Greetings all, 

We have found this Fall that finding an appropriate date for a Cade's Cove Star Party has been tough. Somehow in our discussions we landed on November 5th, which is actually a poor choice and likely an error. This is closer to a full moon than a first quarter. 
See: https://www.timeanddate.com/moon/phases/ 
NPS has apparently already published something. An alternative weekend would be the one before but that would be Halloween weekend. 
In other words this whole Fall has been poor alignment on dates. 

Two questions:

What are your thoughts?

• October 1 was out per NPS schedule
• October 8 Full moon
• October 29 First Quarter and Halloween
• November 5th is a pretty near full moon.
• November 12th (halfway from full to third quarter)
• November 19th weekend before Thanksgiving (post third quarter: late moonrise) viable?
• November 26th (post-Thanksgiving) not viable
• December.....

Understanding the date needs to be solidified, how committed would you be to coming?

• Totally committed
• I'll do my best
• Not sure
• Unlikely
• Definitely no

Best regards, 
James 

Alex and I would join in any of those dates.
Ayaka Komata

On Wed, Sep 14, 2022 at 2:06 PM James Cantu <james.cantu@...> wrote:
>
> Greetings all,
>
> We have found this Fall that finding an appropriate date for a Cade's Cove Star Party has been tough. Somehow in our discussions we landed on November 5th, which is actually a poor choice and likely an error. This is closer to a full moon than a first quarter.
> See: https://www.timeanddate.com/moon/phases/
> NPS has apparently already published something. An alternative weekend would be the one before but that would be Halloween weekend.
> In other words this whole Fall has been poor alignment on dates.
>
> Two questions:
>
> What are your thoughts?
>
> October 1 was out per NPS schedule
> October 8 Full moon
> October 29 First Quarter and Halloween
> November 5th is a pretty near full moon.
> November 12th (halfway from full to third quarter)
> November 19th weekend before Thanksgiving (post third quarter: late moonrise) viable?
> November 26th (post-Thanksgiving) not viable
> December.....
>
> Understanding the date needs to be solidified, how committed would you be to coming?
>
> Totally committed
> I'll do my best
> Not sure
> Unlikely
> Definitely no
>
> Best regards,
> James
>

I had the Covid at the beginning of June and I am now dealing with other issues stemming from that. I am hoping to have those resolved in the next couple of weeks. If I can get to feeling better I would love to attend a star party out at Cade's or pretty much anywhere else for that matter as long as precautions are taken.

On Thu, Sep 15, 2022 at 8:56 PM Ayaka Y. Komata <yuko.komata@...> wrote:

Alex and I would join in any of those dates.
Ayaka Komata

On Wed, Sep 14, 2022 at 2:06 PM James Cantu <james.cantu@...> wrote:
>
> Greetings all,
>
> We have found this Fall that finding an appropriate date for a Cade's Cove Star Party has been tough. Somehow in our discussions we landed on November 5th, which is actually a poor choice and likely an error. This is closer to a full moon than a first quarter.
> See: https://www.timeanddate.com/moon/phases/
> NPS has apparently already published something. An alternative weekend would be the one before but that would be Halloween weekend.
> In other words this whole Fall has been poor alignment on dates.
>
> Two questions:
>
> What are your thoughts?
>
> October 1 was out per NPS schedule
> October 8 Full moon
> October 29 First Quarter and Halloween
> November 5th is a pretty near full moon.
> November 12th (halfway from full to third quarter)
> November 19th weekend before Thanksgiving (post third quarter: late moonrise) viable?
> November 26th (post-Thanksgiving) not viable
> December.....
>
> Understanding the date needs to be solidified, how committed would you be to coming?
>
> Totally committed
> I'll do my best
> Not sure
> Unlikely
> Definitely no
>
> Best regards,
> James
>

I want to be promoting science by promoting public astronomy.

So I will show up for the event.  

Assuming we have fewer telescopes and operators than usual we may need to plan on a somewhat different presentation with laser pointers and the constellations overhead and hundred copies of a hand out of the night sky that night.

We could use the NASA star finder charts for kids from this page:
https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/starfinder/en/

Such as the November one here:

https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/review/starfinder/star_finder_nov.pdf

Perhaps on the flip side we could have information about how to get started with the hobby and participate with astronomy clubs.

My two cents,

Lee

On 10/09/2022 11:46 PM James Cantu <james.cantu@...> wrote:

Thanks to those who replied.

• There were four solid commitments, including myself--and counting Alex and Ayaka as one. 
• 2 tentative/conditional commitments 
• and some additional unsure/unlikely. 

In the before-times 9-12 commitments was normal plus other club participants. 

I was hoping for a little more dialogue on the pre-full moon event. The NPS is pretty firm. They are willing to shape it to less of dark sky event and more intro to astronomy. Moon, planets, etc. We can talk about the upcoming total lunar eclipse among other things. 

If we are committed to this, I will immediately request of KO and ORION if they would like to participate. 
To my knowledge, KO does not appear to be meeting any more, but will do pickup observation/imaging. I see more talk of imaging from their FB posts, but that is just a guess. 
ORION is actively meeting and David Fields in in this thread. David, if you have any thoughts?

In addition, November 5th is the Georgia game if that impacts your decisions. Depending on game time, it could affect the event. 

The Cades Cove event used to be a very big draw. It's possible this one could be small, but a prelude to future events. 

To Tim's point on health and safety precautions, anyone is welcome to mask. We've been successful doing such in the past when we had guests at Foothills Pkwy. It's still a personal choice and all, but it can be a simple way provide some precautions. 

Lastly, we are still in recovery mode. We need your participation; without it, we will burnout. There are some of you who really wanted to meet in person, and we have not seen you since we restarted. It would be nice to see you again. 

Please let me know any additional thoughts you have. 

Best regards, 
James

Hi James (and everyone),

ORION is actively meeting and David Fields in in this thread. David, if you have any thoughts?

It appears that the Park Service is channeling us to Cades Cove on Nov. 5, with an almost full moon.  Has anything changed?  If you like, I'll  register our Cades event to the Knoxville-Astronomy Calendar at https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=orion.astronomy%40gmail.com&ctz=America%2FNew_York

I think that some ORION people would enjoy participating, if a new moon -- a dark starry sky usually brings folks up to TAO for astrophotography.  Our monthly newsletter comes out today or tomorrow, and we can insert a note, as well as announce an update at our Oct. 17 meeting.  Our Editor is Noah at noahhaverkamp@... -- you can send final info to me or phone me.

SMAS folks are of course always welcome at Stargazes - free newsletter if registered at orionastronomy at groups.io

James, please let me know if you'd like me to register you (with gmail address) as the SMAS contributor to the Knoxville-Astronomy calendar.  You'd replace Jim Sanders, whom I added a few years ago to post SMAS info, but he hasn't posted much.

Cheers,

David

-----Original Message-----
From: James Cantu <james.cantu@...>
To: smokymtnastro@groups.io
Sent: Sun, Oct 9, 2022 11:46 pm
Subject: Re: [smokymtnastro] Cades Cove Discussion

Thanks to those who replied.

• There were four solid commitments, including myself--and counting Alex and Ayaka as one. 
• 2 tentative/conditional commitments 
• and some additional unsure/unlikely. 

In the before-times 9-12 commitments was normal plus other club participants. 

I was hoping for a little more dialogue on the pre-full moon event. The NPS is pretty firm. They are willing to shape it to less of dark sky event and more intro to astronomy. Moon, planets, etc. We can talk about the upcoming total lunar eclipse among other things. 

If we are committed to this, I will immediately request of KO and ORION if they would like to participate. 
To my knowledge, KO does not appear to be meeting any more, but will do pickup observation/imaging. I see more talk of imaging from their FB posts, but that is just a guess. 
ORION is actively meeting and David Fields in in this thread. David, if you have any thoughts?

In addition, November 5th is the Georgia game if that impacts your decisions. Depending on game time, it could affect the event. 

The Cades Cove event used to be a very big draw. It's possible this one could be small, but a prelude to future events. 

To Tim's point on health and safety precautions, anyone is welcome to mask. We've been successful doing such in the past when we had guests at Foothills Pkwy. It's still a personal choice and all, but it can be a simple way provide some precautions. 

Lastly, we are still in recovery mode. We need your participation; without it, we will burnout. There are some of you who really wanted to meet in person, and we have not seen you since we restarted. It would be nice to see you again. 

Please let me know any additional thoughts you have. 

Best regards, 
James