Star partier travels the state to show the heavens

Paul Ricketts looks through one of the telescopes he uses for star parties across the state.

SALT LAKE CITY – Paul Rickett is a staff member of University of Utah and a party animal. He parties at schools, even Utah State University, at Bear Lake and other state parks and national parks – anywhere he can find someone to party with from five people to thousands of people.

Paul Ricketts teaches astronomy to a class of students.

Rickett, a Helper native, is a star party animal and his main tool for partying is telescopes. He parties with stargazers.

“I do public outreach for the University of Utah,” he said. “I do star parties anywhere I can schedule them. In September, some people at Bear Lake State Park contacted me to do a star party.”

Using a 32” telescope built in the Willard Eccles Observatory in 2006 is only one of his tools. He can remotely bring things to light most people don’t know are out there. During the parties they will show group planets, stars, galaxies, nebulae star clusters and any other celestial event. They even have equipment to look at the sun.

“We will do a star party any time of year. Sometimes four or five in a week,” Ricketts said. “We do more in the summer because it is warmer, but we can do it anytime people are interested.”

He has tried to have weekly parties on the university campus with colleagues on Wednesday evenings. COVID has put a damper on some of his parties for awhile.

A view of constellations from one of the telescopes used at star parties.

“We travel all over the place to do star parties,” Ricketts said. “Not only do we do them at Bear Lake we also did star parties at Gunlock State Park, Kodachrome Basin, Rockport State Park and anywhere else that is designated a Dark Sky Park.”

Ricketts started the parties while still a student at the University in 2005 and continued after graduation.

“We don’t spend that much on advertising,” Ricketts said. “We mostly use the internet, Facebook and word of mouth.”

The parties may only be for a few people and up to thousands of people, but most of the time they hover around 50 people at a time. He is part of the International Dark Sky Association and works in those designated places. Ricketts knows his constellations and is well-known for his teaching abilities for both the young and old.

A view of a lunar eclipse from a telescope in January 21 2019.

He says he is now able to do digital star parties by doing a live stream on Facebook. “It is remotely accessible, and if I get a screen and find a couple of objects, I can explain what we find.”

He also can photograph what he sees and make prints of them.

“At some of the parties we actually take smaller telescopes and have people look for stars,” he said. “We generally do that in the summer when it’s not so cold.”

To find the next star party, email [email protected] for reservation dates and times.

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