Star parties: what to expect
A casual, open-to-all stargazing night where volunteers set up telescopes, answer questions, and show visitors planets, the Moon, and deep-sky objects. No equipment or experience needed—just dress warmly, bring a red light if you have one, and check for weather cancellations.
If you have never been to one, here is what actually happens.
Public nights at Sparks Marina
The third Friday of most months, from sunset. Anyone can come. There is nothing to book, nothing to pay, and nothing you need to bring.
We set up on the western peninsula — the end of Nichols Boulevard, not the main Marina parking area. Sparks Parks and Recreation turn the peninsula lights off for us, which is why we are down there rather than somewhere more convenient. If you have navigated to the Marina's postal address, you are at the wrong end of a large dark park; follow Nichols Boulevard to the water.
People arrive, look through whatever is set up, ask questions, and leave when they have had enough. We stay until the last question has been asked. Children are very welcome — often they are the best company of the evening.
What to bring, if anything
Nothing is required. That said:
- Warm clothes, more than you think. Northern Nevada loses its heat fast after sunset, and standing still in a field is colder than walking about in one. A hat is not excessive.
- A torch, ideally a red one. White light ruins everybody's night vision for twenty minutes, including your own. Most phones have a red filter or a dim mode; covering a torch with red cellophane works perfectly well.
- Sensible shoes. The ground is uneven and you will not be able to see it.
- A telescope, if you have one. Not needed, but if you have bought something and cannot make it work, bring it. Somebody will know.
What you will actually see
It depends on the night and the moon, but on a typical evening: Saturn's rings, Jupiter with its moons strung out beside it, craters along the terminator of our own moon, a star cluster or two, and — if the sky is dark and somebody has brought a large telescope — a galaxy or a nebula as a faint grey smudge that is, nevertheless, a galaxy.
Be warned that nothing looks like the photographs. Photographs are made from hours of collected light. What you see through an eyepiece is smaller, dimmer and grey — and, for most people, considerably more affecting, because the light hitting your eye left Saturn about eighty minutes ago.
If it is cloudy or horrible weather
We call it off. Check the events page before setting out — a cancellation appears there, with the reason. If you subscribe to our calendar, it will show there too.
Clouds are the usual cause. Occasionally it is wildfire smoke, or snow on the road to a dark site.
Members' nights
Near the new moon, on a Saturday, members go somewhere properly dark — usually within an hour's drive of Reno. These are quieter, longer and darker than the Marina evenings, and are where people work on their own observing rather than showing the sky to passers-by.
Members have the use of the society's 20-inch and 24-inch telescopes, and there is usually somebody willing to help you find something you have never seen.
Schools and groups
We run several star parties a year at Washoe County schools and parks, by invitation, and present programmes at the Galena Creek Visitor's Center. If you teach, or run a group, and would like one, ask us.
Coming along
You do not need to be a member, know anything about astronomy, or own equipment. Turn up at the Marina on a third Friday and see whether you like it.