{"id":27167,"date":"2025-07-21T22:44:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T22:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/27167\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T22:44:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T22:44:13","slug":"stargazers-flock-to-badlands-for-13th-annual-astrofest-rapid-city-south-dakota-news-weather-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/27167\/","title":{"rendered":"Stargazers Flock to Badlands for 13th Annual AstroFest – Rapid City South Dakota news, weather, sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

BADLANDS NATIONAL PARK, S.D. \u2014 The 13th annual Badlands Astronomy Festival drew hundreds of space science professionals, amateur astronomers, and curious visitors to the area this weekend for a three-day celestial celebration under some of the darkest skies in the country. The festival ran from Friday through Sunday, and has become one of the park\u2019s most popular events.<\/p>\n

\u201cAstroFest is our biggest event of the year,\u201d said Park Ranger Lydia Jones, \u201cWe do it annually here, and this is our 13th year approximately of doing AstroFest here at Badlands.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event is co-sponsored by Badlands National Park and the NASA South Dakota Space Grant Consortium. It also serves as a key outreach opportunity for partners like the University of Utah, which brings state-of-the-art equipment for the public to use.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just like bringing all of our telescopes and displays and everything and just letting the public interact with the sky in ways that most people actually don\u2019t get the chance to do so,\u201d said Paul Ricketts, observatory director for the University of Utah.<\/p>\n

Novices and experts alike enjoyed a variety of family-friendly activities. Daytime events included guided “planet walks” to demonstrate the scale of the solar system, opportunities to view solar flares through special telescopes, and paper rocket building and launching sessions hosted by staff from the nearby Minuteman Missile National Historic Site.<\/p>\n

Each evening concluded with presentations from guest speakers followed by public stargazing at the Cedar Pass Campground Amphitheater. Astronomers from the Black Hills Astronomical Society and Dark Ranger Telescope Tours guided visitors through the universe, offering views of planets, nebulae, and distant galaxies.<\/p>\n

The festival\u2019s location is a major part of its appeal. The Badlands are nestled in a corner of the Great Plains with very little light pollution, making it one of the best places in the country to see the Milky Way. Park officials are working to preserve this resource for future generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re actually working on getting our International Dark Sky Association certificate right now. So, we\u2019re in the process of going through that to get dark sky certified,\u201d Ranger Jones said, \u201cBut we have remarkable dark skies. We\u2019re really far away from any major sources of light pollution, so this is an amazing opportunity for people to come out here and really truly get a chance to see the night sky.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the focus is on the stars, the park\u2019s unique, out-of-this-world geology is another reason visitors keep coming back. The dramatic buttes and spires are eroding at a rate of about one inch per year, meaning the landscape is constantly changing. For some, this transient beauty is part of the draw.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything here and the animals and also since it\u2019s not going to be here much longer. Just a couple more thousand years. That\u2019s why,\u201d said Daven Dover, a visitor from North Carolina who makes the trip for the festival annually.<\/p>\n

Even as the festival ends, park rangers note that any clear night in the Badlands provides a spectacular, front-row seat to the cosmos.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Per<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Per grew up in Sioux Falls and graduated from South Dakota Mines. He found his passion for weather reporting by the impact it has on the community, both in how people work and how it brings people together through severe weather preparation. He also has a passion for preventing health issues with Air Quality Index awareness. Per can be found enjoying outdoor activities in the Black Hills when the weather allows.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BADLANDS NATIONAL PARK, S.D. \u2014 The 13th annual Badlands Astronomy Festival drew hundreds of space science professionals, amateur…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[79,193],"class_list":["post-27167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}