Shingletown Star Party Experience Report

Shingletown Star Party 2002

TAC (The Astronomy Connection, www.observers.org) held popular star parties every summer, high up on the side of volcanoes in Lassen National Park (in California at the south end of the Cascade Range). But the popularity grew each year until observing and camping facilities practically overflowed. So this year, astronomer Jim Ster from Davis, California and his significant other Mags Temple, along with principle TAC astronomer (and all-around great guy) Mark Wagner, worked hard to produce a new plan. With diplomatic skill they talked Shasta County into letting us camp and observe right on the runway at the Shingletown airport.

Still snow in July at the summit of Lassen volcanoes

The first annual Shingletown Star Party was held July 10 through 15, 2002. The quaint resort community of Shingletown, "Gateway to Lassen", sits roughly midway (in both elevation and distance) between volcanoes and the city of Redding. There was plenty of room on the airport runway for astronomers. We camped all in a row right next to our scopes. Once our equipment was set up, we could leave it set up safely the whole time because Jim's family staffed a registration tent at the entrance and screened visitors around the clock.

Mark and Jim seemed to have "lit a fire" under the community. The local people were enthusiastic about this event. Nearby restaurants took turns hosting dinners for us, and the Shingletown Activities Council set up a hospitality tent at the airport and sold inexpensive continental brunches each morning, cold drinks throughout the day, and coffee for observing late. They hauled in upright freezers and stood them in the middle of the runway. You could buy a popsicle for 50 cents or a bag of ice for a buck. We were welcome to charge 12v observing batteries at the generators.

Camping and observing on the airport runway

Weather forecasters warned us ahead of time. They predicted "extremely hot". I'm a night-person who prefers sleeping in (especially after observing late), and also I've camped a lot, so the greenhouse effect in tents has become a nuisance to me on many occasions. I planned to conquer the greenhouse effect this time. During a web search on the subject of camping in the heat, I hit into some Burning Man web pages (never been to Burning Man, but those pages are fun). Acting on tips there, I went to a "home center" and bought a garden sprayer (hand-pressurized canister with misting wand), and enough aluminized bubble wrap insulation to cover my tent.

My air conditioner was cranked on "max" during the drive. I stopped for gas near Redding and the temperature was 115! Stepping out of my car was like opening a kitchen oven. Heat waves gave the scene a surreal quality, and people seemed to move in slow motion. As I handled the gasoline I worried it would spontaneously explode in that heat. My air-conditioned car was like a space ship with life support systems.

Big dobs

Climbing 3300 vertical feet out of Redding into volcanic foothills, my car arrived at the Shingletown airport where the temp was 107. Driving on the old runway was prohibited to protect it from crumbling. Cars creeping along the dirt margin kicked up clouds of fine red dust. I was surprised to read later that Jay Reynolds Freeman, having seen this dust, turned around and drove right back home. I couldn't see doing that (it was a long drive). I decided to camp at the distant end of the runway with less dust and traffic. I figured I'd keep my equipment under wraps and wait for the dust to settle (which seemed certain to occur sometime during the next 4 days). The dust was fine as baby powder, though, and on the smooth surface of my car it revealed fingerprints like forensic science.

Water trucks soon came and almost completely solved the dust problem. The first to arrive was actually a fire engine, and I heard he'd been delayed fighting an actual fire in that 107-degree heat. You can bet this gentleman was hot and exhausted by the time he arrived to hose us down! Another example of Shingletown people working hard to accommodate us.

I erected a 10x10 canopy and fixed white walls to shield east, west, and south, then hunkered my tent inside. Struggling with the classic mapmaker's problem of covering a sphere using a flat sheet, I eventually covered the tent in aluminum foil bubble-wrap. Under the shade of the canopy, and then under foil, the tent was dark inside even at noon, and shielded against UV radiation. I had conquered the greenhouse effect! I slept until 10:30 most mornings. However, eventually the inside would heat to the ambient temperature because of conduction/convection.

The Milky Way was the best I've seen in 15 years. I camped next to a fine fellow -- Robert Shelton from Walnut Creek, who turned out to be an excellent observing partner. He was friendly, knowledgeable, and witty. He had a 13" dob -- 3 inches more aperture than me. But the optics in my 10" LX200 GPS were slightly sharper, so we'd switch back and forth to get the best of both worlds. We went for the common eye-candy objects first (which were all showing nicely), and then he had a list of interesting rare planetaries we worked through.

Carl Larson at the AstroCastle

Thursday during the oppressive heat of high noon I concealed a 12v battery and inverter inside a backpack with a cord leading out to a little electric fan, then poured ice water and pumped air pressure into my garden sprayer. Discharging a fine cool mist ahead of me and evaporating it with the fan (Burning Man style), I took myself down the long runway toward Carl Larson's canopy, the AstroCastle, wherein I found Carl and James Turley passing the blazing afternoon in slow motion sipping cold drinks. James said, "hit me", so I blasted him with the mist and fan. Instant swamp cooler! He recalled that hotels in Vegas have outdoor misting systems. An idea for next year would be to run little pipes around your canopy with misting nozzles every few feet. But this heat was apparently unusual for Shingletown, so maybe next year it won't be so hot.

Tarzan rope swing

We visited the local swimming hole townies told us about, just a 5-minute drive away. The water was so cold it seemed newly melted from glaciers. A brave person would use the Tarzan rope swing to get in, while others waded in gradually, gasping and yelping. This swimming hole became a favorite spot during the weekend. The deep chill from swimming there lasted an hour even after returning to the airport.

Thursday night, a sign in front of Pioneer Hillside Pizza announced, "Welcome Star Gazers". Someone jokingly referred to us as "Star Geezers" -- isn't that funny? Hardy Har Har! We're not that old! A lone teenage girl frantically tried to cook and serve pizzas fast enough for the big crowd. The pizza was good and greasy and well-liked. One reason we liked it so, was that this over-worked girl employed the subtle culinary trick of making us wait forever between pieces.

Carl Larson came from outside the building saying I should check the karaoke scene out there. Said it reminded him of something out of "Twin Peaks" (or maybe "Northern Exposure", I thought). I went out, and there in a space amongst the pines sang a middle-aged barefoot housewife, a little chubby but in full possession of her youthful passion. Beer and smoke in hand, she belted out a ballad about growing up in a small town and having roots. I bet she sings that karaoke song every Friday, because the locals knew it and were singing along with perhaps a heartfelt tear. Grandmas danced with children, old guys sat nodding in wheelchairs, and bad-assed young men roared their Harleys in the parking lot. God bless the USA.

Clouds bothered our observing that night, so I suggested to Robert we split the select doubles featured on the back of Deep Map 600 (since doubles can be done even when seeing isn't best). That was actually a lot of fun. Deep Map is a pretty cool thing. Later the sky cleared and it looked great for a while, but about 1:00 AM it got bad again and we packed it in.

Friday night the Big Wheels bar and restaurant held a Bar-B-Q dinner for us "Star Geezers", and they had another karaoke setup. A couple townie teenagers got up on stage. With very poor grace they performed a song vaguely related to astronomy, and we all groaned. Next they slaughtered Elton John's "Rocket Man". It seemed their strategy was to sing badly enough to break the ice and encourage us to try, since seemingly anyone could sing better.

When they started murdering the Eagles "Hotel California", I noticed Mags Temple whispering the song correctly under her breath and mentioning how somebody ought to go up and take the microphones and sing it right. I felt the same, so I stood up and told Mags she and I were going to do it. I took her hand, and we waltzed up and grabbed the mics and finished singing Hotel California right there in public. What an adrenaline rush!

Paul Sterngold and Stacy Jo McDermott sing Karaoke

Brad Franzella and Mark Wagner consider the list of available Karaoke songs

Mark "Wild Thing" Wagner sings Karaoke

Karaoke audience, L-R: Dean Linebarger, Bud Wittlin, Jim Bartolini, Rich Neuschaefer, Brad Franzella, Stacy Jo McDermott, Paul Sterngold

Paul Sterngold and Stacy Jo McDermott delivered a hot and dancing rendition of "Rock The Kasbah" to great applause, while others sat pouring indecisively over the books of available karaoke songs. It became obvious Mark Wagner was going to sing one (since he'd spent so much time looking at the books), and finally after Paul and Stacy had polished off a ZZ Top song, Mark went up and began "Wild Thing". He called out for his teenage daughter Mimi, who screeched and tried to hide, but a couple teen boys carried Mimi kicking and squirming and dropped her up stage near her dad, where she sat on the ground in fetal position like, like, like totally embarrassed, while Mark sang, "Wild thing ... I think you move me".

That night, abandoning star-hopping and giving myself completely over to the GOTO side of the force, I let my 10" LX200 GPS take me on a "sky tour" named Tonight's Best. The scope picked objects and slewed around and flashed fun and interesting facts about each object on the little LED screen. I know it's silly but I thought I'd try it once.

I also put the scope in a mode where it would suggest planetaries, and Robert and I took careful note of Caldwell 2 a.k.a. NGC 40, a small round ghostly planetary. I observed many other fine objects that night and (in a euphoric stupor) forgot to log them. I spent a long time just gazing at the incredible Milky Way through Canon IS 15x50 binoculars. Feeling drowsy about 2:00 AM, there were still things I wanted to see, but my comfy tent was calling.

Saturday was sleeping in late, then patronizing the hospitality tent and continental brunch that Vera "Widder" DeWitt and her Shingletown crew had prepared for us. I stopped at the airport entrance to buy ice and charge a 12v battery, and incidentally got into a water fight with Cary at the registration tent. With a squirt bottle in each hand he plastered me directly in the face, but I had a fresh charge of ice water in my sprayer and (adjusting the nozzle from "mist" to "jet"), I nailed him with a steady stream. The rest of Saturday afternoon was just hanging at the swimming hole and taking it easy.

Richard Ozer with Bruce Sayer and the binocular telescope Bruce designed and built

All week an eye-catching placard had stood at the airport turnoff announcing "public welcome" to a star party Saturday night. A crowd of Shingletown folk showed up Saturday afternoon and struggled in the sudden wind to erect canopies for the tri-tip cookout, live band, and bake sale. They were working hard and I felt guilty sitting around watching their tents nearly blow away, but it was their show and they knew what they were doing. Before long we were eating steak and listening to the band and buying rhubarb pie for $1.50 to benefit the Shingletown Historical Society. We were also encouraged to purchase tickets to about 14 different raffles, but I was OK with that. Many of the services at this star party were fund-raisers, but the locals were so friendly that I wanted to reciprocate.

A classic Celestron orange tube SCT, and in great condition, too

Paul Sterngold getting ready to shoot film

My car wishes it was back there now

Gene Kahn, well-known TAC-SAC observer and imager, with his 12" LX200

A local kid won the T-shirt design contest, and in a public ceremony was presented with a pair of Orion binoculars for himself and an Orion dob for his school. His parents were so proud! Mark Wagner had talked Orion into donating the binoculars, and the dob had been financed from the event's ticket sales (~ $40 per astronomer). Later there was an astronomy raffle featuring many fine items, including a StellarVue red dot finder from Equatorial Platforms, a green laser from DeHarpporte Trading and a 7 Nagler from Tele Vue. Mark Wagner had talked the vendors into contributing these raffle items. Kudos to Mark for this! Here let me insert a shameless plug for Mark’s web site: www.astronomy-mall.com.

Turley chatting up that cute reporter from the Sacramento Bee: "Come to my tent and I'll show you the Milky Way"

The public star party was my favorite night there. Nearly all Shingletown showed up, as well as folks from neighboring communities. The moon was absent, the seeing was superb, and the public was numerous and awestruck. I got a lot of traffic even though I was at the far end of the runway. I love watching kids of all ages gasp at their first sight of those deep sky objects we take for granted. I also enjoy "holding forth", or "pontificating" (as Turley put it) -- explaining astronomy to the public.

It was a great experience overall, and I wish I was back there now instead of in the middle of a workweek. Highest praise goes to the organizers and volunteers for their dedication and service. This successful inaugural event will encourage a long run of future events!

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Dan Wright lives and works in "Silicon Valley" California, programming COBOL, a language some people mistakenly think is dead. He regularly observes with members of The Astronomy Connection (www.observers.org). You can E-mail him at "slcdmw01@yahoo.com".

Bud Wittlin and his 14.5" Starsplitter, tipping his hat to us

Imager Eric Ayres, looking serious

Group shot with volcanoes in the background