FAMILY FRIENDLY Stargate Arkansas

FORT SMITH — All Dave Grosvold can do is offer someone the night sky.

There is plenty to show. The constellations are always fun to find. Ceres, the largest astronomical body in the asteroid belt, was particularly visible last week. Mars and Saturn have made for some good viewing recently, too.

Grosvold, president of the Arkansas/Oklahoma Astronomical Society, knows where to see such sights. So does Jack McDaniel, president of the Sugar Creek Astronomy Society. And, between those two organizations, there are dozens more in the area with telescopes and a fascination with the night sky.

This weekend, both clubs will introduce the unacquainted to the night sky at free public gatherings.

The Sugar Creek club will meet at Hobbs State Park - Conservation Area near Rogers for a program that begins at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

During a segment hosted by the physics department of NorthWest Arkansas Community College, amateur astronomers can construct a simple telescope similar to what Galileo would have used. It costs $35 to construct a telescope, but the gazing event later in the evening is free. Those who don’t have a telescope are welcome to view objects that have been found by club members.

“We love astronomy,” McDaniel says of hiscolleagues. “It’s just in our blood, I guess, and we like to share it with other people.”

The group does outreach events such as chats for Boy Scout troupes and other speaking engagements.

Of course, the biggest sellingpoint is to actually let visitors look into the heavens, which is the idea behind the public star parties. The Sugar Creek club will begin meeting with participants an hour before it gets dark. The group then instructs guests on how to navigate the sky.

When viewing begins, it will include the stars that can be seen with the naked eye, those that can be seen with binoculars and those than can be seen with telescopes.

“We’re going to have Venus, Mars and Saturn and a partial moon. We will see at least three or four rings of Saturn.

We’ll look at some of the deep sky objects, too,” McDaniel says.

In addition to serving as a watch party, the event is also a practical lesson in amateur astronomy, McDaniel says. Visitors can look at the club members’ telescopes, providing them an opportunity to see scopes of different aperture sizes, complexity and price. Some of the scopes are quite basic while others - such as McDaniels’ telescope that uses GPS coordinates to track and follow objects - are much more advanced.

At the event at Fort Smith State Park, Grosvold and his colleagues will also acquaint guests with the night sky before viewing begins. Firsttime star gazers will gather in the park’s Visitor Centerfor an instructional program that begins at 8 p.m. Saturday.

The group will then depart for the marina boat ramp, where viewing will take place after dark.

City lights and what is known among the trade as light pollution, which involves a glow from industrial and residential sources, are an astronomer’s enemy.

Grosvold, with the Arkansas/ Oklahoma club, says this part of the country features good viewing opportunities.

“We stack up pretty well, and in west-central Arkansas, there are several areas with very good dark sky opportunities,” he says.

Google Earth provides anoverlay that attempts to gauge the amount of light pollution in any given area, Grosvold says, and several places in Arkansas have low levels, including near Mena.

Finding an open, light-free space is often the challenge for the Sugar Creek group, too.

“It’s harder and harder to find a place, and it’s getting worse. Light pollution is wasted energy,” McDaniel says.

Saturday, at two of Arkansas’ state parks, it will be dark enough to see several planets, constellations and other heavenly bodies.