Sugar Creek Astronomical Society Presents: "Large Telescopes of the World" and Orientation to the Late Spring Sky at Hobbs State Park – Conservation Area on Saturday.
There is a new breed of ground-based telescope out there today with even more slated for operation in a few years. This new class of incredible telescopes can be found in remote parts of Chile, South Africa, Hawaii, Spain, Puerto Rico and other suitable locations. They house some of the largest mirrors yet for collecting light from distant cosmic objects. The folks from the Sugar Creek Astronomical Society will present enlightening facts about these important structures, and then orientate those in attendance to the late Spring sky.
Some of these amazing telescopes are:
The twin 33-foot telescopes at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which represent the second largest optical telescopes on Earth, located close to the summit of Hawaii's Mauna Kea.
The huge reflector helps make Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico an incredibly sensitive radio telescope. Such radio sources include distant quasars (a region at the center of a galaxy that produces an extremely large amount of radiation) and galaxies that emit radio waves which only reach Earth 100 million years later.
The Square Kilometer Array (SKA) is an intergovernmental radio telescope project being planned to be built in Australia and South Africa and will be 50 times the sensitivity of any radio telescope ever built. Such power could examine signals from the younger universe of 12 billion years ago.
The night sky viewing at Hobbs will include looking at the moon through high quality telescopes provided and staffed by members of the Sugar Creek Astronomical Society. Other observations in the May 14 sky will include stars, constellations and star clusters.
What to Bring:
Flashlight (covered with a red cloth or red balloon); binoculars and/or telescope; folding chair (one per person); and a star chart.
The recommended minimum age for this program: 8 years
Contact Sugar Creek Astronomical Society: https://sugarcreek.space/
About Hobbs State Park – Conservation Area
Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area heads the list as the largest of Arkansas's 52 state parks with a 12,054-acre tract of Ozark landscape along the southern shore of Beaver Reservoir. It is a significant component of the northwest Arkansas ecosystem with carefully managed human impact.
Highlights of this day-use park include a diverse, 54-mile trail system constructed for hiking, running, ADA, mountain biking, and horseback riding trails. The Park offers 11 primitive campsites, six available to mountain bikers, the first of their kind in northwest Arkansas. Hobbs is the only state park in Arkansas to allow regulated hunting. The visitor center includes exhibits about the park's natural resources, limestone landscape, and history. Interpretive programs and workshops are offered throughout the year.