The North Dakota Star Party began in the summer of 1999 with an idea I had about getting all three astronomy clubs together in North Dakota and hosting a star party we could all invite everyone in the state to. Plans were worked on by members of Northern Sky Astronomical Society and Dakota Astronomical Society out of Bismarck about where the best place to have the star party. Places like the North Dakota Badlands, National parks, wildlife refuges, in small towns and even in a farmers back yard were all discussed, finally we found the perfect place Cross Ranch State Park.
Cross Ranch was picked for a few reasons, first it is in central North Dakota and if we wanted to show off our state what better way to do so then have people travel to its center. Second it is a very dark site, with the moonless sky showing stars dimmer then 6th magnitude, Cross Ranch has a few small towns near it, but the largest, Bismarck is over 30 miles to the South. Next, it was on the Lewis and Clark trail, 2003 marks the bicentennial of Lewis and Clarks trip across North Dakota, we wanted to highlight this part of our states history. Last and not least the site is close enough to major highways and airports and towns that it would be an easy site to locate and have many people travel to.
Northern Sky Astronomical Society is the primary host of the event this year, we hope to make the star party as enjoyable as possible, we have had experience in hosting events both in Grand Forks, ND at our observatory and abroad most notability in August we travel out to the North unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and hold a star party there for guests. We have had large public groups around our telescopes, the largest we have hosted was 500 people in one night at our observatory for Comet Hyakutake star party in 1996. We also assisted John Leppert in what was called the Northern Prairie Star Fest in 95, 96 and 97 held on his farm in Sarles, ND. All the experience we have taken from these separate events we incorporated into the North Dakota Star Party.
Our club (Northern Sky Astronomical Society) has about 15 members all who have telescopes or knowledge of using telescopes for public instruction have dedicated themselves to sharing the wonders of the night sky with everyone who wants to see. have members who do CCD research, in fact one member actually built his own camera before the club formed in 1994. We have members who like to work on building their own telescopes, we have two remote control internet commanded research telescope projects we assist in with the University of North Dakota. Our talents in astronomy don't sound too unique when compared with other astronomy clubs.
The North Dakota Jaycees became a sponsor in the star party after their year end convention in Mandan, ND. This January I attended this event and at lunch one day mentioned to the other Jaycees the star party, they all liked the idea and offered to help with the meal in return they would raise money for building playgrounds that all children could play in. NSAS liked this arrangement and we became partners.
Dakota Science Center being a hands on science museum and seeing a need gladly supported the star party and astronomy club by donating the money needed to secure the park for the weekend. We actually could never have held this event if not for the generosity that Dakota Science Center showed.
NSAS held a week long sale of popcorn in the student union at University of North Dakota in order to raise funds to support the star party event.
In all everything came together, we got all our speakers, we received many requests of people to volunteer and help and many clubs came together to work on the star party, my thanks goes out to each and every person who helped make this happen. What was once a dream of mine to host a state star celebration will be a reality and it could not have happened without everyone's hard work. Clear Skies and we will see everyone in May.
In the end I will have a on-line booklet that details what we did to host this event so that other clubs could host their own state star party's and if you do decide to come to our event be sure to thank the people in the NSAS hats for putting this on