky. and globally this is not the trend of this
chart Globally. light pollution is increasing by 2% per year
and 2% per year does not sound like a lot but it's it's it
adds up quickly and that's about the same rate as the inflation of money with US
currency and you No. a dollar today isn't worth the same as a dollar in 1921. In fact, a
dollar in 1921 would be about fifteen and a half dollars today. Likewise, light
pollution has increased at the same rate. So year to year, it's difficult to detect but it
really does accumulate over time to matter. Some other
findings. where is the light pollution actually coming from? Meaning, what are the actual
light sources that are contributing to the light that we see in the sky and our
location. The the biggest source is is oil and gas activity in the Permian Basin.
flaring is a big part of that but I think a lot of people overestimate the importance of flaring burning off methane
because the flare although they are bright, they emit most of their light and infrared and
and a yellow color which doesn't scatter as much in the atmosphere of more concerned us
are the permanent lights. So, I know when an oil facility sets up. Shop the flaring typically
is a temporary stage in the process. What we care about are all the lights that are
permanent. They're going to stay there because sometimes as we see in the recent crash of the price of oil just because a
company
I had to cut out there a minute for a minute but just because a company is out of business and
not even doing anything in the oil field anymore, that doesn't mean they're turning the lights
off. They may still be leaving their lights on and they may still be aimed up into the sky and so it's a concern for us.
So, industrial lighting is a big focus of our efforts. The second contributor to light
pollution are unhealed lights on businesses and what I mean by unhealed that they're
they're allowing the light to spill up into the sky. or put it another way. The source of
the light is visible from above the mounting point. Another big
are illuminated signs and billboards. These are increasingly a bright those
internally illuminated signs are often on all night and there there's no shielding and
illuminated billboards often spill a lot of their light into the sky and they can be
incredibly bright street. are are not as important as you
would think in our area. They are all amber. Anyway, there aren't really any bright white
LED street lights in our area. Thanks in part to the existing lighting ordinances awareness campaigns but they do but there
are some that are unskilled which which are contributing a little bit and the last two are
residential lights and headlights on cars and the high
beams. Unfortunately, they do contribute quite a bit at certain times of the night but
that's pretty hard to predict and fluctuates quite a bit. but we do have solutions. and this
is what we advocate in the local community. Summarized in this nice graphic which I love
because it just condenses this pretty big topic into one simple graphic. If you do these
steps, you will drastically cut light pollution if not entirely illuminate Sky glow. it's
shielding such as the light is aimed down at the ground using amber colored light because
that does not scatter as much in the atmosphere. It also doesn't attract as many many insects or disrupt your
circadian rhythm as much as white or blue lights and using only the intensity of light that you actually need. So, an
appropriate amount of light for the purpose and lastly, if you aren't using a light, turning it off or putting it on a
motion detector or timer. So, it's only used when it's when necessary. Here are some
success stories. This is a compressor station out in the Permian Basin and a lot of
times people are skeptical that we can do anything about the oil and gas industry and they
get very pessimistic. I do want to point out that it has reduced greatly in the past 2
years and part of that is because of our successful efforts working and consulting
with the oil and gas industry to reduce that light pollution and the the First step, we
often ask is for for operators to simply aim their lights down
because a lot of oil and gas operators or contractors or so
forth, they kind of have to have this assumption that brighter is better that they
should put as much light out as possible. light it up like daylight because that's what's
safe and in the process, they also usually aim their Night sideways to get the greater
reach or or throw far away from the site that but that creates
a lot of glare and that's usually blinding to the people at night. So, the first step we
do is we ask them to turn them down so that the light is aimed on on the ground where they
actually need it on That has the benefit of reducing glare dramatically and and reducing
the amount of light that's spreading into the sky. Some of it may still be bouncing up off
the ground if it's excessively bright but this is the first step and universally, they all
come back and say, oh yeah, that actually works great because it puts more like They need it and illuminates glare.
Therefore, it keeps their workers safer and in this quote, the employees love it.
One commented that he could actually see the equipment and where he was walking. Now, that
says it all right there. Here's a fantastic example of a whole
facility which was designed from the ground up to be a night sky friendly by using the
recommended lighting techniques. This is located near balm Texas. It's at Apache slash Altus Diamond Cryo
Complex It's not, it's not active drilling here. They're they're compressing and
liquefy. Natural gas here but you can see that the the level of illumination is a lot lower.
Let's say the ones there at the road, you can see there's some non non compliant lighting kind
of at the boundary of the property over here for for context and you you can see
just how faint how much dimmer it is but there's still plenty of light. It's still evenly
illuminated so that the workers can see what they're doing and and a lot of these places are in operation 24 hours a day so
that that is crucial to them. We can't to simply turn their lights off continually. It's not practical. Here's an
example of an internally illuminated sign and it's a it's a common thing we see
locally is their their lights. They're they're traditional lights may be great. In this
example, we have using an Amber lights. It's aimed down. It's fully shielded. It's not too intense. It's it checks all the
boxes but then they went and stuck a bright, internally illuminated sign. Then you can see all the light on the roof
and on the power lines I'll just go into the sky. So, this is a pretty big source of light
pollution that I think a lot of people underestimate are these these signs like this. So,
usually we ask that they'd use like an inverted sign. So, instead of a white background
with black text, it would be a black background with white text or simply turn it off us
adaptive controls. It's only used when needed. Here's another example from from Fort Davis. This is a Hotel Olympia
and you can see they have that before they had this bright white light sources outside.
this this row of hotel rooms and they complained actually or
a lot actually, a lot of guests complained that they were too bright and the staff, the ground staff mentioned to us
that sometimes I would walk out and in the morning and they would find those light bulbs
unscrewed and left on the ground because the guests staying there thought they're just so obnoxious and they were
like shining through the curtains. So, we gave We just change the light bulbs we gave them a lower color temperature,
more amber light that is fully shielded so it sticks up into the housing and you can just
see how much more attractive that looks. I think that looks so much better on the right. Here's another community
example is from Be Marie So, this is an example of how we helped a local local facility
or local community members. We donated lights to replace the
at the front and so we we gave them a better lights at the front for free with the with
the idea that if they wanted to cover the rest, they they they could do that themselves and and sure enough once they saw
the difference, the lights on the front made they they they swapped out the lights They
paid for the ones on the side themselves and that's a common theme is is people just need to
see the difference. They just need an example a real world example to to make it click.
and then they realize, oh, this really is a lot better and and then they'll gladly support it.
We're trying to recognize more, more businesses and residents and organizations in the kind
of greater Big Bend area who are using white lights that are a night sky friendly with our
new recognition program. So, we we find we get a lot more success when we use the car
rather than the stick because most of the time, people just don't know. They just don't
realize they're causing a problem. That's the number one issue we come against. So, this
is an example of a recognized location here in Fort Davis. It's the the Jeff Davis County
Courthouse. This is actually their annex building. You can see Foley Shielded and Amber
that's and they only use it when needed. Here's another example. this is a print Co and
Alpine Texas just down the road and they They actually were
ahead of us. They they had this light up and they never even talk to us and they're like, yeah, we we believe in dark
skies and it's like, well, that's great. You know, sometimes some people are already on it again, Amber
color fully shielded ain't down, puts the light where it needs to be and each location
by itself doesn't make a huge impact on the sky. The cumulatively, there is a world
of a difference. It makes now Fort Davis is not 100%, you
know, perfect in our lives. There are definitely some businesses and residents who who are not Dark, Sky,
friendly, who do need some improvement but there's I would
say about 75 or 90% of the lights are pretty good in Fort Davis whereas Alpine is a
bigger city. You know, it's it's about twice the the the surface area and about three
times the population of four Avis. But they are very few
businesses and organizations are are are night sky friendly and Alpine. So, it's no wonder
then that Alpine is many times brighter than Fort Davis even though it's farther away from
the Observatory. So, for day is practically invisible from here
at ten miles away, You almost can't see it. You can't see it naked eye. It only shows up in long exposures. It's a little
bit of glow whereas Pine is is pretty obvious. and you know, again, Alpine is is three times
further away and the inverse Square lodge should be should be much faint if they were the
same brightness. Fort Davis again, it's it's about a dark
sky, not a dark ground. So, just going back to those community examples and in Fort
Davis, right? You still have lights. There's aim down to the
ground so you can see what you're doing. It's still perfectly safe. Businesses can
still operate at night but this is simply adopting those practices. makes a little bit
of a difference. It's about a dark sky, not a dark brown. That's probably the one thing I
want people to take away the most But so we are trying to
implement these these practices throughout the region and we're working with local community
members all the time in that effort but we're also trying to create AA International Dark
Sky Reserve. Now, the IDA has several different recognitions
or several different places essentially that they recognize and they all have little slight
differences. For example, Probably the most popular or
famous Dark Sky place or category. our international
dark sky parks like Big bad National Park Recently, Zion
National Park, Grand Canyon there National Parks State Parks that practice good
lighting are also designations for communities or towns as
well as for remote areas like which will be sanctuaries. We
are after a reserve Now, we already have two Dark Sky parks
in what we are calling the Greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve. but the
reserve is composed of two separate kind categories within
it. The core zones and the peripheral zones and the core
zones are basically the areas that are most sensitive to light. They are areas we are
trying the hardest to protect and zones for us are kind of
clustered in the north and the south. and the peripheral areas
are kind of less stringent So, there doesn't have to be 100%
compliance in the peripheral areas in fact that the the the to get qualified there has to
be about 10% compliance with the commitment to reach 90% or more in the coming years. So,
we're already ahead of that. We already have more than 10% compliance and in the peripheral areas but again,
Reserve will be as Joe mentioned earlier, Absolutely enormous. This is bigger than
Connecticut and Maryland combined. It's got about 17 thousand square miles or a
little under 10 million acres and it will indeed be international because it'll
also include protected lands in Mexico across the border. The the three protected lands
across from Big Bend National Park and will in fact be larger
than all of the existing Dark Sky reserves in the world combined. and I cannot really
stress how how big of an undertaking this is. This is when we we kind of run this by
the IDA and they kind of it was
an Email but II think if if we're talking Face-to-face, they probably would have looked at us like we were crazy
because this is so much bigger than anything that's been attempted before and the I
criteria are pretty strict. We have to get a whole bunch of
different municipalities and governments and parks and other
partners to all cooperate on this. I wanted to have a slide that listed all the partners on
this project but it just got too big. It just got too cluttered. I didn't want to leave anyone else out. so I don't want any hurt feelings
because this is really unprecedented in scale but the course that the area of the
highest or the most stringent lighting rules McDonald's Observatory, our campus, we're
not big but obviously, we're we're trying to protect the sky here too. The Nature Conservancy which is this
little blob of land just kind of almost surrounds us in both sides. The Big Bend National
Park and Big Band Ranch State Park and the Sonata State
Natural area which is administered by Big Red State Park the peripheral areas.
Again, they are, they include these counties as well as a sliver of Reeves County and
Baltimore right on the border of the oil fields. and these
three protected lands in Mexico So, already in this area, there
are several certified dark sky places which makes us dramatically easier because the
work has already been done. Those include a Big Bend National Park, Bien Ranch State Park. They're already 100% done
all the efforts there. Is done. Black App Wildlife Management
area is almost ready to be certified as a sanctuary which is again, the most stringent
category so they may be added to the core later on. Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management
Area. Likewise also going to be a sanctuary. Shout out to Amber Harrison at Big Bend Ranch
State Park for getting Big Bend Ranch Elephant Mountain and
Black Cap all certified. That's a huge amount of work for one person Si Lana's already
certified. They are a dark sky community located just south of Alpine and Togo Ranch is
working towards the community designation as well. but I want to show you kind of where the
reserve is located in terms of the sky and this overlay. You can see that we are located in
a very dark part of the country in Texas. and the brightest light sources within the the
reserve are Alpine and on border here. This is oh, Haga.
So, a lot of work being done. and already within it but we still have a ways to go
internally to improve the light but in terms of what has to
happen in order for the reserve to work, the idea has a long list of criteria. We have to
demonstrate broad-based community support. So, in other words, we we need to make sure people know about this project
and it. So, that's accomplished with town hall events kind of
similar to this but focus locally letters of support. if you want this to happen, send
me an Email, okay? And let me know because any of your support we can get will help
our application to the Ida We're also demonstrating broad-based community support
through our our lighting recognition program. We also have to document the sky quality not just for the
application but in the future. It's important to You can lose an ID. a designation like it
has happened to people before. If you don't keep it up. if you if you don't monitor your lights, you don't do the work,
you can lose the designation. It it does have meaning. We also have to do an inventory of
all of the public lights or at least a representative sample in in the entire area. It's a
huge area. We actually already got that done. We're also additionally, even though it's
not required, we're conducting a of as many private lights as we can too and we do also
already have efforts to mitigate any any light which may prove a problem and the IDA
has a certain set of requirements that you know, lights in the area have to be fully sealed and 2700 K or
below color temperature actually the IDA recommends 3000 Kelvin or soft White. We
are shooting for 2700 Kelvin because we we do not like blue light content in our light. It
is it is not good for astronomy. They also require a
lumens per acre cap. Meaning, that's a way of ensuring that lights aren't too bright, brighter than necessary, and
adaptive controls. So, these things have to not just be
encouraged. These things have to be basically be insured or a
plan has to be in place to to make all the lights in that area compliant in the future
and the way to accomplish that are through ordinances. So, words making it law Now, a lot
of people really don't like this part. They they think, think, oh, what? You know, you're you're forcing your opinion on us. We view
ordinances as a vehicle to raise awareness
Sorry. Microphone keeps cutting out on me. Battery's getting low but ordinances again are
there are a vehicle to raise awareness. So, we view them as as just one method in our
toolbox to get people to to adopt better lighting and we
already have ordinances in the surrounding area. They just need to be made up to date to
include more modern understanding of such as shielding and color and intensity and timing but It's
very rare for anyone to actually be issued a fine. It's really reserved for the sort of worst case scenarios where
someone is really just out to, you know, to to cause trouble
but every almost every single case we have reached a solution before it gets to that point
and and so it's it's not about strict enforcement. It's about it's about awareness and
encouragement and working with people then we do it has to be law because one of the idea
requires it. If we want the reserve status and two, there has to be some sort of
recourse. If someone is is ruining the night sky because that is a threat. Not only did the research here but to to the
local economy which is dependent on a tourism So, in that regard, we have made a lot
of progress and so this is sort of where we are as of today, what we've gotten done and what
we still need to do to make the reserve a reality and We've
already basically done everything in all the core zones. I was almost done before we even started the project. We
have updated lighting ordinances in Jeff Davis County, Brewster County, and
Reeves County Reeves County. That's again, that's where most of the oil and gas industry is
So, that's that's huge for us. We've also updated them in
Valentine, Valerie and just this week, Presidio. So, it's the newest So, we're more than
halfway there. We still need to update the ordinance in Presidio County, Martha Alpine
and we have to tidy up a few things and the biosphere reserves across the river in
Mexico to ensure their partnership as well. I am really excited that this is
it's truly international project because for decades,
there has been talk of a sort of international national park
International Park across the river from between Big Bend and the protected lands in Mexico. It's been a dream for decades.
It's always fall short but it it's this is maybe it's not all the way there. It's not like
there's easy access between the border there or anything. It's just that they're they're taking steps to mitigate
lighting or to use better lighting. That's all it means. I think it's a step in the right direction and and kind of
of a cross border relations as well. I wanted to just give a
few community examples a few more. This is a recent one that
I think a lot of people can relate to or have questions about See on the right here,
there's this light fixture and this is a LED light. It's a at
a slight angle and versus some shielded lights here on the sign for the doughnut shop. So,
this is the same view at night across street. We have two
bright, LED light sources that are so bright. that you can't
even see that there are people in that laundromat and there's actually a person trying to get
right in front of that truck there too. You can't see any of that with the naked eye. You're
totally blinded by the light sources which each emit around
in the neighborhood of 75 thousand lumens. That's That's
enough to light up. Well, 75% of an acre of land. That's that's the equivalent amount of
light and there's two of them. So, it's 150 thousand lumens right here. That's for
reference car. High beams are in the neighborhood. of maybe
depending on the high beam 8000 Lumens or so. This is 150
thousand Lumens and this this went up recently but I talk to
them and they're they're going to change it. So, we didn't
have to, you know, call code enforcement or anything like that. It's almost never
required. We we talked to them and and we make progress. This is across the street. How much
of the light is is spilling out in the surrounding buildings. So, this is a case of light trespass. It's like going
beyond the lines spilling into areas where it should be and again that that light is only
aimed up by about fifteen or 20° but it It's still spilling
out sideways but again, I talk to them. They're going to replace it. I haven't done it
yet. They're working towards it. So, if you're not in the area, if you're not in Texas, I
know a lot of astronomers, a lot of amateur astronomers, they they get really nervous
about talking to their neighbors to, you know, to address light pollution because
it it's kind of makes people anxious. you know, like it's the people don't want to be confrontational. So, I just have here for you know, if
you're already practicing good lighting in your own home, here's how you can convince others to do the same and the
most important one is to remind them that it's that it's about a dark sky, not a dark ground.
People have a light to illuminate, have a right to illuminate their property. Okay, So you're not trying to
keep them in darkness because that's the number one thing people assume is that you just want everyone to have their
lights off 100% of the time whereas It's about using light.
with purpose. Being thoughtful about it but if you're going to talk to your neighbor or or a
local business or something about their lives, I recommend you do. you do your research ahead of time. I have no the
the the pros and cons know what they're likely to say and
always don't lead with an accusation. So, don't come and say your life's too bright or
you're violating the city ordinance or something. They I don't know that. And they
probably are going to immediately become defensive and and and try to defend
themselves against that accusation. but point out, start by pointing out your
concerns and the safety and cost efficiency benefits. Yes, there are benefits to, you
know, health and the environment and astronomy Most
people are actually convinced by the safety and cost benefits. That's most people
more practical if they hear that, you know, they can save money and still be safe. That's more likely to win someone over
and when you're talking with them, ask how you can help them improve their life. What you
can do to help them and also ask them what their light is being used for. A lot of people
don't don't do that. They just they they come in and they ask you know, ask them to without
ever actually asking, you know, why they have the light in the first place and there might be
something you don't expect. So, or it could give you some information to help you work
with them and ask what their concerns are about changing the light. You know, related to that. what the purpose is, you
know, what are their concerns about turning it off and listen to them and actually reply to
their concerns. Don't just say, well, you need to do this or you should do this. It's
important to remember that. using Better Lights is a Win-win solution. It's it
really does benefit basically everything, right? It's safer. It's cheaper. It puts more
light where you need it. It creates less glare. So, there is a solution to their problem.
You just need to listen, listen to them and and and figure it out and if you're talking to
someone, always recommend leaving something physical behind. This is kind of a business trick too but leave
behind a pamphlet or or some way they can learn more or or a light bulb or something that
you would like them to try out and install, you could bring it as a sample light fixture to them or even brownies, a pie or
something like that. It'd be nice but this this is really
effective. It it really has got me a long way and I'm sure it can help you too with your
lighting, with your lighting concerns, and if you do have a
particular situation that Are you think deserves some Expert
input or you're just, you're just not sure? McDonald's Observatory also has a website
McDonald's Observatory.org. You go under the dark skies tab and you can click contacted Expert
and you can contact me or my colleague Bill Wren. We can look into your situation and help you solve your problem
with with with lights and we're we're here to help. So, that's where I'm going to wrap up but
I am happy to take some questions and We have some
questions for you. Stephen. Our our local friend here, Debbie
Moran, Joe. she's a dark sky advocate herself, right? She is. She's with the IDA and I don't know if you've met her
before Stephen but she is the 2017 winner of the Hoag Robinson Award with the
International Dark Sky Association. So, Debbie, congratulations. Yeah, yeah. Debbie is is certainly, I mean
to call it a dark skies advocate is an understatement so but yeah, she has that question there below How do you
teach people to acquire the correct lighting given that there are far more choices online and you need specific
keywords to find it. Yeah. Yeah. I always II. say first to
never buy anything that you can't figure out what it is, right? Like, that's I mean, people can relate to this like,
would you buy you know, food if you if if you not only like
didn't know what was in it but there was no way to know like if if if like if that label on
the back was just like question marks, right? Because because there are some lights out there
like that. Yeah. Like you're if you're spending your money on something you want to know what you're getting. So, I always,
you know, like say dark skies are not like you should know
what you're spending your money on and and what the product is that you're getting. So, that I
start with that and then say, you know, look for, you know, these keywords. Yes.
Unfortunately, right now, do need certain keywords, you know, like like you can search Star. Sky friendly or 2700 K or
fully shielded but I also point to the I DA's website, Dark,
Sky.org. They do have an inventory of of certified lights and links to buy them,
not 100% of them are perfect There are a few that I've noticed in there that aren't
perfect but frankly, I'm I'm willing to take that gamble. They're more, what's more
likely going to be better than what whatever they they currently have. So, again,
Dark, Sky.org, they have an inventory of certified lights I always say to people like, I'm
here to help. That's why I mentioned the link is because if you can't find something, I usually help them find it.
That's also why I recommend like if you have something really specific and you know, it's hard to find and but you
know where it is. Show them that like bring them the bulb, give it to them and give them
the packaging and say, here it is. Here's where you can buy more. Try it out. I'm sure
you'll like it It works It works. It works. it's worked countless times Lily. We went
ahead and put the URL down there. Dark, Sky.org and I also just wanted to share quickly,
you know, Debbie has done a lot of work here in the city of Houston. It seems to be you
know, she's got a lot of headlines because Houston is a large city and there's just a lot to change but she's done
some tremendous work. Her website is Soft Light Houston.com. There are a lot of good tips and tricks and things
like that on her website as well. So, just wanted to mention that and again, she's
doing Lot of good work as as are you Stephen? Yeah. Dark Sky
is a good nickname for right? You heard new social media names. I think I appreciate
everything you're doing. The It's it's I'm I'm in awe honestly that you're you're taking up such a challenge of
of of fighting light pollution in in Houston. That's yeah. I mean, I think I have a big job but you have you have so much
more I have well, but you know, 17 thousand square miles is nothing to scoff at, right
after but yeah, Yeah, that's bigger than all of them. We combine it and Stephen. Do you ever have a problem with people
putting up lights intentionally just so you'll bring them brownies and other baked goods?
It hasn't happened yet but I am wise to that. It's something I'm like, you only get that
once I'm making a note right now. Okay. So Stephen, you said
things seem to peak in their on the rebound a little bit in that area and you kind of eluded to some of the reasons
why are you guys keeping kind of an eye on, you know, other industry trends and whatnot to
see where it might start to go back up again and trying to get ahead of that curve a little. Yeah, it's it's tough. I mean,
the recent crash in the price of oil, you know last year it
was a blessing and a curse. We did see a reduction in light but a of the businesses we're
working with. either had really high turnover or no longer
existed or and you know, the form anymore. So, we have to
remake contacts, right? It got kind of start all over again. So, we we do do training for
for oil gas operators, and sort of safety and health training
and and lights is a is a is a big you know, that's how we get out to people with the field.
You know, it's talking about lights and the safety context. but yes, we we are trying to,
you know, keep abreast. It's an uphill battle. The Permian is huge. There are hundreds of different operators and and we
kind of have to triage and pick the ones that we we think we'll have the most success with and are the the the closest to us
are producing the most light but we are working out it actually we do have just this
week new approach to monitoring light pollution in that region
and I just confirmed this like yesterday, it'll be astronaut photography, Astronauts on the
ISS will be photographing the region every 3 months really to to monitor for changes in the
in the Permian Basin specifically but in the reserve as well. So, that's another
tool to to measure and and try to get ahead of things. That's fantastic. Yeah yeah that's
amazing and one of our Our our buddy Don in the backroom helped us with this one. You
know, Stephen J O'meara was talking about, you know, light pollution and stuff like that
and we, you know, we found out through the whole course of this whole thing that a very small percentage of amateur
astronomers are part of Ida. the part of the IPA and I
forget what the number was Stephen and then I and then I realized that I'm not a member of the IDA and I felt very
cool. What are you doing I'm good on that. Yeah. Yeah. That's 2 years for me. So,
Debbie convinced me. We'll see. I don't have Debbie to in my ear to tell me to do the cool
things. So, that's that's like I don't have Hummel in my ear too though. but the website is
down there. Yeah, I'm trying to find out. See you There.org. Go there and again, it's at the
price of a, you know, an astronomy club membership really helps them do what it is
that they do to combat you know, excessive light pollution, keep our skies Dark and you know, we were joking
with Stephen yesterday while we recorded it previously but I said, yeah, we'd love to come
to Botswana to see these really dark skies and he said, you know what? Really dark skies are actually really bright skies. Yes. Yeah. You see so
much more of the natural light of the universe when you're not having to contend against everything else that we're
putting out there. So and you know, I've always likened it to as a kid growing up. My parents
would get on us for keeping the door open or going in and out because you know, the air is
getting out right? The cold cold air is getting out. You wouldn't you wouldn't run your air condition air conditioner
to to to cool the outside air. So, why have lighting to light up the night sky, right? and II
always tell people the same thing. It's like, look, if you're going to light things up, light em up. Just make sure it's going in the right
direction. You know, don't don't light up the night sky. To me, that's like opening the door to air condition the
outside. That's a great analogy, Joe. That's a great analogy. I actually absolutely right. Yeah. You know, Another
question that we could feel for you Stephen is what in the world can we do to help? I mean, besides Dark, Sky.org and
not yelling at our neighbors and throwing and you know, there's only so much brownie
mix. I think there's only so much you can throw it to the light and talking about. So, what, you know, like what what
other steps can there can we take if maybe, you know, we're we're running into those issues
You can There's a lot you can do. I mean, obviously, it's the first thing you can do is be an
example to others like if you do nothing else, if you don't join the Ida, if you don't talk to your neighbors, if you don't
have any money to anybody who deserves it, just just focus on your own lights at home. You
know, because you know, again, you you benefit. it's it's yours Sky. It's your money.
you're wasting on on on lights that's being spilled into the sky. It's it's your health.
it's your environment. You're living in that. that's that you're protecting. So, You
know, even for the selfish people out there, it it makes sense to do it. in terms of
what else in terms of the next steps. I mean, the joining the IDA is a great first step and
getting involved but the the biggest barrier, the number one barrier to widespread adoption
of of night sky friendly lighting is awareness. So talking about it to people being consistent about it,
bringing it up, pointing it out to people politely really is the best thing you can do and
it may take multiple times but once People see it once. people
and once it clicks, they're like, oh, that light is producing a lot of glare. Yeah. Oh, a lot of that light isn't
going on to the ground. They are cursed for life. right? They have been bestowed the
curse of skiing. what has been in their face, their entire lives and how that's how much
light we waste. Yeah. And then there's no going back and it's just a matter of time Yeah,
you're absolutely right. You know, it's kind of an interesting thing. I, you know, not not to tell a story here but I guess I'll tell a story
recently in my I live in an entertainment district here in Houston and one of the bars had
a kind of a COVID reopening party. Many people may have seen it on TV because they were going to, you know, flaunt the
mask rules and everything else like that several months back but they had these lights just
pointing everywhere over the night sky. These really high beam lights and things like that and you know, somebody
posted on the neighborhood Facebook page to say, oh great look, you know what's happening? This is, you know, just a blight on the on the sky
and everything else like that and a lot of people chimed in and said no, I think this is great. you know, seeing these lights is fantastic and I've mentioned something about.
well, you know, all the things that you've mentioned, you know, this is a shame because it takes away from our our, you
know, night sky. We can't see certain things that we were able to see once before the circadian rhythms, migratory
patterns, things like that and an actual Md, a doctor chimed in and said, hey, these are
pretty incredible claims. If you're going to say this stuff, you better have data to back it up. Hundreds of studies. Yeah,
well, you know, it just kind of shocked me that a doctor would say this and so, you know, of course II did my Facebook thing which is to post all kinds of
links to studies and whatnot and you know, it took a little bit of time but you know,
several people said, thank you. You know, I preach, I did. I didn't know that was a problem, right? I didn't know that hundreds of birds were into
buildings in Galveston during the migration patterns and things like that. So, like you said, all we can do is educate
and hopefully one person at a time and we can get them on board but it starts with us
Absolutely start. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's again, the biggest barrier is is awareness and in
any way you can help with that. It's it's good. It's good work. Yeah. I saw Deborah ask if
we've talked to law enforcement. I'm not sure if she's referring to our area but yeah we we do work with local
enforcement. It it I mean yes they will be believed. We tend to see them as a last resort.
It's it's something that we we don't want to find anybody We
don't want to call the cops on but nobody likes that. It makes enemies. They're they're no more likely to fight it. You
know, next city council meeting, they'll probably be in there saying, I can't believe I got fined $200 for having, you
know, these tiny little Christmas lights and then of course, that's how they're going to portray it. Something like that regardless of how
bright it actually is. It they always say it's just it's just this little thing but
We want to make friends but yes, code enforcement. and law enforcement. We do work with
them and we we do try to train them. Actually, one of the things especially out here
where it's dark especially if you're driving down the highway between like or Fort Davis or
Alpine where where there's nobody out there at night and let's say a cop pulls somebody
over and they have this bright blue flashing lights of times.
Those white. Oh no, I'm sorry. There's blue lights on on emergency vehicles are blinding at night. I don't know if they
realize that. So, it's something we've been mentioning is that, you know, actually like I know you don't want to get hit but you're more likely
to be hit with those lights on than with the lights off because with the lights off the oncoming cars, headlights
illuminate your car and it doesn't blind the driver. So
anyway, it's just on the side and that kind of clues like oh yeah you know it's blue light maybe isn't the greatest. it
kind of scatters in your eye and then they start thinking about it Anyway. yeah. Yeah. Wow. Fascinating stuff and I
mean, you know, you we take that kind of stuff for granted because we've grown up with all
those sorts of things We've all grown up with lights outside. You know, if you live in the suburbs, I guess but if you
don't, then, you know, it's it can be kind of a shock to move somewhere where there are
lights, you know, vice versa, you can be in the city your whole life and then go out and be like, what is this you know,
there's no lights out there so. Right. It's it is education
Stephen and you're doing amazing work, man. I mean, I've always admired you for all the astronomy that you do But on top of that, yes, it's the
saving of astronomy. What you're doing out there and you know, it it takes a team. We
know Bill is an amazing asset for you to have there as well. I know y'all are a great team,
man. Absolutely and and Bill is such a cool laid back dude. Yeah and I love that. you know,
he'll just be like, well, can you turn the lights down a little bit you know, and people you know, you're very convincing. Yes, I will. And
you have it is a very high rate of success. Yeah, you definitely have that that more you know, you get more bees
with honey than vinegar yourself whereas me and maybe Joe and maybe our producer Don
might be a little bit more towards the aggressive side but learning, we're getting better because of people like you and
you know, we'll try not to throw brownies at people as much as possible if we can but also food fights are fun. So,
Alright. I was going to ask you. Oh, there we go. Barry Allen had an educational
approach instead of a punitive approach achieves much better results. Absolutely and that's a great way to put it. Yeah.
Alright, Stephen, I was going to ask, where can we see you next?
I will be what live program will I be doing next? I'm going to do a live stream of the
Persian meter shower in August. Working on on Nice. I'm here at the Observatory borrowing some
techniques from you will using night vision and such. We're going to try that out. See some meteors and have some meteor
and comet experts on as well. So, look for that later in August. In the meantime, you
can find me on Instagram as well. It's at Homo underscore Stephen and yeah, hopefully,
I'll have time for another coffee or an astronomy eventually. It's been a busy summer and I'm I'm hoping I'll
have time. It's been a man. Yeah. And that's going to be awesome. I can't wait to see some meteors from from West
Texas and of if y'all aren't familiar with Stephen Hummel and his work on Red Sprites
they need to check out his Instagram and check out his post. Yes, he's salsa, right?
There's Sprite time, right? exactly and I'm secretly, I'm secretly like, okay, it's going
to get dark enough in about 15 minutes Look at that. You can't see my other monitor but it's a
radar screen. It's a radar. There's signs out there. I gotta I gotta check on him.
Yeah, they're awesome. When we're going after this when we're at Dark Sky sites, you know, I'm always messaging
home. There's a storm by me, know, or vice versa and and we end up photographing sometimes
the same Red Sprites which is pretty amazing. I'm not sure if we've done the same exact one. I know I've done the same story
but I'm hoping. Yeah. Yeah. I get a right from the same angle or or from different angles the
same exact Sprite and then we can. Yeah data somehow. Yeah, I'm hoping hope to convince
Nasa to do that too. Meaning, do that from the ISS at the same time. we're doing that on the ground and oh yes. then
we'll all be. That would be awesome. Yeah. Steven, I believe that's your Instagram
handle right there. Yeah. So, for anybody who's not following Stephen, please give him a follow on Instagram. You will
find pictures of those sprites, other objects that Stephen is
photographing. We didn't even touch on the Astro photography. You do. You are an amazing as a photographer. So, thank you.
give him a follow. He's excellent as a photographer,
researcher, Dark, Sky advocate, real renaissance man.
a great way to put it, Joe. You know, I've been following Homo for a long time. You know, I'm
we're on last name basis as he and I even. So, there you go. First names but you know, it's
called me humble. Exactly. Yeah. So, it's called me. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great pleasure to always have you, man. You're
just absolutely enthusiastic about not only astronomy but the advocacy side of what we do
as well because it's not always just going out for your own personal reasons to do
astronomy and you know that more than anyone doing the amount of outreach you do at the McDonald's and Is that kind
of coming back? Stephen? Is that is are we starting to see a little bit of a little bit of
research back out there? Yeah, we we we're open to the public. We have been since January and
we we are doing Star parties not not the Texas Star Party Donald's Star Party four times
a week. That's Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday reservations are acquired and
they're all sold out. I think through July 0. Wow. That doesn't have anything to do with COVID. That's how it's always been. They always sell
out months in advance. Pent-up demand. Yeah. Yeah. And hopefully, we'll return to fully normal operations later
in early fall or so, and we'll have special viewing nights and things like that. Again, look
for the look for the big scopes just in time for the cool weather and yeah,
yeah. Alright. well, thanks again for having me on. I appreciate the opportunity and and thanks for putting this
whole event together. This has been an amazing show. I enjoyed seeing all the other speakers
and activities. you've you've had this program So, hats off to you. I know how much work you put in this project and it
shows it's great. We appreciate that Stephen and again, thank you for all of the things that you do and others at the
McDonald's Observatory to to, you know, kind of help us out on the Texas Star Party side and it's just a great kind of
relationship that we have there. So, really appreciate everything that you guys do and hopefully we'll see you in
person at the next Texas Star Party in 2022. Alright, see you next year. Take care Stephen. Buh bye. Thank you so much
brother. Awesome. stuff. Joe. I don't even know. So cool man to
have Steven here with us. I mean, you know, like you said, we we hang out on the regular online, right? When doing
astronomy and stuff but it's cool to have Stephen over here to kind of talk about something a little more serious and something that you know, I'm
learning and I need to be a a little bit better, a little bit more diligent about and I need to get in in this thing and
start helping. you know, I really, I really feel that way. I agree, right? It's it's one of these things that you know,
we complain a lot about when we're amateur astronomers about the night sky and the
deteriorating situation and conditions there. You know, we always point to things like Starlink, you know, blame
Travis Yeah, Travis but you know, there are people on the
forefront of this battle and you know, again, I don't use that term lightly. It is a battle like Stephen like Bill
Ren like Debbie Moran and others who are doing the lion share of the work and it's time for the rest of us to really
step up and help them out. I can't remember what the percentage was but it was
something like 1% of amateur astronomers or you know, maybe less than 5% roughly are
members of the International Dark Sky Association. We've got, we've got increase that tremendously. We've gotta get
the resources out there to help combat the light pollution issues that we see. Otherwise, we're not going to have dark
skies to be able to to visit anywhere nearby. You know, we're going to have to go to Botswana to see those dark
skies and then, you know, the cottage industries will pop up there as well to support that you know, are dark skies,
right? So, yeah, that's how it goes, right? Yeah. So, so like Steven said, you know, start with yourself. There's
something that we can do whether it's turning off the lights at night, getting better lighting for our homes and
things like that. Just start there and then talk to people, make sure that they're aware of what's happening. Use the
resources that are on the Dark Sky Association website. Use resources that Debbie Moran has put up on her soft light
Houston website. There are a number of resources there and it doesn't take long to get educated on these things. you
know, go out and be an advocate like Debbie says there. If we don't do it, it'll be twinkle twinkle little star. how I wonder if you are, yes II say,
you know, Houston calls itself Space City. Unfortunately, it's hard to see space in Space City now. you know, we do this
outreach events all the time. 4 years ago, I could see, you know, with my eight inch outreach telescope, the ring
nebula, you know, faintly from from downtown Houston. I can't see it anymore, Right. So, you know, it's even things like
that that are making outreach hard and if we can't do outreach, we can't inspire the next generation of folks who
are going to carry that mantle forward. So, you know, we're at a critical inflection point. We've gotta do all we can to
make sure we preserve the night sky. It's better myself, Joe. That's that's that's that's
exactly right and I think that the only thing that you and I can do to help this whole
situation though right now is probably to give away three
more prizes. How about that? You know, I had a feeling you're going to say that and I
was hoping you were going to say it too because I just had that itch to give away some prizes as well. but you know,
that was just a wonderful talk by step and we really appreciate everything he's doing and again, Debbie, you've
seen her comments here at the bottom. really appreciate her as well. So, alright, we've got
our last three door prizes for the 2021 Texas Star Party Drum roll. You have drum set back
there. I do Okay. we've got a
smartphone adapter. I've never seen one of these. This look absolutely amazing. Look at that. Never used it but it looks pretty interesting. Yeah,
it does. Yeah. So, we're giving away this Bonnie smartphone adapter. And the winner is
Stephanie from Plano, Texas. We had several people from North
Texas win tonight but congratulations Stephanie. Yeah, you're the winner of the smartphone adapter. Oh, look at
this. Oh, man. The sky imaging for That will young when you
when you pull it up but I yeah. So when Don and Carl told us that our friends over at Soft
Biscuit donated a copy of the Sky Imaging to the Texas Star Party to be given away as a door prize. That was the one
thing I said, You know what that and the Celestron Power Tank I want one of those, you
know, all the all the prizes are wonderful but this one was kind of top of mind for me. So, let's see who the lucky is for
this and it's Eric Rumps from Glendale, Arizona. This is going out of state to Eric
Roberts. Congratulations. You're getting the copy of the Sky Imaging from Software Bisque. That's it's not cheap
software. No. And it's great stuff. Software bisque knows what they're doing. Yeah,
absolutely. Yeah. They know what they're doing. Alright, I'm doing last door prize of the night. The Celestron Power
Tank. 0 5000, The winner is Oh, look at that Lloyd overcast of
Spring, Texas slash Fort Davis, right? Yeah. So, We know this
guy. Yeah, we know Lloyd Lloyd is the winner of the Celestron Power Tank and look, congratulations to everybody
who has won one of these prizes. Forty-seven prizes that we've given away over the last three nights will here not
including the T shirts, not including anything that that we've given away through Trivia contests. It's really a
wonderful thing and again, thank you to all the advertisers, everybody who's given a prize to give away to
one of the previous attendees at the Texas Star Party and we that we can see you all again
next year so that we can give away more prizes. So, but we're
not done yet. No, we're not. We have and I looked at the clock here. It's 9:37 PM. Yeah. we
passed that 901 mark. I think we did which is what the auction ended. That's what I thought too. Yeah. And if I if
I bring that up, I don't know Joe. Let's see if I can maybe I should go in here and just
refresh just one more time to make sure. Look at that. that. Okay. That is amazing. So,
let's go into the X bar first, shall we? And check that out. It looks like someone walked
away with a two night 3 day stay at a premium cabin at the one and only X Bar Ranch, home
of the El Dorado Star Party. The winning bid was 277. I don't know. That feels like a
steal of a deal, man. Look at 277. You know, whoever won,
I'll I'll pay you an extra $100 on top of that. No, I don't think I can do that but that is a hell of a deal. So,
congratulations to whoever won that. Awesome. That is awesome. You're going to absolutely enjoy it The night sky out
there is fantastic. Just being out there during the day is is very therapeutic. So,
congratulations to the winner there. Yeah, absolutely. Congratulations there and then
someone else is going to walk away with this one. Joe Three-day two-night stay winter
weekend package at the Prude ranch home of the the Texas Star our home away from home.
Honestly, home away from home. Absolutely and I know that. yeah, that package included a
horse trail ride, all the amenities at the Pruitt's breakfast, everything else like that. 3 days, two nights, $300,
that's a steal. So, congratulations to the winner of that package as well. Will
and I might be making road trips out to each of these places when you guys take advantage of those to sleep on
the porches. So, yeah, that's what I heard. I think you and I agree. a split gas on the way
up there. So, hey, you might have to deal with our telescopes on the field while y'all are out there but
exactly. I don't think they'll mind. So, yeah. Well, congratulations to those
winners. We're not done giving stuff away yet. We've got our Astro trivia contest coming up
in just a little bit but before we get to that, you know, we've run this the last couple of
nights We have had Kelly Beatty. interviewed here and we
have this recording that we wanted to share with everybody. In case you haven't heard it yet, Kelly is a senior editor
at Sky and Telescope Magazine and also runs all of their their their travel programs and
puts in a lot of work to figure out where to go to catch all of these awesome astronomical things and like you said, a lot
of it is the stuff you do when you're not doing astronomy and Sky and telescope just does a
wonderful job with their tours. Will and I were looking at of the things that they have. coming up and thought, you know
what? We've gotta convince the wives to do this stuff. Yeah. Yeah. That's something I'm
working on. actively actually in the back and so, so yeah, we wanted to share this with
everybody here. Our interview with Kelly Beatty with Sky and Telescope Tours
Welcome everybody. We're here with Kelly Dee who is a senior editor with Sky and Telescope
and the man who puts together all of the sky and telescope tours. Kelly, how are you? Hey, it's great to be with you.
Wonderful. We're glad to have you with us. Hey, we've heard a lot about this guy and
telescope tours Can you tell us a little bit about what these tours are and what goes into
creating a tour? Sure. and I'll use the one that's coming up in just on on Thursday as an
example. It's an an eclipse of the sun but the path starts in Canada and heads off, you know,
over the North Pole to Siberia. Not a lot of people are going to see it in the northeast. It'll be a deep partial eclipse. 2. Years ago, I
started planning to fly a plane into the path of the angular so
that a few dozen people with us on the plane could could see it and it's it's taking a long
time a lot of work but it's coming to fruition and going to be leaving from Minneapolis before Dawn fly over Southern
Canada see the annual eclipse and and then Sit back down in Minneapolis after a flight to
about 3 hours. that flight has been 2 years in the making and that's kind of the the cadence
that we work on in planning the tours at Sky and Telescope. Now, there are some tours that
we are doing every year like we do an annual tour to Iceland and in fact, the picture that
you see behind me is my background. I took that picture in 2019. We had an exceptional
year of Aurora's that year and as you might know, we're coming up on solar Just three or 4
years. So, it should get pretty good. That's a tour. That's pretty easy to set up because
it's kind of plug and play but this eclipse flight or or taking people to, you know, to
the Yucatan Peninsula for an eclipse or Easter Island. All of those are coming up. Those take a lot of careful
coordination. We have a couple of companies that we work with that we really trust and and are happy with that provide the
very best accommodations and it's it's it's a lot of work but it's very fulfilling.
Absolutely. Now, with the pandemic, you know, obviously, having hit the entire world and
people staying away for travel for quite some time now and you know, thankfully, it looks like
we're starting to emerge from that a little bit. What's the demand look like for astronomy based or space based type of
travel? Well, like a lot of travel, I think there's plenty of pent-up demand not only because people are tired of
being locked up and they really do want to travel again but also because lot of people had
trips planned that they ended up not going on. They didn't spend that money and a lot of people we find on our tours are
sort of, you know, baby boomers who have lots of free time. They're still adventurous. They
have a lot of disposable income and so they're they're willing to go on interesting trips and
and you mentioned the pandemic, we're not for that. I would just be coming back from a 10 day tour of Italy. Huh? Where
we go to, you know, Galileo place and go visit the Meteorite collection at the
Observatory and that's been rolled over to next year. So,
it's true. The pandemic really hit us hard especially like the total solar eclipse last year
in December. I just, it's it's painful to even think about right There'll be more
eclipses, right? And there are more opportunities and and so we're actually kind of front
loading our tour inventory if you will with lots of places to
go not just for eclipses. We have tours plan for for Botswana and and Australia and
Italy. I mentioned all of which are are not connected to any particular event at all. They're just wonderful places
to go. Wonderful and for somebody who's looking to do one of these tours for the first time, what's the best bit
of advice you can give to one of those first timers as as they embark on one of these tours? what we try to do? You
know, there's an always an astronomical component to the tourist be at an eclipse or or
like the Vatican Observatory but we we're not like it's not like a march from to
Observatory to see everything we possibly can. People go to see eclipses often because
they're in a place where they've always wanted to go. Chile in South America or
Hawaii or there's an eclipse coming up in Easter on Easter Island and who hasn't wanted to
go to Easter Island, right. And it provides a convenient opportunity to to make that
dream come true. So, we we make it a well rounded set of activities not only for the you
know, the the the die hard stargazer in the family but maybe the spouse who may or may
not be as interested or whoever is coming along in that way, everyone has fun. The thing about eclipses in particular,
solar eclipses, you know, it's you're you're depending on the weather and so we want to make
sure that the tour itself is is very satisfying and a great experience so that the eclipse although the highlight of the
tour, it's not a make or break situation if we happen to get clouded that we still have a
great tour Excellent. Well, I know you had a question you wanted to ask as well. Yeah you
know, you've been to a couple of Texas star parties I think, right? and II was wondering you
know, because II seem to be together to ask this question of all of our guests but I'm I'm interested in this sort of
direction of a thing like what is one thing you took away from the Texas Star Party? I know you called it the the land of
large Dobbs, the land of the giant Dobbs. I mean and and and why not, right? You're going to
take advantage of of the the the clarity and and the other darkness of that location. You
might as well bring as much as you possibly can to see all the things that you've you've read in books, you know, like the
Herschel 500 lists and things. Things that you've never been able to see from your home because of light pollution or
lack of aperture, whatever it might be and here, it's like the mecca of big telescopes in
dark skies and so I have not been to TSP in a number of years. I am itching to get back
We have a a lot here soon and we're we're hoping to all go back to you know, with the
whole last couple of years having to cancel. Of course, it's not been that fun and so hopefully you can join us out
there. maybe have the Sky and telescope tour, bring some people to Texas our party and then we can all just have a
good time out there. That'll be pretty cool. Interesting. You should mention that because of course, we have a tour to Texas
for the eclipse in 2024. We thought about making our way out to McDonald's Observatory
in Fort Davis and we're still working on that possibility. We'll be there and you won't because you'll be in the path
of the eclipse somewhere. Yes, Excellent. Last question I've
got for you, Kelly. You've obviously traveled the world to observe a lot of these
wonderful astronomical phenomenon Had an opportunity to see a lot of the sites and and and whatnot. Is there
something that's still on your bucket list that you would like to do that that you haven't done yet? in terms of visiting
places in the world and within an astronomy? Yes, it's coming up this December Sky Telescope
has a tour to a total solar eclipse. the only places you can see are Antarctica. Wow
it's too cold. I'm sorry. and and out in the middle of the ocean and so I'm going to be on
a cruise ship that as you know, it's summer in the Southern Hemisphere December is and so
there are a lot of cruise ships and in this particular cruise as many will will get to set
foot on the Antarctica. I get to play with the penguins and that is definitely on my bucket list and my wife, she would not
be denied. She is definitely coming along and we're really looking forward to that one. Cool, Excellent. Alright and
for anybody who wants to get more information about these tours, where can they go just our telescope website, Sky and
telescope.org and there's a nav button at the on the homepage. Big one that says tours and
just click. We've got ten active tours right now with two
more that I'm about to load that II. Can't tell you about but okay. It's it's a great
selection and II encourage people to have a look and you know, if they have questions, fire off a message to me, KB at
Sky and Telescope.org and I will happily get back to you. Excellent and they can you
online. You've got a podcast as well that people can subscribe to. I do. It's a once a month
podcast basically for beginners, you know, for people who who are just getting an understanding of the sky. It's
like 12 minutes long, no equipment required. Just as I say, just bring your curiosity at my podcast and I'll and I'll
show you the night sky. Excellent. Well, Kelly, we really appreciate everything that you're doing. Can't wait
to participate in our first guy and telescope tour. That's something that I was hoping to do this here in Chile but
obviously wasn't able to do that because of COVID but we look forward to all the wonderful things that you and your team are putting together.
So, thank you very much for joining us today. It's my great pleasure guys. Thanks so much for having me. Absolutely. Take
care. Take care.
Alright and we are back everybody and we have a lot more show coming. I mean, not a
lot but we have some. this is like the the cherry on top for all the stuff. It's all it's all come to this moment, Joe,
where everyone's Trivia skills will be put on display for all
the world to see, right? That's right. So, we've done this trivia contest now going on the
third night The last two nights were just absolutely fantastic fun. We had a great time with it and a little too, right?
That's part of what we do at Tsp. We we have fun. We learn a little bit and you know, we hope we capture that with and
we give away stuff. So, that's what we're doing here. So, yeah, let's get right into the
trivia contest if you're good with that. Yeah and also, do we want to mention really quick. We're going to throw another
Virtual T shirt into the class in a little bit and I think you know, maybe should I show it?
Should I should II don't know? do they deserve it? Yeah, they deserve it. They deserve it but
they've been here for three and a half hours with this. No, I guess they deserve AT shirt so I think y'all what to do if
you've ever been to the Prude Ranch and you've ever driven out to the gate either leaving the star party going into Fort
Davis to get a bite to eat or something like that, going to Porters to get something, you know, some more drinks for your
ice chest. You've seen this statement on the outside or I'm
sorry, on the inside wall facing on their way out of the Prude ranch, right? It doesn't
have the hashtag in front of it because I don't think those were invented in those days not in 1997 but it does have on the
gate which means so long friend and in no less terms but we
want you to type in hashtag Dios if you want one of these amazing T shirts and maybe Joe,
maybe I can add Don's screen here. There we go. Let's do that. If y'all do want to order
a shirt, maybe you didn't win one tonight or any of the other nights and you want one for the family or your or whatever
you're going to want to go to Texas Star party.ORG and on there, you'll find on the
second banner. up top is the T shirt online store. sign up
sheet. You can get that and get in your info, your size and all
that and AT shirt will magically arrive at your house in not too long of a time period. It's amazing how that
works, right? It's it's like some sort of magic. I don't know. it's magic but end it like I said, the summer fashion
scene is going to be nothing without these shirts. So, you know, get yours while you can.
These things are going to fly off the shelves. Like I said, you know, Paris Milan, New
York, they're everywhere. when it comes to fashion. So, make sure you get your Texas Star Party shirt for 2021 and be the
envy of everybody as you walk outside and look, all the comments are coming in. with
the can. That's it. Yeah. This is your last chance to win one these things. Otherwise, you've
gotta buy one. We've got one to sell. We want you to buy one as well but we want to give one
away. in addition. so, Well, yeah, let's jump into Trivia if
you're ready for it, I am ready for some. I cannot wait to see what Dawn has has in store for
us and these these rocking out aliens are at the you know, those might be the the folks
over in Marfa that or maybe it's Stephen O'meara and his buddies with green Lasers, right? Yeah, maybe So, let me
go ahead and make this big for everybody. We are going to jump right into this. We're going to
get into the rules real quick so everybody knows what's going on and we're going to have some fun. So, as we mentioned
earlier, here are the rules when you log in to Mentee, use your real name so that we can
verify who you are if you win, don't use nicknames that wants to give you a nickname and as soon as you jump in, cancel
that out. Put your real name in and then click join Quiz. Don't just hit Join quiz and jump in
because we're not going to be able to know who you know, horse is or you know, baseball
or or whatever it is that they assign you Each question you're
going to have 20 seconds to answer and the the thing with it is you're going to get points if you answer correctly,
you're not going to get points. If you miss the question. However, the faster you answer
the question, the more points you're going to get. It's a scale of I think zero to 1000. So, if you answer it really
quickly, you're going to get close to a thousand points. If you take a little longer, you're getting closer to, you know, using all 20 seconds
there, you're going to more points. So, the faster you answer, the more points you're going to get and what we're
going to do is give away three prizes. Will, should I show them the prizes real quick? I
think maybe it'll be a nice incentive if you. yeah, let me switch over here if you don't
mind. get. So, get your names in there guys. Get it done.
because we want y'all to play. We want want to see record number of participants playing for these prizes because look
at that power tank. This is a lithium ion battery, You know, bottle guys. It is. yeah, a
power tank. It's not huge in form factor but this thing will keep you going for days. Yes.
And god, man, I wish I could jump into this to this game here. No, I know to win this
thing. not that I would win it. There are a lot of smart people that are playing as well but that is a nice prize. So, first
place winner of the trivia contest gets a Celestron power tank lithium The second place
winner gets a Fifty-dollar Amazon gift card from the Houston Astronomical Society.
Yeah. and third place gets AT shirt and hat combo from our friends over at Infinity. They
make some really cool T shirts and hats and other apparel as well. So, the third place
winner is going to come away with something that's really cool. Sure. that not quite as cool as the Texas Star Party
shirt but it comes close. Yeah, that's really close. Five different vibe Dark does an
amazing job. Does he really does II really like hanging out with him too because you can just go by his booth and he's
always got everything so tidy and he's just a chill guy. Such a cool guy to talk to. He loves
astronomy and you can tell because he puts that love into his artwork. He does that himself and he really does. He
does everything himself. It's truly a home brew business and infinity is somebody that we
love to to work with and just amazing stuff but mint to
Me.com is the place you want to go and I think we even have a QR code for that, Joe, do we
need that? Yeah, we do. Let's get to it. So, two ways to the trivia contest here tonight. You can either open up your
smart device, your laptop, whatever you want to use. Go to WWW.mentee.com. MENTI and use
the code 64821692. Again, that's
64821692 or you can use the QR Code here. Most modern smart devices allow you to open up
your camera app, scan that QR code. It'll take you right there and you'll be able join
in the fun. So, I see a lot of people jumping in right now. We're going to give everybody a minute or two to jump in and
will I figured, you know, if there are any comments that we can flash up right now just to give people some time to jump
into the trivia contest here. let's go ahead and do that. Yeah, we have a lot of cons in
there again and if you want AT shirt after the Trivia, we're going to draw one of y'all
lucky winners. All you have to do is do a Bob Snyder did. It's super simple. Yeah, that wasn't
too tough, was it? I don't think so. Yeah. Hopefully it wasn't. Hopefully, Bob will comment here in just a minute
and let us know just how tough it was. Shouldn't be too tough. Well, he tried earlier. It
looks like he missed a little bit. I'm so sorry. but he did
but he came back. you know, he came correct. Yeah, sorry Bob. I had to I had to use you as an example My brother Bob is one
of my good buddies from out on the observing field. He's just he's a cool dude and so super
cool to have him here with us and he knows how to laugh. He knows. he said it was hard for
me. I got via
So, it has to be in exactly the way that will showed it earlier. via Con Dios, all one
word and that'll get you entered into the prize giveaway for that last T shirts. Last
one and there's the last one and it's the last one we're going to give away and again, y'all can, you know while we're
getting set up for the minty stuff and y'all are getting your codes in for the minty again, I put the code in the
chat. So all you gotta do is go to minty Meter.com and type that code in and you're in the room with us but last call T
shirts. I think we're going to be selling this for a little while after the event, We will but don't wait, Don't sleep on
this and then wake up next week and go, oh, you know what? I need that t-shirt because you never know when this kind of
limited kind of thing is going to stop. So, just make sure you get your, you secure your T
shirt early. You want to do that at the regular Star Party too and we're actually at 1
year. I didn't do it and I didn't get AT shirt. I had to have one mailed to me which was sad but it it was great. I got
and because if you didn't get the t-shirt, Joe, you didn't go. Yeah, that's it. It's that
whole fomo thing, right? Fear of missing out. So, make sure you get your T shirts in. We've got a few more people trickling
into the quiz here. We're going to give you another 10 seconds or so. So to in and then we're going to go jump right into the
quiz one last call for me, Trivia. So, alright. Well, I
think we're going to go ahead and advance to the next screen again. remember everybody questions. 20 seconds To answer
each question, answer it right? You get points. You don't answer it correctly, You don't get points. The faster you
answer, you get more points and well, I think we've seen this a lot over the last couple of
days. Somebody might be in the in the lead there but then all
of a sudden they lose it. They they miss a question and somebody else jumps in. So, just because you see somebody
with what appears to be a large lead, these things change quickly. Yeah, I saw Elsa said you jump in. We've got a number
of people in. Try to give it another shot. Salsa. We'll give you another ten to 15 seconds
to jump in. Yeah, definitely. We want to get, we want to let everybody have a fair chance here and I saw Christopher said
his iphone won't let him do it Sometimes when you're watching, you know, a live stream like this and then you're trying to
do another thing on the cellphone or whatever. sometimes the smartphones can get kind of kind of dumb. So
hopefully y'all can find AA laptop or a desktop web browser
that allow you to go to Minty.com and use that code
64821692. It's in all the chats, all the, all the different places have it. Yeah. And it seems like we got a
couple of people not being able to join but then we've got Thirty-three people in. So, I'm not sure if you can't use the
QR code, try the code. If you can't use the code, try the QR code. Let's let's do it that way. So, whatever doesn't seem
to be working, we'll Try the other way. Yeah. Alright, we
see people starting to come in. I've been there and again, we're going to give just another 10 seconds or so for
other people to try to jump in. We see more people coming in. Oh, look at that. They are
coming in. So, things seem to be working. Okay. Alright, here we go. Question number one.
What was the next to the common name of the comet that was visible to the naked eye in July of 2020? Was it Comet Neo
Howie's comet Comet, or Halbach? Oh, This is the time
to watch. Yeah. What's that? Will I have a picture of it? Yeah, I do too. a great one but
it's it's a picture. 3 seconds left. Time is up. Alright.
Twenty-five people got it correct. Comet Neo wise was the name of the the common name of the comment that was visible to
the naked eye in July. 2020. So, Comet Neo is is more formally known as C slash 2020
F three Neowwww and that was a picture of it. Although I didn't get anything that closely resembled that at all.
So, no, like that's amazing. Alright, let's see who's in the
lead here. Look at Israel Israel he won
contests the fastest for the first question and it's pretty close from the get go. Mike Napper and Debbie Moran
rounding out the top three Alright. Alright, let's go to
question number two.
Capela the sixth, the brightest star in the night sky is located in this constellation. Is it Orion Aids? Ursa Major or
Aiga? This do I know You know, at
first, I saw Ryan and I thought it said, I need, onion. onions,
onion. Yes. you gotta peel the layers back. They make you cry.
Alright, Nineteen people got it. correct. Is the constellation at Capela? Is it
There it is. Yeah. Capela located in the Constellation Aiga, the brightest star in the
constellation Aura Beautiful start. Alright, let's see where things are. It was the fastest
here. Oh, Tom Weidman was the fastest and that malted him in
the third place and Debbie Moran is now the new leader. Alright, this is interesting. So far, I see Matt Devore is
coming in in the top five. Yeah, Matt by the way, you gotta mention from Stephen
O'meara the other day. So, hopefully you got a chance to watch that interview. Absolutely. Alright, question
three, here we go. Not so fast to get more points which planets had a very close
conjunction on December 21st 2020. was a Jupiter and Mars, Saturn and Venus, Saturn and
Jupiter, Jupiter, and Pluto and Mars and Venus
This one was a pretty spectacular event and then a lot of people, even those non
astronomers that I know observe this cool. I'm glad. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Alright, most
of the the people got It was Saturn and Jupiter. There was a very close conjunction between those two planets on December
2120 twenty. As a matter of fact, there were less than .1 Arc minutes apart. On that particular night. it was a
beautiful sight indeed. Very beautiful. Alright, let's check
out the leader board.
a little bit of a flip. Mike Napper was fastest in that catapults him up to the top. Matt Devore comes in second.
Stephen went to third. Debbie Moran in fourth place. Alright, let's keep it going here.
Question four, who's credited
with the first reported observation of Mone hint. if it wasn't Charles Messier, the lord was with his Leviathan
telescope, John Herschel or Chinese astronomers Oh, I see
what Don did here. Sneaky devil dog. He's in the background
laughing here. Time is up. Alright. Alright. Yes. Yeah.
You know, he was able to get a few people but not everybody there. So, the Chinese astronomers didn't know the
bright guest star in the year 1054 and that guest star which was visible during the daytime
is is the Star that exploded and left us with the remnant that became known as Mone. So,
nice tricky question there. Don. Let's see what that did to our leader board things up here.
Debbie Moran back in the lead by thirteen points and over
David driven and David's we've got Mike Napper close on your tail. The top three there. Look
at others coming in Salsa very strong showing. Yeah. awesome.
You got to see she was able to get into the the quiz as well. Definitely. Alright, Question
five, this is once we get through this, it'll be the halfway mark based on the tilt of it's North Pole relative to
earth. This planet has the most extreme of liquidity also known as axial tilt in the solar system. Is it Venus Uranus,
Neptune Bars, or Saturn? It's a tough question. It's my second
left. Yeah, this is a cup. Time is up Wow. Look at that. It's
actually Venus and a lot of people. Yes. A lot of people miss this one but we'll explain
why. Venus nearly spins on its head. When you look at Venus spin relative to the other
planets, it spins the other way and so, looking at the diagram there, it's it's at 177 177°. A
lot of people select Uranus because it's on its side and think that's it but it's indeed Venus I have a feeling this
completely wrecked the leader board here. I agree with you. Look at Joe Dellinger and Ken
Francis coming in. Oh, that's the catapult. Stephen Wicker
and Kent to the top. Debbie Moran holding on the third place. Joe Dillinger was the fastest and that puts him back
in contention here Alright, we're halfway through. So, we're getting to the second
half now. Question six of ten.
scientists were able to image a black hole for the first time in which galaxy. Oh, he drop
it. A galaxy Virgo AM Eighty-seven Milky Way Galaxy or the Triangle Galaxy M. 33.
How many pallets I know. It's almost like there's a universe full of them. I would imagine 3
Seconds to get your answers in. everyone. and time is up. and
most people got this one. correct as well. It is indeed. Virgo A. So you can see that
picture of Virgo A. they're massive galaxy and in Virgo of course and you can see that
blue jet coming off the side there and over to the right which is just an incredible
image to be able to catch and if you could see it in the telescope even more incredible. I've seen that in Larry
Mitchell's Thirty-six-inch telescope. Yes, I have. Yeah. Alright, let's see the leader
board again. These questions are a little tough. It's changing kind of the face of this contest here. Oh, Stephen
Winter holds on the first place. Can Francis in second. Mike Napper third. So, alright. This is getting interesting.
Tom Whiteman was the fastest with that question. Question
seven of ten. This cluster contains more
stars than any other in the Milky Way Galaxy. and which cluster has the most stars is
an omega. The great Hercules cluster and forty-seven tone or
two at it. wow, it's coming now or
later. Time's up everybody. and
yeah, most of the people got this one, right? Omega and Tori Omega for contains an estimated
10 million stars and will you and I had the opportunity to observe it when we're at the
Bar Ranch a month and a half ago or so. Oh yeah and it it just never gets old and it's favorite thing. It's the first
thing I always observe out on the field at the Texas Star Party as well. Yes sir.
Alright, let's see what's going on here with the leader board. Oh It slipped here.
What's that do? Oh, Kent Francis Bolts to the lead. Yeah. Kent Francis coming in
strong. That's a pretty strong lead here, Mike. Now for a second. Montero excuse me in
third place. So Kent holding on to that strong lead. You know, I'm not, you know, anything can
happen. So, if can't misses a question, it opens the door for anybody else to jump in and our
fastest. No, yeah, Debbie was absolutely, he's coming on strong to the end here. Alright, question number eight,
the astronomer doubled the size of the universe in 1952. Was it
Walter Bod? Fritz or Harlow Chaffle, Ingle handedly doubled
with one sniper there with her wrist. Just yeah, a snap of the fingers.
I say yet. two. One lift off. Oh, I'm sorry. Time is up.
Carlos Chale. No, it was Walter. Oh, this is going to change things, Joe. Yes. Walter
Bott. 1893 to 1960. Improved variable brightness is and corrected. Hubbs Constant. So,
that was a tough question by Don there and I know a lot of people are cursing Don right now because of that question.
Send all you said, no complaints to and she is
Question nine. Alright, we're not showing the leader board right now. This cluster is the nearest of cluster to earth.
with the star cluster. the hiatus, the butterfly cluster, trapezius, or the wild duck
cluster. I've seen the show off the top of my head. I don't.
Yeah, II Do. Just because I came up with this question. How
dare you? It'll surprise you when you hear it. Oh, what it is the highest. It is the
closest open cluster to the earth. So, the high and located in Taurus approximately 150 153
light years from the earth and a beautiful open cluster. A lot of people think it's the
pleats. It's indeed the hiatus which is the closest open cluster. Awesome. Wow. Learn
something new every day. Yeah, that's why we're here. right? We're all learning. Last question, this is your last
chance to answer and hopefully come from behind and win or if you're in first place right now
to hold on to that lead and bring home that prize. this
amateur astronomer uses new fangled specs scope to observe the cats. Nebula ushered in the new astronomy. Was it John
Herschel, EE Bernard, William Huggins, or James Bradley have
a knee jerk reaction to this one but I bet I'm wrong. yeah III. Yeah, I know. I just got
it wrong though.
most people selected Bernard. No, it's actually William Huggins and that's what I would have said to be. yeah II was
thinking the same thing. William Huggins Twenty-four to 1910 became the most decorated astronomer since William
Herschel. Wow. And the winners
Winner, Winner. Calm down. That's what this guy's name. We'll announce the winners in
just a minute. because we can't just like do that right away, right? I mean, no, not not. I
know a lot of people are hissing and moaning at us right now but well, let's give away
AT shirt. We should do that. I mean, we've had the Via Con Dios on the screen for far too
long. Yes. And I'll I'll put it up there one more time. So, if you're not entered, then you can't the free t-shirt and
we'll give it just a few more seconds, Joe, I think. Yeah. And throw that T shirt
someone's direction again. if you win the T shirt, Tonight, you're going to want to.
Where's the Email? There it is. You're going to throw an Email to VT SP at Tech Star
Party.org. with your T shirt size and our friend Don will
throw AT shirt at you. Throw AT shirt with this Virtual T shirt cannon again, got a few more
seconds to get that hashtag in whatever platform you're on whether it's on YouTube or Facebook. watching either to
explore scientific deep Sky dude, Sky, and telescope
wherever it may be. Houston Astronomical Society get those entries in because we're about to start the drawing and we're
going to tumble them all around and shake em up and then someone's going to come out. The winner. I wonder who it
will be, Joe. Oh, somebody just got in at the last second. So, we're going to go ahead and draw Ready? Three, two,
The tension is just
Martin's is the winner of the T shirt. Congratulations, Martin. You are amongst the very few
right now who are in this elite club of Texas Star Party 2021 T
shirt winners and owners. So, congratulations Martin Email, V TSP at Texas Star Party.org so
we can get your size and contact information and we'll send that t shirt over your way. Awesome. Man. Congrats.
I've been seeing Martin chatting all three nights in our chat rooms. you know, because we we get all the
comments from all the different sources all in one place. Yeah. Well, that's good to see that we had some friends. We had
some new faces win. Amazing stuff, Joe. It's just it's a lot of fun to give stuff away, isn't it? It really is and just
wonderful to see somebody like Martin who's been with us for the three nights get something like this and hey look, we're
we love giving away other people's stuff we do but couldn't happen without the
generosity of all who have advertised and given prizes so that we can pass those over to
the folks that are with us. So, I think we give a little bit of time to some of those folks,
our advertisers here so we can let everybody know who's helping to support the Virtual Texas Star Party this year.
Let's do it.
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from the time it took voyager to leave the earth and reached the edge of the solar system. I went from being a baby to a
high schooler, to a university graduate, to a worker, to a business owner, and now I'm a husband, a father, a post grad
student, a science communicator, a musician, a YouTuber, and a backyard astronomer. I've been lucky to
reach this point to be able to buy some of the best equipment and amateur astronomer could dream of. There's one thing I
can't afford and that's time Astronomy has made me a more patient person and the constant
drive to get better and collect more data to capture the wonder of the cosmos is something I
have to balance with everything else in my life. So, when I see a telescope with a lower F number, I know that it's valued
to me is far greater than money alone. The telescopes value is not just the sum of its parts.
It comes from how can get it outside and how much you can get out of it. That's why I
jumped to buy the celestial and and Schmidt It's 620 millimeter
focal length that Ftwo allows me to capture the incredible Southern Hemisphere Nepali. Sometimes within a single
night. but always with revealing depth and signal.
I've been shooting the universe with the Rs eleven for years now and it's allowed me not only the satisfaction of
sharing these unique views from my end of the world but also to and track which is an area I'd
love to explore further. The Rs Ale easily crosses that divide between a consumer scope and a
scientific grade observational telescope for discovery and analysis. The real limit for
the Rasa is really how far I'm willing to take it and it's
nice to have a telescope that I won't outgrow for a long time because time is the only thing
we don't get more often.
and we're back after that awesome commercial break and you know, Celestron just had
the greatest ads. I love. I love that. Yeah. And it's just so cool. Yeah. Celest on a wonderful advertiser here this
week. Plenty of prizes. I mean, you guys have seen a lot of the the the trivia contest prizes
and and door prizes that they've given away. Celestron has been very generous as has explore scientific. So, we
wanted to give a nod to our friends over at Explore Scientific as well here. Hey, everyone. Scott Roberts and
Mike Hatch here and we're really happy to talk about something that's new and
explore scientific. We've got Observatory domes manufactured from Pulsar Observatory, right?
So, that's that's big news for us. Tell me a little bit about the story of how we got the
distributor. So, the distributor came from Pulsar who Gary Walker is the founder
and the owner and Steve Collingswood is the director and so Steve actually reached out us. Is that right? That's
right. And started talking to us about these domes and we're just excited right off the bat.
They're beautiful. They're very well, easy to assemble and just felt that it was a great fit for the Us. Yes. Yes. Now, they
have been shipping some of these to the United States but they really did need a distributor ship and a place
where you know, any kind of customer service issues might be able to be handled here in this time zone. So, but the
domes are pretty March. I mean, they're so rugged that that you know, they're trouble free and
you're going to find out that you know, they're a beautiful addition to, you know, if you put them in your backyard, you
put them out on the Observatory field wherever you are not only going going to look great but
they're going to perform great This the domes have electronics that are functional with
Bluetooth and ASC so that you can get full robotic remote
with these Observatory Anyways, if you need more information about them, you can
call us at 866-252-3811 and you
can visit our website at explore Scientific.com and chat with us live. Thanks and keep
looking up. and we've got one more spot
from Explore Scientific Really quick before we show the winners of the trivia contest.
So, bear with us just one more moment and we'll get to those winners here in a sec. Hey, everybody. This is Scott
Roberts from Marts here and we're here to talk about the Explorer Alliance, the Explorer
Alliance is explore scientific way of formalize all of our outreach, our training, our
events that we do door prizes that we give away and all the rest of it. It is a membership program and we have a couple of
different levels. One of them is free, okay? And the other one is a our platinum
membership which cost $100 but here's the deal, we're going to give you back that $100 and a
gift certificate. So, if you're buying something from Explore Scientific cost more than $100, this is a no brainer. You gotta
go ahead and join up with the Platinum membership because there are major advantages to this. Lots of benefits
including our extended care program and advanced product replacement, you'll want to
join and join today to access these member benefits, just go to explore Scientific.com and
select the Alliance Plus to choose your membership either a platinum or a legacy
It's awesome stuff there. Yeah, man. That's that's a cool program and they give you the money back when you join. It's
like it's it is a no brainer like Skype. I mean, do it. There's no reason not to but
again, we're really grateful to everything that Scott and Team at Explore Scientific have done to help support us, allowing us
to stream on their platform here and everything else that they've done. I really appreciate that. Scott and and
the rest of the team at Explore Scientific but I think everybody is tired of listening to Well, yeah, probably at this
point. I mean, I think they don't want to. Yeah, They want to get to some winners, right? Yeah, let's do it. You guys ready for some winners? I hear,
yeah, I can't hear you.
Debbie coming in strong there. Ken Francis is the winner. He
held on. Awesome. awesome stuff there. Congratulations. You are
the winner of of the Celestial Power Tank Lithium and Mike Napper finished in second place
strong showing Mike, you've got the $50 gift card from the Houston Astronomical Society
and Cameron Gillis strong showing the third place You are the winner of the Infinity T
Shirt and hat combo and our friend Deb Moran who is the fastest that last question
finished in fourth place. and Israel Montero. The winner from yesterday. So, I really
appreciate everybody joining in on this contest. I think it's a lot of fun. I really like asking this question to see
what the answers are. It just makes this event that much even
that much better. So, we'll. what do do you I think that's awesome, man. I think the only
thing I was saying about is I couldn't participate and I'm glad because it's pretty tough there so that That was fun.
Yeah, absolutely. So, for those people who won, let's show them where they can send their Email
and or where they can Email us to get their information. Pull
that up. That's the one. You got that. There you go. Yes. There we go. V TSP at Texas
Stop Hot Tea.ORG it all, right. There you go. Alright. So yeah.
to all the winners, congratulations. Send your Emails there. We'll make sure to get your contact information
so we can get those prizes over to you and again, congratulations and a great congratulations to everybody who won. and for those who
maybe didn't walk away with the prize this time, look, I never win anything at the Texas Star Party like that. I still had a
heck of a time and I'm hoping that you did too well, Joe, you did win something. 1 day at the
Texas Star Party and I wanted to mention this ion, you know when we started this but you're in Omega Sri Award recipient,
my brother. That's a pretty incredible honor to be bestowed with and I was there for that.
So it was an honor to watch you watch you get that award and you know it's it's worthy of
mention. I think I appreciate that and no it was certainly an honor and it's just sites like
me when I want it and to to hear people like Stephen J O'meara and John Dobson being previous winners. Debbie Moran,
previous winners of this award. It's pretty humbling. So, I appreciate that mention Will and as always, I enjoy doing
this stuff with you. You do a of outreach. I wouldn't be surprised to see you as a an omega century winner 1 day as
well. So, yeah, no but we'll get to some of the comments if we can here. look, I think it
was a fantastic day event. Tonight's speakers were just absolutely wonderful Time. We
get a chance to hear from David Levy. It's like hearing a rock star, right? A rock star that
waxes poetic. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, as a guy who, you
know, you and I have talked about this, we looked up to David Levy so often and they have the opportunity to talk to
him like this. It's just crazy. You know, a couple of guys who just love astronomy like you and I to get a chance to talk
to to, you know, people who are going to be in the history books. It's incredible. Who let us do this? Like, who in the
world put us at the driver's seat? I think that we bring it
on. Let's bring on. Let's bring him on as a as a way to cap the evening. I think we should
bring in mister Don Sully. There he is. There's a guy you're going to send all your hate mail. The questions were
too hard. You're on mute there, Don. Let's let's hear. Let's hear your voice there. Thank
you guys. I appreciate it III knew you'd do a great job and
I've always best in the background. Trust me. The the beauty of this whole thing was
that is that that II just managed to find the resources and got the will and Joe what
they needed and turn them loose and I think they did an awesome job. The only thing I'm the
question I have to ask is whether Carl Waltz is going to pay for security for him. He's
for these terrible Trivia questions. You know, that's a good question because he is
head of security and yes, that is true. You might need an entourage just to you know, get
around the Prude Ranch next year because I bet you there's going to be some people that are going to seek you out and
try to say, hey, why did you change the order of Jupiter and Saturn conjunction with Saturn
and Jupiter? Just trying to be sneaky. anyway III. really want to
thank. thank you both and I want to thank the folks who are behind the scenes on this.
Chris. So, carts, Rick Kirk,
you know, everybody on the TSP Operations Committee and Will
and Joe, you just made it all look so effortless IIIII. think it was wonderful. Thank you so
much guys. Yeah, you made it a blast for us. You really paved the way for it to be really simple, will and I just show
up. they put a little makeup on us. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, my **** That's the problem. You can't put enough
makeup on me. You're you've got a natural beauty to you. Do. There you go. You did it. You
did a great, a natural glow. It's like that in the nebula right there. You go meet that glow. Is that glow is the is
the happiness, the elation that he has for stomping. some people out there? That's. Yeah, absolutely. I look for that.
I'll tell you. Hey, your tough questions but they're fair. so really appreciate everything you did. again, Don to help put
this together and Dean I'm watching this one again II. Don't blame you. It's it's pretty awesome. Wash your hands
is another comment that comes up. Wash the hands. Just wash, wash, wash, wash, wash. That's important. And Courtney says,
see y'all at TSP 2022. That is an absolute absolute. We've been scrolling the the star
parties of our friends and colleagues of their Star parties as well. Down below. you can always get those and
again, the dates for the Texas Star Party Joe April 24th through May 1st I am chomping
at the bit. I can't wait. You know, just like everybody else, I was a little disappointed
when we couldn't get together this year but totally make sense. I totally get it. You know, it's it's for the best interest and the safety of
everybody involved but it looks like things are starting to get better and just keeping my
fingers crossed that everything goes according to plan and we can be together next year. Yeah and Courtney brings up a good
point. Make sure where we can find y'all you can find
at. There it is right there below his name. The Astro Joe. You're on Instagram. You're on
Facebook. You're on all these social media platforms. They got the. yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to, I'm just taking the lead
from you will, you know, at Deep Sky dude over there. If you if you are not following
Will at at the sky dude, give him a follow. Lots of cool photos, lots of cool videos.
The guy lives the life. I wish I could live. He's all over the place watching Rocket launches, capturing Sprites with Night Vision. things like that but
you know, primarily, Facebook, Instagram, and you know, all the other social medias as well. Lots of cool content out
there will give him a follow. If you're not already, that means a lot coming from you, Joe because you're a seasoned
observer and it's always a pleasure to go out and observe with my friends. I can't wait to be out. I think at Ot maybe
is the next one with Don and Joe and the rest of them. We'll all be out there. We'll be bringing beers probably
probably sharing stories and maybe throwing brownies at each other like
and I've never met a brownie. I didn't like. There you go. And a lot of people are asking that
if we're going to stream it next year, we have no idea y'all. There was this was never in the cards. This was a fly by
night operation that we threw together for y'all and I mean, we had a great time. We really
did. We had a super fun time putting this together and it's been a lot of long meetings and
a lot of technical issues and stuff but we got through it all and we did it and we had we had a laugh or two as well. I think
maybe a few left a few laughs and and again you know, for people like us. Some dreams
come true. It's like, oh, we're going to interview Stephen J. O'meara. Okay. Okay. What?
What? What? What? What? what now, what do I say? What do I do? Yeah, no, it's just
absolutely fantastic and Don, I mean, you put together a wonderful program for this year and I just have to thank
everybody who joined us Tonight David Levy Stephen Hummel, our good friend, even though we
talk to him often, it's always a pleasure to hear him and for others to get the opportunity to hear him who may not have
heard him before last night, we had the legendary Stephen Jay O'meara and got a chance to
hear what he's doing down in Botswana and then Doctor Carl Gebhardt. Like I said, I heard him before was absolutely
fascinated by the way he's able to approach these complicated topics and subjects and simplify them for common people
like like us but Doctor Gebhardt is doing amazing work at the Hobby Hobby Everly
telescope and the experiments that they're doing down there. I can't wait to see what comes out of that and on opening
night, if you want an open One of the one and only mister Larry Mitchell joining us. The
man who puts together the advanced observing program year after year. The guy, the guy
discovered Supernova and just no big deal. It's got rid of
the Supernova, right? It shouldn't be. There is what he said when he looked at it like That's not supposed to be there
and he was right. Yeah And you know, Larry is always at the upper field with his thirty-six
inch telescope but is always approachable. You can walk up
to him. Hey, can I take a look? See what's what you're doing? And he's more than willing to let you walk up that really
tall ladder in pure darkness to take a look but Larry is a
scholar and a gentleman and we really appreciate everything that he's done for Texas Star
Hardy and for our efforts here to put this together for everybody and the Fort Bend Astronomy Club. We can't finish
this off without giving them a huge thank you. and you know, they they turned lemonade
lemons into Lemonade for us. You know, when the when the weather got bad and they did a great job Yeah. Yeah. So,
thanks to Tony Wheezy, The rest of the folks who joined us, Jeff left. I'm going to forget
everybody's brewer, Brewer, Manly, Sonny Manley and there's
one more I'm missing, right? Yeah, maybe there is. I'm not sure. Oh, gosh II knew I would
do this but to the to the folks with Fort Bend and the Fort Bend Astronomy Club, we really thank you for everything that
you guys did to help bring this together as well. It was a wonderful event. We all learned quite a bit from that presentation So, we did and
thank you to I think. Oh, go ahead. Sorry. I was going to say, I think the common
denominator of everybody that was on this event was that they knew about TSP. They love Tsp.
They stepped up and helped us out and I really appreciate all the speakers, all the people
that that helped us and Will and Joey did a great job. Thank you, Don. Really appreciate that and yeah, well, I think
you were going to say something about our our advertisers and the partners We have to thank
our advertisers in telescope, The one and only. We got a chance to work with them on
their platforms. What a dream come true. We got to interview David Levy and work with Sky and tell and all this stuff.
Just ridiculousness. and explore scientific. Thank you
guys so much for everything y'all do for the community. It's they're really not just a
company that sells telescopes. They really do care about us as amateur astronomers, software bisque, Thank you for the
awesome prizes that you guys were able to get it to us and the wonderful work that they do with the Mounts and the
software bis and all that stuff. Biscuits. Delicious and so it is, is, it's starts the
roux. That's right. You got it really quick. Nancy and Sky. Thank you guys so much. Great
story in Houston. If you're in the Houston area and you're not, if you haven't visited Lansing and Sky, get out there
and and visit Lansing and Sky. They're super awesome people. The Lance the Reflections. Yeah and even if you're not in
Houston, an online store as well. So, you can shop for them. We always advocate for
shopping local where we can and shopping with those organizations like Explore Scientific, who really help promote amateur astronomy.
Yeah. And we got what Star Guy. Vixen Optics. Oh, I'm sorry II pushed the button when someone else did Star Vixen Optics and
what was the other one? It was I bought it. I bought it. I believe. Yeah, it's hard to
read because it's it's it's so small. Yeah. I'm sorry. Yeah.
lean in there. So many, so many name is that? we'll we'll butcher them all. I promise you. Joe and I are great at butchering names. That's the
way we go. The Astros Zap as well. Thank you Astros Zap for your participation. Celestron,
it's the household name. I mean, everybody. it's a Celestron item, right? I've got
three celestial telescopes right now. just downstairs from me. So, I've got at least two
or three probably ten items total. Yes, IG Xyz. You know,
they put out some really great products and really appreciate everything that they did to
make sure that we got prizes in the hands of the observers and viewers over the 3 days here.
That's right. What's Infinity? I think we can't leave them out. Dark over there making
awesome T shirts and really helping make go to Star parties. Awesome with the vendor aspects. So, Dark, thank
you for your help and thank you for hanging with us. Yes. SV Bonnie, we can't Bonnie Bonnie,
thank you for your prize donations as well. Awesome, awesome stuff. X Bar Ranch. How
could we forget the of the beautiful Luscious X Bar Ranch? It's a guys, look into it and
come out there and hang out with us. You might catch us. You never know when it's new moon. We're probably out there. Who knows? Right? Right. Hubba
Optics is another one that we should think it is and we shouldn't forget to also thank,
you know, Hubba Optics for their great participation here. Thank you Hubba Optics but also the ranch as well for their for
their Prize that they donated and or that the auction that we had as well and I think that's
that's the vast majority of them I forgot someone. I don't know. Yeah. No Houston
Astronomical Society. Really appreciate them for donating prizes as well and I know we're
forgetting folks. the Texas Star Party was also instrumental in getting prizes
in the in the hands of folks. So, really a big team effort to bring this all together. Look,
you and I talked about this the other day to a person when we interviewed folks like Stephen
O'Mara, Larry Mitchell, Beatty. right, folks? Like that. The
word that came up time and time again was camaraderie and we can talk about how dark the
skies are there in West Texas. We can talk about the, you know, the land of the giant Dobbs and and things like that
but it really is about the camaraderie and that's one of the things that you know, we all sorely miss and hopefully
we brought a little bit of that to this live stream over the last 3 days. so I certainly
miss it but being here with you guys, it helps bring a lot of that back getting a chance to talk to folks online. certainly
does bring back that sense of camaraderie and seeing people chime in in the comments that
help bring it back too. So, I can't wait to put some faces or you know, faces or physical
faces to the names, the Facebook names that we're seeing. our YouTube names down in the comment section next
year and hope to see a lot of the folks that have participated online with us here in person next year.
Absolutely and Joe, great job hosting the event. keeping the
keeping the program going. Joe was our our main button pusher guy. I'm going to buttons,
right? You did great. You did a great job, guys. None of us are pros at putting a show together. You know, Joe and I
have done shows in the past but you know, this is Don's first time organizing being an executive. Absolutely. First
time and and I have to say all of the glitches were my fault. Okay, you guys. You guys are
awesome. Yeah and and last but not the least, will, you know, you make it seem like this is
just second nature to you So you're able to just jump in, lead and put together Really
entertaining. entertaining show. Like I said, you are a lot of the times, the glue that makes this the really fun event
that happens. So, I certainly enjoyed working alongside you like I always do. This is
always a fun time. Anytime we get the opportunity to live stream and be in front of a bunch of people. like we said, it's just amazing. People will
want to get on and listen to a couple of guys like us just riff about astronomy but II.
see why when whenever I see you on screen and certainly understand why want to listen to you. So, appreciate
everything that you did this these last 3 days as well. Thank you, brother and I appreciate you guys. of course
because none of us could have done this alone. It took a team effort and it was just a lot of
fun, man. I had a lot of fun doing this and I hope that y'all in the crowd did George
Ellis and everybody thank you so much. We you know, we hope that we could have brought a little taste of the Texas Star
Party to you in in this pretty dark times that we're coming out There is light at the end of the tunnel and we hope that
you know, we could at least, you know, we can't meet in person out there this year. Hopefully, this kind of
supplemented that and brought y'all back to the ranch if nothing but you know, just in in your in your mind's eye and
so thank you all so much for joining us. I mean, oh Debbie, you're so you're so kind.
Debbie's so awesome. That's right. Hanging out with our family out there, man. It really do and it's it's been a
rough couple of couple of cancellations I think you feel the same way. Yeah I know you
do the same and we just, you know, we we try to do the best we could to bring a thing
together and and remind y'all of Texas Star Party. I think we did it, Joe. I think we did. I
think we did and again, kudos to everybody involved. You know, we can be here all night.
just really congratulating everybody for for the wonderful stuff that's happening but again it's it's hard to hard to
overestimate the work that's on into putting this together but it really was a labor of love
for everybody involved. I mean, I looked at Don and just saw, you know, all the effort he did and he did it because he loves the Texans Star Party. Well, I
saw the work that you did to put a lot of these awesome videos together again because you love the Texas Star Party
and everybody else who wasn't on screen with us but did everything to make sure that this was put on properly. same
thing and really appreciate everybody's. I had a blast. We had a blast and and I hope you
guys did too and you You did a great job too, Joe. It was an amazing thing and I I've heard
a lot of people say they they're like, they're really mad that we, you know, it's going to covid's going to be
over and the Virtual thing is going to be over. Don't don't count the eggs before they check in or however that
saying. Yeah. count the chickens before they hatch the road or I don't know. the egg
crossing the road. Yeah. Yeah. Come on in. We'll see what happens. Hey, who knows y'all
but I look forward to seeing my three brothers or my two brothers. No, I'm not a brother
of myself, amigos. Yeah, Amigos Amigos. I look forward to seeing you guys back out at the ranch again and the astronomy
Illuminati. I saw that earlier getting thrown around. So, yeah, I think I think it's now AT shirt that we need to make
it is I'm going to get in touch with the infinity folks. Yeah, for me, there's no, how about
we we let you cap the night with a little cherry and then we'll say goodnight. How's that sound? Sounds good. You know,
for everybody like Will said, we're about to turn the corner Things look to be getting
better but we're not quite there yet. Let's do our to make sure that we're getting past
this COVID thing. Let's be kind one another. Let's make sure we're taking care of one another so that we can see each
other at TSP next year.