A few people have pledged to bring their telescopes to Big Sky for you to use! We will plan to have them aimed at interesting objects not usually visible from cities. The selected objects are listed in The Evening Sky Map and Sky & Telescope.

We will have sky maps for you both on the Sunday night sky viewing and the Tuesday night Star Rally. The telescopes will be set out both nights. The telescopes are not part of the Star Rally. The rally will rely on your eyes. The rain date for the Rally would be Wednesday night.

Please bring the following:

appropriate clothing for expected cool temperatures at high elevation at night

binoculars

insect repellant

small flashlight (penlight) covered with red cellophane to protect night vision

pencil to fill out contest sheet

we will provide a star chart (hard copy of The Evening Sky Map for August 2003 from www.skymaps.com)

we will give out keyring size button red lights (first to registered attendees)

we will NOT provide red cellophane and rubber bands

on Tuesday, August 5, 2003 sunset is about 8:53 PM MDT

Big Sky, Montana

For the mountain village:

Latitude = 45.29 deg

Longitude = -111.40 deg

Elevation = 2,275 m

Did you realize that you are midway between the equator and north pole?

Here is a web site that has an interactive sky chart:

http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/skychart/

use change location button

Mars rises about 10:20 PM in east-southeast.

Dark sky begins about 9:30 PM.

You may contact Michael Zedd with questions and comments.

zedd@nrl.navy.mil

I am unable to attend the conference. Dave Vallado will be in charge of the evenings' programs.