Construction will be starting the week of May 25 at the campground for ADA and other improvements. Work is scheduled to be completed at the end of July. Restrooms can be accessed by the dirt road at the back of the building near campsite 40.
Stage II fire restrictions now in effect.
Note: Arizona does not observe Daylight Saving Time.
Star Party and Guest Speaker at Homolovi State Park
Homolovi State Park
2nd Saturday of the Month, April - November 7 p.m. (April-Aug.) | 6 p.m. (Sept.-Nov.)
Homolovi State Park's astronomy events take place on the second Saturday of each month and are free with paid park entry. Each event features a guest speaker during the first hour; presentations are held in the park's visitor center and museum. Following the presentation, telescope viewing is available through the Winslow Homolovi Observatory's Moore Telescope (Celestron 14" Schmidt-Cassegrain). Night sky targets will be announced for the evening and may include deep space nebulae, star clusters, and more.
Thank you to the Little Colorado River Valley Astronomy Club for supporting these astronomy events. Learn more about them at www.lcrvac.org or nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/clubs/
View the Winslow Homolovi Observatory Keep Looking Up newsletter for information on the upcoming Star Party guest speaker, as well as to preview night sky targets for telescope viewing.
Camping reservations for the night of the events can be made online at azstateparks.com or by calling (877) MY-Parks (877)-697-2757. Information about guest speakers will be updated as it becomes available.
2026 Schedule
July 11, 2026 at 7-9:30 p.m.*
August 8, 2026 at 7-9:30 p.m.
September 12, 2026 at 6-8:30 p.m.
October 10, 2026 at 6-8:30 p.m.
November 14, 2026 at 6-8:30 p.m.
*See guest speaker information below.
Guest Speaker Information
July 11, 2026 at 7 p.m. AZ-MST: Dr. Bryan Bates, Professor Emeritus with a Hopi Astronomy and Diné Constellations presentation. Bryan will be presenting a powerpoint on Hopi Astronomy and as time permits Navajo Constellations. While living on the Navajo Reservation, Bryan began watching the skies and sharing his experience with Navajo kids, who then shared their sky stories with him. This sparked his interest in the astronomy of native societies. When working at a Therapeutic high school in Idaho, he and his students reconstructed a full-scale model of Stonehenge. At Wupatki National Monument, he recovered the significance of an ancestral Puebloan calendar wall which he will share with us today. He continued with research on Fajada Butte at Chaco Canyon National Historical Park, confirming the lunar standstill shadows on the “Sun Dagger” site. Chair of the 7 th Oxford International Conference on Archaeoastronomy (2004), Bryan was also the Co-editor of the conference proceedings Viewing the Sky through Past & Present Culture and later co-editor of the 2010 edition of Journal of Astronomy in Culture covering both technical research aspects and research results on archaeoastronomy in the Southwest. He also contributed an article on the cultural use of astronomy by Hopi in the Handbook on Archaeoastronomy, a worldwide review of cultural astronomy. Most recently, he presented at the Jordana Research Institute on the necessity of identifying how the astronomical knowledge is used within a culture, his example being amongst the Hopi.
Bryan retired from Coconino Community College in 2026 where he taught Archaeoastronomy, Biology, Chemistry and Environmental Science. During the summer, Bryan has been an interpretive naturalist for National Geographic, Smithsonian Journeys, National Wildlife Federation, the American Association for Advancement of Science, and numerous other organizations. He is the recipient of the VIOLA award for “Outstanding Science Instructor” 2012. He is a past President and was a 14-year Board Member of Flagstaff Festival of Science, founding member of the Flagstaff Water Group which addresses issues related to reclaimed water and potential ecological health effects and Board member of friend of the Rio de Flag. In 2009, he was a National Humanities Institute “Fellow” in the study of Aldo Leopold. He formerly served as a citizen-science advisor to US Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Az.).
