August 12, 2005

Stargazing for the Rest of Us

“Star Parties” at Grant County Park bring out the “Wow” in you

By Marilyn Fahey
Staff Writer

Jupiter was in fine form, and most of the telescopes at the July “star party” held at Joseph D. Grant County Park were directed toward it. Although we couldn’t see the planet’s big red spot, two horizontal bands were visible, as well as four of its moons—silvery dots about as big as pin pricks.

The nighttime sky is full of wonders—Mitchell Flores (front) points to one. Photos by Veronica Fahey

“You know, Jupiter’s fifth and sixth moons were discovered right up there,” says Ralph Libby, pointing northeastward to Lick Observatory, still gleaming white on Mt. Hamilton even though the sun had already set. Libby is a member of the Halls Valley Astronomical Group, an amateur astronomers’ group that has been holding monthly star parties at Grant Park since 1982.

Why Grant Park? “Well, it’s a nice dark spot,” says Libby. And he’s right. Although it seemed to take a while for twilight to finally fade, once it was dark, it was dark. The nearly 10,000-acre park sits in Halls Valley, nestled between two ridges of the Diablo Range beyond San Jose’s east foothills, far from the lights of Santa Clara Valley.

Most members of the HVAG are from San Jose, although a few make the trek to Grant Park from as far away as the Peninsula. The group’s Web site advises that, when attending a star party, you should get to the park before the entrance gate closes at sunset. To avoid shredding your tires, don’t attempt going through the exit gate.

The night of the July star party, we left Evergreen well before sundown, and, although the park is only four-and-a-half miles up Quimby from Murillo, it took a good 30 minutes to get there. The road to the park—narrow and windy, with 10-mile-per-hour hairpin turns—kept us at a crawl for most of the journey.

HVAG member Luis Stevens is ready to view the nighttime sky with his 14-inch telescope.

Grant Lake was shimmering with dying sunlight when we finally reached the park entrance, about a quarter-mile beyond where Quimby meets Mt. Hamilton Road. We followed the signs to the star party and parked in a rocky lot below the Halley Hill Observatory, a hilltop plateau just south of the park’s main campground. We learned later, that we could have driven up along the road through the campground area right to the observatory.

By the time we got to the star party, HVAG member Luis Stevens had already set up his telescope—a monster of a thing, with a 14-inch diameter. While we waited for the other telescopes to be up and running, Larry Z., who wished to remain half-way anonymous, passed around his binoculars so that we could see Mercury, low on the western horizon and barely visible with the naked eye, before it set.

Although we could have brought our own telescope, I was glad we didn’t. The one we bought at Target would have looked sadly out of place among the others. Even so, I’m sure the HVAG members would have gladly made room for it.

Ralph Libby is ready for another night of stargazing. Photos by Veronica Fahey

“We may have expensive equipment, but we’re about as amateur as you can get,” Libby says, even as he proceeds to enter information into his telescope’s satellite-based Global Positioning System to locate the star Vega.

The built-in GPS system uses signals from government satellites to calculate the telescope’s location on earth. When that is determined, the GPS system can locate about 40,000 celestial objects. Libby admits it helps having such fancy gadgets because now he “can spend more time looking at than looking for.”

By the time it got dark, the group had set up six telescopes, and all 20-or-so of us who attended the party, including HVAG members, were encouraged to peer through them. We visited each telescope in turn, although many were directed at the same thing.

Before Jupiter was seeable, most of the telescopes were aimed at the moon. Once you see the moon through a telescope—and see the crisp outlines of its craters, the varying shades of gray of its shadows, the black outerspace against its whiter-than-marshmallow white —you can never look at it the same again.

A boy staying at one of the campgrounds, who’d wandered over to the party to look at the moon, summed it up best when he looked through the telescope: “Wow.”

Ralph Libby answers astronomical questions posed by Kathie Pham (left) and Cindy Le.

That seemed to be the most popular reaction of the night, no matter what we looked at—whether it was Jupiter, Vega, nebulas, or a satellite flitting across the sky. Mars and Uranus rose later that night; but we didn’t stay long enough to see them.

There’s always next time.

I don’t know what will be visible then, but Libby says that by December, Saturn will be visible. Wow. I’m there.

Joseph D. Grant County Park is located at 18450 Mt. Hamilton Road, San Jose, Calif. 95140. For more information, call (408) 274-6121. Vehicle entry fees are collected. The Halls Valley Astronomical Group (www.snapdesign.com/HVAG) holds monthly star parties, usually the first Saturday of the month.