Texas Star Party 2002

ach year the Texas Star Party at the Prude Ranch near Fort Davis accommodates one of the largest groups of observational amateur astronomers ever assembled for the purposes of sky watching and camaraderie. Maximum capacity was again reached at the 2002 event, sponsored by the TSP Association and the Southwest Region of the Astronomical League. The 650 people attending brought a similar number of telescopes and optical instruments of all kinds. The atmosphere was West Texas style, with rustic on-site accommodations and local specialty food and drink served daily at the Ranch cafeteria. Daytime horse expeditions were available, with local cowboys as trail guides, and there were opportunities for swimming and wildlife observation; but most attendees chose to sleep the days away in anticipation of the excellent evening programs, and of nightlong viewing under dark, transparent skies.

Spring weather in the Davis Mountains and the surrounding Chihuahuan Desert of West Texas is changeable; clouds and rain can move in with the ferocity of one of the local wild javelina boars, yet soon gives way to brilliant sunlight and clear desert mountain vistas. Miniature cyclones, called "dust devils," sometimes threatened to cross one of the three observing fields during the hot afternoons,

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