Star Parties 2009 / 2010

Star parties are astronomy events that consist of dozens to hundreds of people camping out with telescopes gazing at the heavens. They usually occur on weekends near a new moon each month. This page contains a list of all the star parties that we know about. We believe it to be the most comprehensive list of star parties on the internet. We include links the the star party home page. We are constantly updating this page, checking the dates and the links. If you are hosting a star party or other astronomy event please let us know about it.

You don't need a telescope to attend a star party. I did not have one at the first star party I attended. It did not matter. There were over a hundred telescopes at the Black Forest Start Party in Cherry Springs PA. Just about everyone was happy to let me look through their telescope. Most astronomers love to share the views through their telescopes. Some of the telescopes at that star party were 25-30 inches in diameter. I remember seeing the veil nebula through one of these big boys. I could not pull my eye away from the eyepiece. It was magnificent. I had never seen so much detail.

Star parties and more star parties what is a start party?

In a nutshell, star party is a group of people with telescopes, camping in a field, usually in a dark location. Often star parties include lectures, demonstrations, vendor booths, door prizes, and much more. Other star parties are no frills and just include the people, telescopes, binoculars, etc.