Bill the Astronomer
Bill is an astronomer. He used to hang out in the campsite space next to one of the campground hosts. His site looked out at the eastern sky, over a flat expanse of the prairie. Late at night while the campground was quiet Bill would be out in front of his RV looking through his telescope. 3:00 a.m. he would be gazing into the black, diamond studded sky while the rest of the people in the campground would be snoring in our RV’s/trailers/tents. He was usually gone (into his own bed) before the sun was barely over the straight line of the horizon. He’d have the curtains pulled and be asleep just at the time most folks were starting to light their Coleman stoves, boil water for coffee and get bacon popping in pans. You generally wouldn’t see him again until the early afternoon at which time he’d be back in the same lawn chair writing, reading, but mostly talking up the night-sky thing with anyone who’d listen or, even more optimistically, someone who’d maybe come out and get a look through the telescope along with him at 3:00 am. I tried it a couple of times-got up and walked over to his site to look through the lonely occular of his big ol’ telescope and stare up at the pin holes of light in the ink-black Florida sky. Bill would tell you all about the planets and the stars and the spinning orbits of satellites and glowing rocks burning up in the atmosphere of the Earth. To me, and most of the other people who came to see the “show” at 3:00 in the morning, it was pretty boring. But to Bill it was heaven.
The night sky was a real big deal with Bill. And, apparently, with other people as well. Years ago Bill was the only guy in the campground that I knew of that was interested in star gazing, as they call it. He was attracted to the Prairie because there is little in the way of ambient light which disturbed his view of the sky. Now various parks are giving official designations for certified night skies, which means, I think, somebody comes out and does a bunch of measurements. They must figure out how much outside light there is from surrounding communities, shopping centers, auto and truck traffic…etc. and how much it interferes with the ability to view the night sky. And,then they assign a number to what they find and certify the site as 80% or 90 % dark or something like that so that other stargazers will have a reason to come out to the parks and look at the night sky. For most of us looking up at the sky is two or three minutes of amazement and beauty. “Oh, Wow! Wouldja take a look at that moon?” or “I can hardly believe how beautiful it is out here. You can see so clear! And I have never seen so many stars…!” But for the real star-gazers, if they have got a place where there is a “dark sky” rating it means traveling there JUST to see the sky. To bring a shit-load of computer and telescopic equipment plus all the regular camping gear, and setting it all up and waiting for the darkness to prove itself worthy of that 87% rating. Like I said, Bill and all the other star-gazing folks really love that 3:00 am celestial show. Now it’s not just Bill in the spot next to the campground host anymore. He no longer waits for the unsuspecting neophyte to fall into his 3:00 am trap! Star gazing folks from all over the world come to the Prairie for the special star-gazing amenities. The Department of Outdoor Recreation put up a bunch of money and went and filled and leveled a separate area of the prairie grass and built eight new campsites just for the star-gazers. A place off to the side, away from the family camping and the equestrian camping-a good hike from the bathrooms too, I might add-just for the purpose of star-gazing.
That new area has different rules so you can’t stay there unless you’re willing to do without any lights at night. No TVs or kitchen lights or even flashlights-except for the kind with the hopeless red lights that you can barely even see anything with. You could walk into the mouth of a waiting alligator with one of those kinda flashlights. Useless! Up there on the “Astropad” ( which is the name for the new section of dark, dedicated camping sites) late in the late night/ early morning hours the “Astronuts” (which is the name which all the other campers in the campground call the sky-gazers)can be found staring out into the heavens. There may not be any lights allowed but the evening is alive with the sound of the frogs and alligators croaking, a little bit of music from someones trailer, the “swoosh” of a beer being popped and the movement of men and women and equipment being aimed into the sky. It might not be for everyone, this sky watching, but for Bill and the people like him, it is everything. And the rest of us, asleep in our bunks, the hush of the Prairie and the black sky await the arrival of the sun.
Bill was given a special status in the campground, that of resident astronomer and he gave daytime lectures complete with a slide show and early evening talks as the moon would rise and the stars would present themselves. He was passionate about his hobby and you could feel his passion. He wasn’t at the Prairie the last time I went camping there. I was told he moved to Arizona. But the Astropad is still there. It is a testament to the folks like Bill who love their hobby and love the outdoors. Thanks Bill, for turning me on to the sky.
