Getting amateurs to visit DARK sites...

Hi all,

A previous post of mine got me thinking back to the good ole days...the 1980s..

I was involved in a pretty active local club....lots of friendly people willing
to share equipment.....many members had 6 to 10 inch scopes....with the
standard being a 8 or 10 inch Celestron/Meade Cassegrain....and a handful with
the new craze, "big/cheap " Dobsonians, typically 10 to 13 inchers and few with
the big guns (16 to 22 inchers)......

Now, when we had monthy meetings it wasnt uncommon for 2 or 3 dozen to show
up...and for astronomy day or other public star gazes "intown" plenty of people
would always show up....and I think we had well over a hundred members on the
roster...and we even had some 8 to 12 inch scopes you could rent for like a
buck a month.....

Well, a few of us (the bigger dob owners mostly), with myself having a 2 ton 10
incher with so so grade commercial optics and three eyepieces of dubious
quality, eventually "scoped out" a very nice dark observing region/area,
probably one of the best half dozen or so areas east of the missippi....i think
i recently calculated the light pollution at the zenith was on the order of
only 10 percent above the natural background level....we are talking nice and
dark here, where when clouds passed above you they only showed up as black
holes in the sky....there was just NO comparsion between viewing at this site
and the typical intown sites the club used....

The observiing site(s) were on public land. The camping was either very cheap
(5 bucks a night give or take), or even free if you went to one the empty
fields in the woods.....and the for pay campsite was pretty nice, and nearly
empty most the time.....decent motels were only 30 miles away (max), and most
of the members probably lived only 1.5 hours driving distance away (it was more
for me because I lived on the "wrong side of town"). And for most people the
drive was hop on the interstate for a bit, then hit empty back country highways
for the rest.....so it wasnt like the drive was royal pain in the behind, with
bumper to bumper and stop and go traffic the whole way. And we were in the
southeast, so 9 months outa the year the nights were nice, calm and NOT cold,
so it wasnt like camping or observing was some kind of endurance test......

Us 3 or so active observers probably averaged a Friday and Saturday night "run"
of between once and twice a month for a 3 or 4 year stretch. We would write
club articles noting how fantastic the views were from such a dark site, even
with modest scopes or just naked eye.....we would encourage folks to come
along, the more the merrier....heck,you dont even have to bring your own,
we'll be more than happy to share the views with our "bigger" scopes....

And I can understand how many folks werent gonna be showing up 4 times a month
every month for years on end....

But, gawd...it was like pulling hen's teeth to get even a few members to show
up even ONCE! I'd be suprised if over that time period we got even a dozen
folks to check the skies out EVEN once....it was probably more like 6 of em
over a 3 year period.....

Any other folks have this kinda of experience? Or were our club members just
more homebound than usual?

take care

Blll

"BllFs6" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

A previous post of mine got me thinking back to the good ole days...the
1980s..

I was involved in a pretty active local club....lots of friendly people
willing
to share equipment.....many members had 6 to 10 inch scopes....with the
standard being a 8 or 10 inch Celestron/Meade Cassegrain....and a handful
with
the new craze, "big/cheap " Dobsonians, typically 10 to 13 inchers and few
with
the big guns (16 to 22 inchers)......

PLONK!

Where are you, Bill? Where is this city where nobody wants to look up?

I'm sorry that you have these problems where you are, but here in
California that's definitely not the case. I'm in the San Diego
Astronomy Assoc., and we have dozens of folks who routinely drive 1+
hours east into the mountains to our sort-of-dark observing site,
including many members of the general public for our twice-monthly
public star parties. And I know there are similar groups in the Bay
Area, in Los Angeles, and in Riverside, with equally good participation.

Robert Sheaffer


BllFs6 wrote:

Hi all,

A previous post of mine got me thinking back to the good ole days...the 1980s..

I was involved in a pretty active local club....lots of friendly people willing
to share equipment.....many members had 6 to 10 inch scopes....with the
standard being a 8 or 10 inch Celestron/Meade Cassegrain....and a handful with
the new craze, "big/cheap " Dobsonians, typically 10 to 13 inchers and few with
the big guns (16 to 22 inchers)......

Now, when we had monthy meetings it wasnt uncommon for 2 or 3 dozen to show
up...and for astronomy day or other public star gazes "intown" plenty of people
would always show up....and I think we had well over a hundred members on the
roster...and we even had some 8 to 12 inch scopes you could rent for like a
buck a month.....

Well, a few of us (the bigger dob owners mostly), with myself having a 2 ton 10
incher with so so grade commercial optics and three eyepieces of dubious
quality, eventually "scoped out" a very nice dark observing region/area,
probably one of the best half dozen or so areas east of the missippi....i think
i recently calculated the light pollution at the zenith was on the order of
only 10 percent above the natural background level....we are talking nice and
dark here, where when clouds passed above you they only showed up as black
holes in the sky....there was just NO comparsion between viewing at this site
and the typical intown sites the club used....

The observiing site(s) were on public land. The camping was either very cheap
(5 bucks a night give or take), or even free if you went to one the empty
fields in the woods.....and the for pay campsite was pretty nice, and nearly
empty most the time.....decent motels were only 30 miles away (max), and most
of the members probably lived only 1.5 hours driving distance away (it was more
for me because I lived on the "wrong side of town"). And for most people the
drive was hop on the interstate for a bit, then hit empty back country highways
for the rest.....so it wasnt like the drive was royal pain in the behind, with
bumper to bumper and stop and go traffic the whole way. And we were in the
southeast, so 9 months outa the year the nights were nice, calm and NOT cold,
so it wasnt like camping or observing was some kind of endurance test......

Us 3 or so active observers probably averaged a Friday and Saturday night "run"
of between once and twice a month for a 3 or 4 year stretch. We would write
club articles noting how fantastic the views were from such a dark site, even
with modest scopes or just naked eye.....we would encourage folks to come
along, the more the merrier....heck,you dont even have to bring your own,
we'll be more than happy to share the views with our "bigger" scopes....

And I can understand how many folks werent gonna be showing up 4 times a month
every month for years on end....

But, gawd...it was like pulling hen's teeth to get even a few members to show
up even ONCE! I'd be suprised if over that time period we got even a dozen
folks to check the skies out EVEN once....it was probably more like 6 of em
over a 3 year period.....

Any other folks have this kinda of experience? Or were our club members just
more homebound than usual?

take care

Blll

--
Robert Sheaffer - User name "Roberto" at debunker-dot-com
Skeptical to the Max!
Visit the Debunker's Domain - http://www.debunker.com
Resources Debunking All Manner of Bogus Claims
Also: Skepticism / Astronomy / Opera / more

MikeThomas wrote:

PLONK!

Forget to take your Prozac today?
Lighten up dude.

Any other folks have this kinda of experience? Or were our club members just
more homebound than usual?


Hi:

I've belonged to a number of clubs over the last 40 years, and believe me, this
is quite typical. My experience is that you can usually depend on
maybe..._maybe_ 10% of the club members to be interested in observing.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

"spudzilla" wrote in message
...
MikeThomas wrote:

PLONK!

Forget to take your Prozac today?
Lighten up dude.


another lurker

Rod Mollise wrote:

I've belonged to a number of clubs over the last 40 years, and believe me,
this
is quite typical. My experience is that you can usually depend on
maybe..._maybe_ 10% of the club members to be interested in observing


Hmmmm. . .must be the Rebel Yell and the donuts ;o)


--
Martin

another lurker

I guess I missed the announcement where you
appointed yourself moderator of this newsgroup.

After going back and looking over your posts here,
are you REALLY an idiot or do you just play
one on usenet?

Hmmmm. . .must be the Rebel Yell and the donuts

OR...not _enough_ of either! ;-)

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

BllFs6 wrote:
Hi all,

A previous post of mine got me thinking back to the good ole days...the 1980s..

Snip


But, gawd...it was like pulling hen's teeth to get even a few members to show
up even ONCE! I'd be suprised if over that time period we got even a dozen
folks to check the skies out EVEN once....it was probably more like 6 of em
over a 3 year period.....

Any other folks have this kinda of experience? Or were our club members just
more homebound than usual?

I have a hunch. Your dark site wasn't equipment oriented, so who cared?
If it was a 1.5 hour drive to an equipment demo in a mall parking lot
during a full moon, then you would've had something.
Just my $0.02

Shawn