Our members provide equipment and support for about a dozen or so star parties for local schools, Boy Scouts, U.S. Forest Service, and other groups each year. If your school or group is interested in having LAS members provide equipment and support for your event, please contact the LAS President or Vice President.
The best times for school and other public star parties are near the first quarter moon. In general we do not support events that near the full moon or the new moon.
Friday nights are usually a good time for school events. The event should begin about 45 minutes to an hour after sunset and end a couple hours later.
You should chose a location that has reasonably clear views to the southeast, south, and southwest. There should be no street lights that are less than a block away in the viewing direction. The glare from street lights is annoying for everyone and makes it very difficult for us to locate objects. If lighting at your location is excessive try contacting your city or county parks department for suggestions.
Keep in mind that some of our telescopes are large and quite heavy; some weigh a couple hundred pounds or more. It is important that we have nearby access to our vehicles for loading and unloading.
Please provide us with a rough estimate of the number of people attending so we can plan accordingly. We can handle a maximum of about 150 people per evening.
Typically we only support events that are less than 30 miles from Longmont. Otherwise the travel time and expense is excessive for our members.
We can provide information about the various objects we'll be showing to the students for classroom discussion prior to the event.
In Colorado, the evening sky is cloudy around 40% of the time so cancellation is always a possibility. Sometimes it pretty obvious that an event should be cancelled though sometimes not. We try to inform our volunteers at least 2 hours prior to the event if it is to be cancelled. We will try to reschedule the event with you if possible.