Blue Hole Star Party

Blue Hole Regional Park will be hosting their Bi-Annual Blue Hole Star Party for the fifth year on April 30 from 8:30 to 10 p.m. over by the soccer fields next to the basketball courts.

People are encouraged to bring their families as well as chairs, picnic blankets and flashlights to the event.

Jamie Kinscherff, who is a part of the Wimberley Valley Dark Skies Committee and head of their outreach committee, says that it is important to see the appropriate times of when to turn on the lights at night.

“There has been a dark sky initiative where we are trying in the next many years to see where people can see the stars,” Kinscherff said. “Wimberley is officially a dark sky community as are a few cities in Texas but our group is an educational and inspirational group trying to let people know that although there is time for essential lighting at night, maybe we don’t need to light up the whole planet the way we have a tendency to do. What we do by reducing the amount of lighting helps birds during migration, but also use a lot less energy therefore use less fossil fuels that puts out more pollution in the air.”

The event will have the Wimberley Valley Dark Skies Committee and the Texas State Astronomy Club share their telescopes as well as give out information about the stars, constellations and other stargazing information.

“There are probably going to be eight telescopes there,” Kinscherff said. “At least a couple of them will be set on the most interesting thing in the night sky, which at this time would be the Orion Nebula, but there is always interesting stuff in the sky so a telescope will be pointed at different things. People will then take a peek at the telescope at things they have never seen through a telescope before.”

Admission is free for all who come with smoking and alcohol being strictly prohibited.

The event starts at 8:30 p.m. with a Dark Sky discussion and picnic before transitioning to star viewing with telescopes at 8:45 p.m. A sky tour with expert astronomers will start at 9:30 p.m. with closing questions at 10 p.m.