Every year the Grand Canyon National Park hosts a week long star party for amateurs who bring their telescopes. It's an amazing event and there are lots of great telescopes.

They set them up for the public to come and see the night sky.

Here is a 41" Dobsonian. It is definitely the crown jewel of this event.

It's so big that they need a very big ladder to reach the eyepiece.

One of my favorite telescopes was this eight inch bucket telescope. The tube of the scope is literally two plastic buckets. The builder even ground the mirror himself. I made it a point to return to this telescope after dark to see how it performed. And it performed absolutely brilliantly. The views through this telescope were very crisp and very sharp. Well done telescope.

A Homemade Binoscope.

The 2019 Grand Canyon Star Party - Every year the Grand canyon has a week long event for star gazers. This one was great. It is estimated to have drawn about 10,000 visitors. And, they have astrophotography workshops. I learned how to get some great Milky Way Photos. You can see the photos and read about the Grand Canyon star party here.