Highland Road Park Observatory 25th Anniversary

[Christopher K.]

This year the Highland Road Park Observatory celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary. The first public night was in the fall of 1997, and HRPO will have a birthday party in November.

The idea to bring a public telescope to East Baton Rouge Parish came from a phone call between LSU astrophysicist Greg Guzik and Melanie Hair. Melanie was a member of BRAS, which was founded by Craig Brenden and Wally Pursell in 1981. The Department of Physics and Astronomy at LSU secured the funding for a 50cm (20in) professional-grade reflector from the Optical Guidance Systems company. Greg ultimately became, and remained through now, HRPO’s official LSU liaison. BREC (under then-Superintendent Eugene Young) agreed to provided grounds, a building, staff and an operating budget.

BRAS members (mainly Walt Cooney) have used the OGS reflector to discover over three dozen asteroids, the first of which was named after HRPO’s home city of Baton Rouge. More of the asteroids have been named for Greg, Craig, Wally, and BRAS members Frank Conrad and Merrill Hess.

HRPO’s Science Academy is an informal program for children aged eight to twelve and focuses on astronomy, physics, the American space program, geology, meteorology, chemistry, mathematics and the history of such. It has existed at HRPO in one form or another since at least the fall of 2001. At this time there are over eighty active Cadets, and twenty Cadets have earned the top-level Galactic Plaque.

The Friday Night Lecture Series began as a campfire program for families and has since morphed into an indoor presentation for a general adult audience. The quarterly “Wonders of the Sky” talks give active local skygazers a preview of the upcoming Baton Rouge night sky; this talk is traditionally given by HRPO’s Education Curator. Periodic regular talks include "Our Birth Stars"; “Buying Astronomy Stuff" is presented near the end of the calendar year.

HRPO is open annually for the peaks of the Perseid and Geminid meteor showers. Other annual events include NanoDays, the fall and spring Edge of Night (which premiered in 2016), American Radio Relay League Field Day and the Spooky Spectrum. Easily the most well-attended manufactured event of the calendar year is the annual International Astronomy Day.

Probably the two most well-attended celestial events in HRPO history were the close approach of Mars in August 2003 and the Transit of Venus in June 2012.

The three equal and autonomous partners—BREC, LSU and BRAS—have brought HRPO to the public for twenty-five years and I have every faith that HRPO will continue for another twenty-five.

[sigrid94]

Hi! Happy learning about evening sky viewing

[Christopher K.]

Below is the NOAA forecast for HRPO's planned event time of 4pm to 12am this Saturday...
precipitation potential, 18%
sky cover, 67%
relative humidity, 82%
temperature, 9˚C
wind chill, 7˚C
surface wind, NE 11 km/h
The Danko predictions for transparency and seeing have yet to be released.

The current 19 November 2022 evening rating is...
EXCELLENT
VERY GOOD
GOOD
FAIR
POOR
BAD

[Christopher K.]

Please note the following concerning the planned Anniversary event at HRPO this Saturday.

Below is the NOAA forecast for HRPO's planned public time of 4pm to 12am...
precipitation potential, 19%
sky cover, 82%
relative humidity, 79%
temperature, 10˚C
wind chill, 7˚C
surface wind, NE 9 km/h

The current 19 November 2022 evening rating is...
EXCELLENT
VERY GOOD
GOOD
FAIR
POOR
BAD

Due to the deterioration of the forecast, and due to other grounds and machinery work being done at HRPO at this time, HRPO's 25th Anniversary Event is postponed until Friday 30 December. The time span will be 3:30pm to 9:30pm.

[LuziAnne]

Will the telescope be available for viewing during this event?

Thanks!

[Christopher K.]

We had planned to have the telescopes available during this event. The NOAA forecast has cloud cover over eighty-five percent and humidity over ninety percent, as well as a "zero" rating for transparency from Danko. We will still try, though.

Due to a Dense Fog Advisory from NOAA beginning at 10pm, HRPO will close at 9pm.