Dark sky star party April 10, Mojave National Preserve

[Morris Jones]

Many of you who have enjoyed visiting our telescopes in the city wonder 
what it would be like away from the city.  Folks who grow up and live in 
Los Angeles rarely get to see a true dark sky.

We love to have people join us for dark sky excursions, but our favorite 
location in the Colorado Desert south of Joshua Tree could be considered 
"inhospitable" by many.

In less than two weeks, on April 10, we'll be having a dark sky event 
with the Mojave National Preserve Conservancy.  Free camping will be 
available at the Black Canyon Group Campground, and the MNPC is planning 
to provide drinks and light refreshments.

Mojave National Preserve is a beautiful place with fabulous dark skies. 
  We'll be bringing our biggest and best telescopes to introduce you to 
the galaxy clusters of spring in the early evening, and the Milky Way 
towards midnight.  You can enjoy great desert walks during the day, and 
starry skies through the night.

The event is listed here at the Mojave National Preserve web site: 
http://www.preservethemojave.org/events.html

On the site you'll see a link to Mike Cipra to RSVP if you'd like to 
attend:  mcipra at npca.org

There's also a link to my blog about a previous trip to MNP last year 
with a group of herpetologists: 
http://mojo.whiteoaks.com/2009/04/26/snakes-tortoises-and-stars/

The location is about 200 miles from our home in Monrovia, and is an 
easy drive on good roads for the whole distance.

The weather is quite variable, and as always, if it's cloudy or too 
windy we won't be able to set up telescopes.  The odds are pretty good 
to have clear dark skies.  Be sure to bring warm clothing for the 
evening in several layers.  We always travel with hats and gloves even 
for mid-spring observing.

Mojo
-- 
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mojo_la