Home | About the TAAA | Calendar | Newsletter | Join
Info for Teachers | Sky Guide | Links
The 2008 Grand Canyon Star Party (GCSP) will be held from June 21 through 28th on the South Rim in northern Arizona's Grand Canyon National Park. All amateur astronomers and the interested public of all ages are invited! Bring your telescope and enjoy the camaraderie. But you don't have to have a telescope to come and enjoy the beautiful Arizona night skies. You DO need to reserve a room or campsite and make your travel arrangements early. See below for more information. A visit to the breathtaking Grand Canyon is an unforgettable and fabulous vacation for families, singles, and seniors. Add a week of dark Arizona skies, lots of friends, fun, and astronomy education, and you have a recipe for perfection!
The current version of the Grand Canyon Star Party began 1991 as the first anniversary of Dean and Vicki Ketelsen's honeymoon there. It was noticed that a telescope set up looking at the Canyon or sky soon gathered a crowd, so a public oriented event was planned. Though tens of thousands visit every day, a small fraction stay overnight to be treated to the spectacular views of the night sky there. The appreciative tourists tend to leave early, leaving the astronomers in solitude for observing far into the night.
Prior to 1991, the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers made annual pilgrimages to several western National Parks in the late 1970s and 1980s, spending several weeks at each stop, including the Grand Canyon. The latest version of this star party has been readily endorsed by several of their members who have become regular attendees.
Dean Ketelson continues to serve as the main organizer for the Grand Canyon Star Party, and it is sponsored by the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association.
The Grand Canyon offers world class hiking through Earth's largest canyon system. Even with summer crowds, the nearly 10 mile long west rim trail is blocked off to all but buses, and offers spectacular bicycling without worrying about traffic. Even those less physically inclined can spend days exploring the scenic vistas offered from every bend of the rim trails on foot, or from the roads from their cars or park shuttle buses. The place offers lots to explore for the history buff with many original structures preserved and a nearly century old train making daily runs to the rim. The area also offers:
Conditions are excellent. The nearest town, Flagstaff (population 45,000) is 80 miles away, while Las Vegas and Phoenix are both about 170 air miles away making for very dark skies. (Blackout Wardens are on duty for your viewing protection!) Elevation at the South Rim is about 7,000 feet with the North about 8,000 feet. Seeing conditions are usually very good with the exception of very still nights when pockets of cold air move through slowly disrupting the seeing. Early June is Arizona's clearest time of year. We have lost only four nights to clouds in five years (40 nights) of observing!
We set up and observe from the parking lot on the South Rim at Yavapai Point. The big advantage is that is where the people are and you are sure to attract a crowd, and after all, this is supposed to be a public event. The problem is that, especially early in the evening, there are lots of headlights, and parking around sunset is impossible to find. The second option is that there is an observing field behind a locked gate just off the parking lot. You avoid the headlight problem as it is perhaps 5 meters below the level of the parking lot. The locked gate also serves as a security device and, particularly if your scope is large or setup is involved, you can leave it set up for the duration of your stay. The disadvantages are that not as many public make it down to the observing field, and you lose about 10-15 degrees of southern horizon, though you can still get down to Scorpio and Sagittarius. Over the years we had slowly been migrating to the observing field, but in recent years the trend has reversed and especially with the mud hole the observing field became one year, most everyone now sets up in the parking lot. It is a pain to set up and tear down every night, but the rewards of more public interaction really makes the choice clear. This is designed to be a public event, and if you want to do photography or CCD imaging, this may not be the event for you. I have a couple secret sites that would be excellent if you want to be by yourself with ultimate skies - email me (Dean) and I'll let you check them out. For the star party, power is available in the nearby restrooms, but long extension cords are a pain and trip hazard in the dark, and I would prefer you run off batteries and inverters if you need electricity.
Unfortunately, in the National Park, camping is not allowed anywhere but the campgrounds, so the options are to pack up your scope every night or leave it up in the observing field. Yavapai Point is close to everything, about ¾ mile from the campground (Mather) and about ½ mile from Yavapai Lodge (Fred Harvey, Inc).
With the distances involved from civilization and the need to haul your telescope (I hope!), cars are still the best way to get around. The National Park System has stopped "making noise" about restricting cars, which was posted previously on this page, and they have let us know that they are in the process of adding entrance lanes. By GCSP 2008 they hope to have extended the shuttle system out to Tusayan as a means of improving the parking situation. Cars belonging to persons with lodging reservations are always allowed. If you are traveling cross country, while you can fly into the Grand Canyon airport or Flagstaff, it is certainly less expensive to fly into Vegas or Phoenix, probably enough to pay for a rental car. Driving time from Phoenix is about four hours, while it's about five hours from Las Vegas.
That is the big question for every Canyon visitor during the summer. By anyone's opinion, the Canyon is overcrowded in June and most housing has been booked up months in advance. If you need a room to stay in, it is best to start booking a room before March. If you can tolerate a 7 mile drive to Tusayan, there are also a number of motels there. Check out the list below. The campground is very nice if you enjoy roughing it a little. It is amazing how well you sleep on the ground when you are up all day and most of the night!
Wherever you decide to stay, EARLY RESERVATIONS ARE STRONGLY RECOMMENDED! When phoning, expect LONG WAITS. Call early in the morning. Or book on line.
The following information is from previous years and is provided since the Saguaro Astronomy Club is hosting a North Rim component of the GCSP. CHECK BACK OFTEN FOR UPDATES and check the Saguaro Astronomy Club home page to confirm the North Rim party plans and to check for any changes. The North Rim park has a lodge, motel rooms, cabins, and camping facilites. Outside the entrance to the North Rim park is the Kaibab Lodge, also.
I'm glad you asked that. As part of our program, we offer:
Please RSVP to the addresses below. If you have questions, please ask. If you are bringing a telescope, it is IMPORTANT to let me know. The space in the observing field is limited and we need to know how many folks we have coming that are bringing scopes.
Be sure to have some housing plans before you let us know you are coming! Of course, there has never been a registration fee for this event. It's free!
The Official Event Rules (From the National Park Service) (OK its a few years old, but unlikely to have changed)
Home | About the TAAA | Calendar | Newsletter | Join
Info for Teachers | Sky Guide | Links