Planetpalooza Star Party

By Ginger Wentrcek

The Brazos Valley Astronomy Club sponsored a community wide Planetpalooza Star Party on July 21, 2018. Members set up telescopes in the back parking lot of the Brazos Center in Bryan and pointed them in the directions of the Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. Although the lights in the parking lot were bright, the planets and moon were easy viewing targets through the telescopes. It was estimated that more than 100 people attended the event.

Free to the Public

The star party was free to the public and was scheduled to start at 9:00 P.M. and end at 11:00 P.M. However, visitors started arriving before dark and the party was on. Young and old attended the event, and, for some, it was the first time to peer through a telescope or identify a planet in the night sky.

Juliana Campbell, Tom's wife, distributed free NASA materials, such as stickers and lithographs, about the current planetary missions to Jupiter and Mars. Visitors to the event not only had the opportunity to look through a variety of telescopes, they also walked away with materials in hand to remind them about their night under the stars and planets.

Crowd Pleasers

Saturn is always a crowd pleaser with its bands of rings, and those who saw it through the telescopes were impressed, as usual. Midway through Planetpalooza, the red planet, Mars, made its appearance and it was a first time sighting for many.

Event visitors were genuinely inquisitive about the objects they saw through the telescopes and asked a variety of questions. BVAC members took the opportunity to tell visitors what they were seeing through their telescopes and educated the public about the motion of the planets and moon in our solar system. Other topics included the dust storm on Mars, Apollo 11 landing site, Jupiter's Galilean moons and Great Red Spot, Saturn's rings, craters on the Moon, and other general topics of interest.

BVAC Participating Members

BVAC members who participated were Tom and Juliana Campbell, Tim Cowden, Dave Wilton, Karl Aufderheide, Randy and Irene Light, Mitchell and Dave Barry, Joel Carmona, Warren Bracewell, and Ginger Wentrcek.

Photos of children are published with permission of parents.