Full Moon Viewing Event At Valley of Fire

By JENNI TOBIASSON

The Progress

Picture being surrounded by towering red sandstone, dark but still warm to the touch from the summer sun. Then at the east, the faint glow of earth’s own “natural satellite” as it prepares to take over the sky.

That was the scene at the Valley of Fire State Park on Sunday evening, Aug. 22. Usually, after dark is when all goes quiet at the park: open to public only from sunrise to sunset. But this particular evening, a special exception was made for stargazers.

The Las Vegas Astronomical Society was hosting a full moon night viewing event at Valley of Fire that evening.

VOF Interpretative Ranger Kayla Wolfe greeted more than 40 attendees at The Beehives parking lot, pointed them in the right direction for a short 1/4 mile walk to the viewing location. Once there, attendees enjoyed the view of the dark skies.

Set up at the end of the trail were telescopes and cameras on tripods ready to capture the moon’s steadily ascent into the sky.

During brief presentations, astronomers eased any confusion among the crowd about where to look, with super-cool green laser pointers that guided their gaze directly to the section of sky they were talking about. This technique was impressive and almost got more attention than the moon itself!

Francisco Silva, the Vice President of the Astronomical Society, greeted individuals and groups as they arrived sharing his knowledge of the stars, making small talk. He even let some people hold a real life meteor, which was very small, and surprisingly heavy!

People then took turns looking through several high-powered telescopes, to get an up close look at Jupiter, Saturn, the moon, and various other star clusters and constellations.

Questions from the viewers were encouraged. Destyn Martin, 10, of Overton, was given the choice of asking a question or to answer a question before taking a peek into space. For his first turn on the telescope, he chose to answer a question
“Which star is the largest in our solar system?”
“Oh! The sun!” he responded after a short moment of thought.

With that he looked through the telescope to see Saturn for the very first time. He was amazed at the sight, jumping down from the stool he was standing on to exclaim, “You can even see the rings!”

For his second view, this time of the moon, Destyn decided to ask the question. “Since Jupiter is a gas giant, does it regenerate itself automatically after a meteor or something hits its surface?”
“It takes just a few seconds, and it fills in the damage completely,” Silva responded.

Destyn was fast, and already looking at the lunar surface before his question was fully confirmed.
All in all, it was a very interesting evening, definitely a beautiful and unique night time experience at our very own Valley of Fire.

Events like this are scheduled often, and are listed at parks.nv.gov/parks/valley-of-fire-state-park/.