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Public Star Party Pinnacle Mountain State Park, Saturday, October 1st

Join Central Arkansas Astronomical Society (CAAS) and our good friends at Pinnacle Mountain State Park for a public star party from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m at the park’s Visitor center parking lot.   As twilight settles in, the members of CAAS will provide telescopes for viewing objects in the night sky. If cloudy skies prevent observation, an indoor program on astronomy will be presented at 9 p.m.   As always our star parties are free to the public.

Highlights of the evening will be a beautiful crescent moon and a late appearance by king of the planets Jupiter, which is currently putting on a great show in the late evening and morning skies.  We will also great views of the summer triangle stars of Deneb, Vega and Altiar, double stars, galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters.

We are also giving a telescope to one lucky attendee to one of the  last three star parties in 2011!  CAAS and Optics Planet,  which is recognized as one of the world’s leading online retailers of sport optics, tactical and military gear, hunting gear, and astronomy products,  have teamed up to give away a quality portable.  The telescope is a Bushnell ARES 5” Compact Truss Tube Dobsonian Telescope OpticsPlanet Edition and retails for $159.99 at OpticsPlanet.net.  http://www.opticsplanet.net/bushnell-dob-5-compact-truss-tube-dobsonian-telescope-opticsplanet-edition.html

The drawing will be held at the October 29, 2011 near the conclusion of our final public event for the year – the Halloween Trick-or-Celestial-Treats Star Party at Woolly Hollow State Park.  The Halloween Trick-or-Celestial-Treats Star Party will take place at the Woolly Hollow State Park swim beach, on October 29, 2011, 8 – 10 p.m.  That night guests are welcome to wear their Halloween costumes (no face paint please, to protect the telescopes) and CAAS members will have plenty of candy for the kids in addition to the celestial treats.

The telescope contest will be open to all star party guests with a limit of one entry per star party.  No purchase is necessary.  Members of CAAS, employees of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism and their immediate family members are ineligible.  The drawing will be held near the conclusion of the October 29th Woolly Hollow event (approximately 10 p.m.) or at the November 12th monthly meeting of CAAS in the event of a cancellation.  The winner need not be present to win and will be notified the following day if not in attendance for the drawing.