After seven nights of cloudy skies in Oracle, Arizona, the sky cleared on Saturday, 30 November 2024, for the "Star Party & Holiday Toy Drive at Oracle State Park", our local International Dark Sky Park.

In the spirit of the season, the Park partnered with Aviva Children's Services to collect donations for their holiday toy drive to share joy with children and teens in foster care. Toy collection boxes were set up outside the Kannally Ranch House and in the Kannally Living Room.

Park residents and visitors began gathering for the Star Party.

The Friends of Oracle State Park was on hand to sell memberships and answer questions.

As the Sun set in the west, the "Belt of Venus" was visible in the eastern sky. At the right is the shadow of Mt Lemmon.

Astronomers from the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association once again supported Oracle State Park and began setting up their telescopes. Many thanks to TAAA.

Food was available from Kettle Corn Bros and La Bufadora Food Truck.

After the sky was dark enough, Park visitors began enjoying viewing sights of our Universe through the telescopes. "Electronic" telescopes provided live enhanced views on tablets. One example was the Triangulum Galaxy.

This star party showcased Oracle State Park's new electronic telescope that projected live views of deep space objects onto a wall of the historic Kannally Ranch House. The group viewing projection area was separate from the rest of the telescopes to ensure the projection did not interfere with other star viewing or violate International Dark Sky Park requirements, as seen in the first photo. The second photo shows the telescope (lower left corner) and the projected live view on the wall.

With the constellation of Orion rising in the eastern sky, the last of the 110 visitors left at 8:30pm after a thrilling night of experiencing our Universe at Oracle State Park.

Photos by Mike Weasner

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