This past weekend we got to attend our very first star party on Mount Potosi, which is an hour and a half southwest of Las Vegas. If you’ve never heard of a star party, you’re probably not nerdy enough. ;P A star party is where a group of amateur astronomers get together to observe the sky and nerd out over all the cool stuff they see. Our friend Joe / Mysteryguitarman has recently gotten into astronomy, so we got to tag along and learn a thing or two about stars. For example, a double star is not just two stars that are close together. They actually interact and orbit around each other.
We arrived around sunset and watched people set up their telescopes. There were 6 being set up by a few folks from the Las Vegas astronomy club. Everyone was super friendly and let us a peek into their telescopes.
We saw Jupiter (the brightest) and the Orion Nebula (the cluster).
Then some planes interfered with our long exposure.
You see so many stars without light pollution! This was later in the evening when it was much darker.
After hanging out with the stars, we went off to the side to do some light painting.
I need to work on my penmanship, but Jacob was killin it!
All photos above were taken with a Canon 5D Mark III and 35mm/1.4 L lens.
Tips for going to a Star Party (some specific to Mount Potosi Las Vegas):
- Bundle up! Wear thermals. Bring warm gloves, socks, and heat packs. We were out there from 6PM-10PM, and my fingers could barely operate a camera. It was cold!
- Don’t forget your tripod (this is the one we use) and remote shutter release. We forgot ours, so we ended up setting it on timer. It works okay, but limits you on how long the exposure can be (up to 30 seconds).
- You can attend or book your own star party! Contact Las Vegas Astronomical Society or your local astronomy club.
What’s your favorite stargazing spot?
I am so jealous that you JUST moved there and are already out and about. I am going to commit to doing more of that in my next city. I always take my backyard for granted.
This looks beyond awesome by the way!
Thank you, @brittone20:disqus :D I do the same thing! I think I realized that when I moved away from Atlanta. I saw that I took everything I had there for granted. But it also helps us to know that we might only be living here for one year.. so better do as much as possible before we leave! :) ALSO, sometimes I run out of blog material and then make Jacob take me out. haha
Beautiful! I love going out to look at the stars.
Yay!! :) I often forget to just stop and look to see all the beauty around us!
Oh my, look at all those stars! It looks gorgeous. I’ve never been star gazing before, but I would love to do it. And to think that this is in Las Vegas? The next time I’m there, I will have to suggest this.
You should go star gazing tonight!! :) Do you see a lot of stars where you live? Or there’s probably a lot of light pollution, huh? Sometimes I forget how tiny this world is in this universe.
That sounds awesome! I love the pictures and light painting. How does the light painting work? I want to try it! The last time we went stargazing was at Joshua Tree. David’s mom wanted to stay until nightfall to see the stars :)
Can’t wait to see all your Vegas local adventures! Such a cute idea!
We can try it when you’re here! We just need to find a dark area. :) Yeah, we went star gazing in joshua tree too! It’s so pretty there. You guys shoulda camped there.
this i probably the most amazing thing ever. You are basically living my dream! Did you ever do this while in LA?
Thank you @treasuretromp:disqus!! I have not done it in LA. We went to the observatory a few times, but it’s usually hard to see a lot of the stars. I remember we saw a ton in Joshua Tree though!
Um, this is AMAZING. Wow! I’ve never seen so many stars like that before. That’s breathtaking! It’s a reminder of how amazing the universe is and how there’s SO MUCH we don’t know! I feel like an experience like that is feeling small in the best way.
Also, all I could think when you said double stars orbit around each other was: aww, they’re dating.
Thanks so much Erika :D :D Yeah, it’s crazy that if you just drive an hour or so away from a city, you can see so many more stars! I forget that there are so many out there.
Haha that’s a really cute way to look at it!! :) They’re attached to each other.
oh. my. gosh. stunning!
(ps i went to respond to your comments re: email and i saw you’re a no-reply blogger which means no one can email you back regarding comments!! :()
the etsy swap is closed this roung – but we will do another in the fall! and no you don’t have to have a shop to participate – here are the rules.
http://www.takingstepshome.com/2014/02/etsy-swap-spring-fever.html
Thanks, @Amy! Hmm.. I’m not super tech savvy so I’m not sure why it does that. I installed a plugin to do the email a while ago. I’ll have to look into it. Thanks for letting me know!