CARINA Star Party is a stargazing event which happens once every year. It takes place during the dry season, usually in March, at the now defunct Tracking Station in Macqueripe, Chaguaramas. The event is always well-subscribed; every year tickets are sold out on the same day in around four hours at all three locations: Port of Spain, Caroni and Arima.
For the last two years I’ve wanted to go but failed to, because the tickets are always sold out before I can get any. So this year, I was determined to learn from my mistakes. Heading over to the Caroni outlet around the business opening time, I was successful in purchasing four tickets for myself, my brother, his girlfriend, and one of my best girl friends.
Holding gold in my hand.
As expected, people were not happy to see that tickets once again sold out within hours. The CARINA Facebook group started to get heated. People most complained about the speed at which the tickets sold out. Others complained that they were asked for their reservation information, although the host said that no reservations would be taken in advance.
Then the conspiracy theories started. People speculated that the event was a ‘friend ting’, where you had to be fortunate to know one of the event coordinators to get tickets. Ah boy. While this was understandable, because it seems like you have to be well-connected to get through with anything in this country, this is a party. About stars. It is not a soca fete. In fact, only this year did I realise how misleading the ‘party’ in Star Party could be, as people kept asking me if there would be alcohol there. No y’all, people get together, with tents and telescopes, to watch stars. Simply put, there is noooo collusion going on just to go watch stars, guys.
Finally, some people wondered whether CARINA could host two Star Parties in a year instead. One of the event coordinators replied, saying that while they would love to do this, they suffer from lack of volunteers to handle the planning of two parties. However, CARINA later announced an additional Star Party, to be held at the Queen’s Park Savannah in April. This event will be free, unlike the main event, where the tickets retail at TT$80.
Weeks passed, and finally the awaited day, March 25th, arrived. The dream was to reach to the venue for 5 pm to get a good location to pitch our tent while benefiting from the presence of daylight. In reality, we arrived around 7 pm, in total darkness. The road to the Tracking Station was lonely, dark and winding. We first passed through an arch made of bamboos and trees, until finally you could see some sky and sea. After what seemed like eons, we finally reached the parking area. This year, we weren’t fortunate to park closer to the event, so we had to haul everything out of the car and walk several more metres up to the main area. Funnnnn.
The Night
Upon arrival, we displayed our tickets and received star maps with red cellophane. The red cellophane was used to cover any flashlights or electronic devices which could emit bright white light. Reducing white light exposure was necessary, as our eyes would be able to focus better in the dark so that we could see more stars in the sky. Then the presentations began.
Me attempting to take a low-light photo.
The Presentations
The first presentation featured the Tracking Station in its heyday. This was largely informative, as I didn’t realise before that we had quite the legacy in navigation and tracking technology. If you weren’t aware, the Americans once occupied Chaguaramas for their army operations base. This occupation lasted from the 1940s to the 1970s, their stay ending largely due to the late Dr. Eric Williams’ efforts to return Chaguaramas back to Trinidad and Tobago. While the Americans occupied Chaguaramas, they decided to build the Tracking Station to conduct a series of tests using technology that could intercept any potential firing of missiles from Russia, to provide an opportunity for retaliation. The technology was proven to work, and they then implemented this technology in more northerly locations (think Greenland).
Learning about the history of the Tracking Station was one of the highlights of the experience. I’m sad to see now what state the Tracking Station has been left in. It has been one of our country’s sins to fail in preserving many of our historic sites, this being one of them. The Tracking Station could easily be a museum, hosting tours for school kids and tourists, and easily bringing in more revenue to the government. It just makes me shake my head and wonder what could be done to get this initiative up and running. (Hmm, perhaps this calls for a Kickstarter fund, guys?)
The second presentation focused on the history of astronomy. I had seen it before so it didn’t have the same impact on me as it did the first time. However, I would say that I still find the idea of astronomy to be quite romantic. When I think of how early civilisations looked up at the stars (because, of course, there was no cable back then), and found entertainment in connecting the astral dots, I feel quite pride in my ancestors. It was pure creativity, pure genius. To then figure out that not all of the stars were stars but in fact planets, led me to think how painstaking the process must have been to map out the stars and to notice which ones didn’t hold up the same pattern as they did before.
The last presentation covered the discovery of earth-like planets, including the recent discovery of TRAPPIST-1 (“trap, trap, trap, trap, trap, trap!“). The highlight of this was learning about Giordano Bruno, an Italian visionary from the late 1500s who was perhaps born at the wrong time. He first theorised that there could be other planets in the universe like ours, revolving around their own suns. Of course, you can guess what happened to him (can you say ‘heresy’?). Of course we now know that he was right, poor guy. Seems like visionaries can never catch a break.
The Stars
Before it was time to watch the stars, we were guided by one of the coordinators in terms of how to use the star maps provided. He then showed us some of the constellations in the sky: the Big Dipper (Ursa Major), Leo, Cannis Major (Orion’s hunting dog), Orion (and of course Orion’s Belt), Taurus, and Pleiades (or the Seven Sisters). I was a bit disappointed that Aquarius wasn’t picked out. That’s my sign, man.
At last, it was time to see the stars through the telescopes. I used three telescopes to see Jupiter and its moons, a close-up of Jupiter (where I was able to make out the bands of Jupiter), and the Orion Nebula (a nebula just below Orion’s Belt). That one was almost impossible to see, and I squinted multiple times just to make out its tiny, dust-like form.
The Camping
My favourite part of the Star Party experience had to be the camping. Just a week before the Star Party, I made sure that I remembered how to pitch the tent. I opened it up in my bedroom and, with the help of my brother, set it up fairly easily. Setting it up at the actual event was also a piece of cake. When my friend came, my brother and I also helped her to set hers up.
My beautiful tent, picture taken during the day.
The Sleep
While the Star Party is all about the opportunity to look at the sky all night through telescopes, I value my sleep. Unfortunately, others didn’t so much. Some neighbours next to us were rather loud and couldn’t care less in terms of who was next to them. To top it off, they even had a loud snorer! But funny enough, I could’ve taken the snoring. They weren’t the only loud ones, mind you, but I’d still like to think that people in this day and age could be more considerate to others around them. Alas, consideration appears to be a dying trait. Us considerate people, just like the visionaries, can’t seem to catch a break these days.
The Dawn
Then the dawn came, and it was all over. I stepped out of the tent, grumbling about the annoying neighbours and how I didn’t care to know where the planes passing by could have been coming from or going to. I was further annoyed that they were packing up to leave, when I thought that I could have returned the favour if they were planning on getting some shut-eye. Sometimes I can feel spiteful, and in this case I think it was justified.
But never mind that, it was dawn! We all huddled around and took pictures of the Tracking Station, of our tents (as we couldn’t really get pictures of it in the dark), and, of course, ourselves.
Me and my bro.
Alas; it was time to break everything down and haul everything back to the car. Mission accomplished. See you again next year, Tracking Station!
The Tracking Station in daylight.
My friend and I heading back to our cars.
Lessons Learned
Before I forget, here were some lessons that I learned from this year’s experience:
- Buy less to no snacks (you will not eat them),
- Bring a pillow,
- Bring an inflateable mattress,
- Make sure my UE Roll is at the lowest volume possible before playing dancehall to avoid embarrasment,
- Bring ear plugs (dun kno!),
- Learn how to use VSCO to take better low-light images, and
- Upon your descent from the Tracking Station, take a photo/ video of any people blocking your way while trying to take a picture of their squad doing squats, so you can later post it to social media and comment on (1) how inconsiderate they were and (2) how foolish they looked.
