November 2.  FWAS's Thomas Williamson and one of his Lake Whitney colleagues are sponsoring a small viewing session at Lake Bob Sandlin State Park. 

The 639.8-acre park is located on the heavily-wooded shoreline on the north side of the 9400-acre Lake Bob Sandlin, located southeast of Mount Pleasant in Titus County. It was acquired in 1979 and was opened 1987.

Directions: The park is located approximately 12 miles southwest of Mt. Pleasant on FM 21. Exit Interstate 30 on Highway 37 South at Mt. Vernon. Go .8 mile; turn left on Highway 21; go 11.2 miles to the park entrance.

Thomas Williamson
distglow@hotmail.com

November 2. The 6th Annual North Texas Skywatch Star Party will be held at Lake Mineral Wells State Park. This very popular family friendly star party (average attendance of 700) is hosted by Lake Mineral Wells State Park, Tarleton State University, and Tarrant County College. This year's invited speaker will be Rebecca Miller, meteorologist from NBC Channel 5.

A SPECIAL NOTE: The park has no more camping sights available for that night. However, if you call the State Park at 940-328-1171 and tell them that you are coming for the star party, they will be able to make arrangements for you to camp at the observing site and overflow camping areas. Also, even though events do not start until 4:00 pm it is recommended to get there earlier to avoid the traffic.

Michael Hibbs
http://www.tarleton.edu/~hibbs/ntsw
hibbs@tarleton.edu
254-968-9150

FWAS had 4 members at last month's Okie-Tex Star Party up in the Oklahoma panhandle as shown at right.  A total of 340 registered attendees battled fog and clouds, but did manage to get in some successful viewing under the dark skies.  On one night, the crowd was treated to an aurora borealis show, captured in the photo below.  See http://www.icstars.com/HTML/Okie-Tex2002/Okie_Tex_Aurora/ for this and other photos.  Additionally, 2 children discovered a new set of dinosaur tracks while playing near the observing area!