My Summer in Utah
Welcome to my blog. For the next 7 weeks or so I will be posting about my time in Utah. What follows here is a revised version of a facebook note I posted in May.
PREFACE: Most of you know I love Astronomy. It's really cool that I get to teach it. My students know that when we have a star gaze, we can see relatively few stars because of the light pollution in town. If we get to go to the countryside, we see many more stars but there is no where near us where the skies really DARK. An organization called the International Dark Sky Organization has been formed and is promoting awareness of light pollution and attempting to preserve sites that have little light pollution. They have found a way to quantify how dark a location's night sky is. So far the darkest skies they have documented in the USA is at Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah.
Most National Park Rangers are not primarily trained in Astronomy. So they have established a program for volunteer experts to come and lead the Astronomy program at the parks that want it.
THE MAIN EVENT: I applied and was accepted to be what they call the Astro VIP at that darkest site in the US, Natural Bridges National Monument. I will be there from July 6 to August 3. I am so excited about this, I can barely contain myself. This is like hitting a grand slam, that they would pick me to participate in the astronomy program at the darkest site for a whole month.
Even better is the fact that we work 4 days (nights) and have 3 days off to explore the region. Utah has 5 national parks and tons of other stuff to see.
If you live in the west and have the time, I would love to see you and show you the skies there. My wife and I will be driving there and back.
Here's the web site.
http://www.nps.gov/nabr/
PREFACE: Most of you know I love Astronomy. It's really cool that I get to teach it. My students know that when we have a star gaze, we can see relatively few stars because of the light pollution in town. If we get to go to the countryside, we see many more stars but there is no where near us where the skies really DARK. An organization called the International Dark Sky Organization has been formed and is promoting awareness of light pollution and attempting to preserve sites that have little light pollution. They have found a way to quantify how dark a location's night sky is. So far the darkest skies they have documented in the USA is at Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah.
Most National Park Rangers are not primarily trained in Astronomy. So they have established a program for volunteer experts to come and lead the Astronomy program at the parks that want it.
THE MAIN EVENT: I applied and was accepted to be what they call the Astro VIP at that darkest site in the US, Natural Bridges National Monument. I will be there from July 6 to August 3. I am so excited about this, I can barely contain myself. This is like hitting a grand slam, that they would pick me to participate in the astronomy program at the darkest site for a whole month.
Even better is the fact that we work 4 days (nights) and have 3 days off to explore the region. Utah has 5 national parks and tons of other stuff to see.
If you live in the west and have the time, I would love to see you and show you the skies there. My wife and I will be driving there and back.
Here's the web site.
http://www.nps.gov/nabr/
posted by Chap Percival at 10:43 AM
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