HILLSBORO (WVDN) – Friday, Sept. 2, was the first Star Party hosted by Watoga State Park at Droop Mountain Tower to provide high powered telescope viewing of planets and satellites in the Dark Sky Park of Droop Mountain Battlefield.
An estimated attendance of 150 participated, yet the grass space at the base of the tower never felt crowded at all.
The Watoga State Park Foundation has obtained certification for Watoga, Droop Mountain Battlefield and Calvin Price State Forest as Dark Sky Parks.
This was a huge undertaking involving retrofitting all of the electrified lighting throughout these parks to inhibit light pollution. A grant from First Energy helped to afford the changing of light fixtures on all cabins and roadways within the parks, which is 67% complete.
The application for certification took four years to complete, was 110 pages long and included requirements of four educational programs per year which the Star Party is one. These programs are free to the public.
Volunteers Michael Rosalina of Friars Hill and J. Perez of Alderson, who are amateur astronomers, brought their personal telescopes which were on pedestals on the viewing knoll.
The Forest Service grant provided one large and one smaller tabletop telescopes, and there are five portable telescopes purchased by the program available to borrow through Pocahontas County libraries and Watoga State Park for overnight guests.
High powered binoculars are capable of star gazing strength now and will be available in the future as they replace the monocular telescopes in the field.
The first part of the evening program involved views of the moon through the pine trees.
Amazingly, the tree branches and needles were not visible at all, instead you saw the sharp pointed sides of craters that cover the moon.
The clarity was astounding.
As the moon set and the sky darkened there were visible from the observation knoll at the foot of the Droop Mountain Tower, twinkling of lights below in the town of Hillsboro and a dome of light over the city of Lewisburg were visible.
Then the planets Saturn and Jupiter became evident in the night sky.
At one point a green laser pointer was used to reach-out-and-touch certain stars in a particular constellation. The experience was as if being in a giant, real-deal planetarium.
Saturn had a well-defined ring around the sharp-edged circular planet.
Because of its dynamic distance from earth each view through the telescope had to be re-calibrated every 30 seconds, the earth was moving too fast to keep it focused in the view finder.
In the future, the Dark Sky volunteers may try to educate the light polluting towns on retrofitting or using appropriate downward lighting bulbs when replacing their outdoor light bulbs.
Preventing the light from shining sideways out of fixtures is the way to protect the surrounding landscape from light pollution.
Louanne Fatoure spoke on behalf of the program.
She works at Watoga and learned enormous new science and details in the process of completing the application as a Dark Sky Park.
“We have many flora and fauna within the park whose health is affected by night darkness. The nocturnal species have improved health and activities in a Dark Sky Park,” Fatoure said.
COVID-19 gathering restrictions had prevented the hosting of a Star Party before this time, but now that they have hosted the first there will be more and better ones in the future.
“Always there is a weather forecast involved,” said Fatoure. “And we can perhaps have a rain date planned (cloud/fog date) in case the weather turns out to be unfavorable.”
Late May and late August are the prime viewing opportunities, but it also depends on general atmospheric moisture levels and the brightness/ timing of the moon exposure.
This party was well timed. The moon began to set as the nighttime sky slowly darkened. Both the moon and the sun were gone simultaneously, and the dark sky viewing was strong about 8:30 p.m.
Online programs and apps for Dark Sky are being formulated. The one currently used for Android has switched to Apple, and it should be effective until August 2023. Just google Dark Sky Parks and Programs and see what you can find for personal use.
Weather information is part of the app along with park locations.
