For one week every June astronomers from all over the country, even the world flock to the south rim of the world famous Grand Canyon.  For the last 17 to 18 years the Grand Canyon Star Party has been a popular event that many Arizona astronomers look forward to, even myself!  This star party is put on by one of Arizona's largest astronomy clubs, the Tucson Amater Astronomy Association or better know as TAAA.

   TAAA plans the Grand Canyon Star Party (GCSP) on the southern rim of the Grand Canyon, held in the parking lot of Yavapi Point, one of the best places to watch the sun set.  The site sits under amazingly dark skies and nearly 7500 feet above sea level making this site perfect for astronomy, but what is so special about this star party compared to others? 

On March 9, 2010, Sharing the Sky will have its annual Board of Directors Meeting/. Usually held on March 9, the day celebrates an event which took place way back in 1962. It was my first astronomy outreach event, a Star Night at Westmount High School. As is typical for spring in eastern Canada (and the U.S.), the sky that night was filled with dense clouds and rain. In anticipation of such a weather event we had booked a movie offered by the Bell Telephone Company of Canada. At that time they offered a free movie service, and we took advantage of it. The movie we chose was “Our Mister Sun.” It gave me a tremendously good feeling when the Bell Canada employee arrived at Westmount High with the film that dreary evening.

Over the years, in my wanderings among the stars, I have met some really wonderful people. In this column I wish to praise two of them, Scott Roberts, CEO of Explore Scientific, and Dean Koenig of Starizona. When I introduced them on January 19, 2001, (actually the night before George W. Bush’s inauguration) at a family dinner, I was not sure they’d get along. After all, as business people they were competitors; Scott was a Vice President of Meade at the time, and Dean emphasizes Celestron products at Starizona, his telescope store.   What I didn’t take into account was the utter decency and humanity of both men. They liked each other from the start, and their friendship has lasted to this day.