(This article originally appeared in the Q2 2006 STAR newsletter.  -I)

Green Bank Star Quest

by Bill Webster

The third Green Bank Star Quest was held June 21st through the 24th. Ian Hewitt had to twist my arm a little to get me to go to this star party, and I am sure glad he did. The weather forecast for the weekend didn’t look very promising and it lived up to its prediction. As soon as we got there it rained for a few minutes and then rained every night. We only got in about 3 hours of observing the whole weekend. The last day we were there, a very violent lighting storm rolled through, but all in all I’m still glad I went.

This little star party has to be one of the best in the country. The facilities are top notch. To start with you get truly black skies to observe under (if you can). The site is at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia. They conduct both professional and amateur radio astronomy projects there year round. The site has at least 10 large radio dishes including the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope - the 110 meter dish. They also offer free tours of the facilities. You can even get inside the control rooms on some of the tours. They teach a class on how to use a radio telescope. After you have been trained to use the 40 foot dish you are free to use it all you want. Since this is a working radio astronomy observatory, cell phones, and wi-fi laptops are not allowed to be used. They wouldn’t work anyway. The visitor’s center does have a computer lab with about 20 computers online 24 hours a day. Anyone can use them to check email, weather reports, play games or what ever. This was a very popular place for the young adults to hang out during the day. If you don’t want to sleep in a tent you can use the bunkhouse. This building has separate male and female sides with flush toilets and hot showers. Each side has 17 twin bunk beds. If you don’t want to cook you can buy your meals complete with dessert. Meals are served in the visitors center twice a day. You can buy breakfast and dinner, but you are on your own for lunch; however the visitor center does have a small café. There is a great gift shop where they offer tee-shirts, hats, etc. They also have a science center where you can learn more about radio astronomy.

The most unusual thing about this star party was the number of female astronomers that attended. I would guess a third of all who attended were female. I think the hot showers, flush toilets and bunk house had a lot to do with this. As normal, many vendors were on hand. Southeast Camera, Howie Glatter, Meade and others were there selling their wares. There were plenty of door prizes and you could buy extra tickets if you wanted. U-haul unveiled their newly design West Virginia truck logo on Saturday. It features the 110 meter dish. About 400 of the newly designed trucks are now traveling across the US. U-Haul also gave away tee-shirts sporting the new design. NASA had their Aero bus on site. They showed videos of the recent Mars mission.

There were talks and lectures everyday. The keynote speaker was Dr. Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute. Other speakers were Dr. Jack Littleton, Professor of Physics at West Virginia University, Robert Royce of Royce Precision Optical Components, Joe Heafner contributing editor at Sky and Telescope and Sue Ann Heatherly, the Education Director at Green Bank.

The visitor center, dark skies, and the GBSQ staff really make this a great star party to attend. There is truly something for everyone at this event. I am already looking forward to next year. The only complaint I have is they do not enforce their red light only policy. During the few hours we had to observe green lasers were everywhere lighting up the sky. Maybe they don’t consider this to be a problem, but if I were doing some astrophotography work, I would not be happy.

More information and pictures of GBSQ III can be found at http://www.greenbankstarquest.org.