The Craters of the Moon National Monument was along our route, 20 miles before our campground. So we stopped at the visitor center, watched the movie, gained some info and developed a plan to return around 5PM so we could drive the scenic road, do the few short hikes, have a picnic dinner, and then head out for the evening’s “star party” which consisted of a ranger talk at 08:30 followed by stargazing starting at 09:15.
The short hikes were interesting
The young park ranger gave an excellent talk for about 1 hour, with the last 15 minutes pointing at constellations becoming visible as the sky darkened. By the time the milky way was clearly visible, the talk ended and the stargazing through telescopes started.
There were at least 10 serious telescopes plus some smaller ones, with a participant crowd of approximately 100. The largest one was a 20″ telescope with tube length about 6′, all were owned by volunteers from the nearby Idaho Falls astronomical society.
