Starry, Starry Nights

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After field school sessions broke at about 2 in the afternoon, we spent our days exploring the area around Valentine. We drove four miles out of town to the Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge to look for buffalo. They were pretty hard to find, but we did come close enough to some that a female maneuvered warily around her offspring. We also saw grazing elk and prairie dogs all along the auto tour, but the antelope were apparently too busy to see us.

Adjacent to the refuge, we found a portage for the Niobrara River, where we launched inner tubes. Although the river is known for canoeing, we were too lazy to paddle after staying up all night to watch stars, and preferred to float.

One unexpected benefit of the star party's observation site was its proximity to the Merritt Reservoir. The reservoir offers 44 miles of shoreline, much of it sugar sand beaches. My currently fish-crazy son spent a lot of time casting from the shore, although he caught nothing but a dozen perch too small to keep. Impatiently trying to persuade him that it was time for dinner one night, I reclaimed his pole, and in less than a minute, I reeled in a 14-inch pike.

On the fourth day of the event, the Nebraska Star Party held a beach party, providing food, games, more prizes, and rides in a 20-passenger Indian canoe. The party officially ended on Friday, with lectures held at a local church. Topics varied from ''Dakota Star Lore'' to ''The Age of the Crab Nebula.''

Costs for star-gazing equipment being, well, astronomical, the star party organizers outdid themselves by giving away two grand prizes -- telescopes. Pizza followed, then the astronomers' swap meet, the perfect place for the newly hooked amateur to collect every little accessory, like a heated dew cap for the telescope. A few converts found it hard to leave when it was over and stayed to gamble at the Rosebud Casino across the South Dakota border -- until the stars came out.

Up above the world so high

Many of the most popular star parties happen only once a year, often in summer. Location can severely limit the number of participants, according to Edwin Aguirre, associate editor of Sky and Telescope magazine, which publishes one of the best known star-party lists on its Web site, www.skyandtelescope.com. But a gathering like the R.T.M.C. Astronomy Expo near Big Bear, Calif., can spread out, and has attendance of about 1,800 -- among the biggest in the United States. Here are some key star parties planned for next year:

Winter Star Party, Feb. 16 to 21, near Big Pine Key, Fla.; www.scas.org /wsp2004.

Texas Star Party, May 16 to 23, Fort Davis, Tex.; www.metronet.comastronomyexpo.org.

Stellafane, Aug. 13 and 14; among the oldest and largest, at Breezy Hill in Springfield, Vt.; www.stellafane.com

Oregon Star Party, Aug.12 to 15, Ochoco National Forest; www.oregonstarparty .org.

Before and after sundown

Nebraska's annual Star Party, www.nebraskastarparty.org, takes place near the town of Valentine; this summer's dates were July 27 to Aug. 1. The attendance fee was $25, which covers field sessions, an ice cream social, a beach party barbecue, and a beginners' field school held for two hours a day on three mornings at the Merritt Resort restaurant; it includes a 50-page instructional booklet.

Getting There

A round-trip ticket on Northwest from La Guardia Airport to Rapid City, S.D., cost $332 bought online (www.nwa.com). Reaching Valentine from Rapid City in a rental car took three and a half hours.

Accommodations

My husband and son put up a tent at the Snake Campground in the Merritt Reservoir area just north of the observing site for $4 a night, without showers or electricity. Showers are available at the nearby Cedar Bay campground and at Merritt Resort for a small fee.

I chose not to camp, and booked a room for two nights at Lord Ranch Resort, (800) 270-0181, www.lordranchresort.com, a row of five basic cabins 27 miles south of Valentine; it is about a half hour's drive from the star party site on partly paved Highway 16B. Surrounded by prairie, it featured complete kitchens, and air-conditioning, and was $79 a night.

Another option is the three rooms under the geodesic dome at the Lovejoy Ranch, (800) 672-5098, www.lovejoyranch.com, 17 miles south of Valentine. They are $75 to $95 a night, including a full breakfast, but it was booked by astronomers who arrived at dawn to sleep.

The Merritt Resort, (402) 376-3437, www.merrittradingpost.com, is a 10-minute drive from the observing site. The cabins, $74 to $124, which have kitchenettes, are dark and small.

Where to Eat:

The $25 attendance fee for the star party included an ice cream social and a barbecue. Two additional meals are offered at Merritt Resort for $12 each, prepared by Water's Edge, (402) 376-1878, the restaurant at the resort overlooking the reservoir. Water's Edge also prepares box lunches and offers excellent dinners with entrees $9.95 to $17.95. A ''you catch 'em, we cook 'em'' fish dinner is $7.95.

Activities

At Brewer's Canoers and Tubers, 433 East Highway 20, (402) 376-2503, www.brewerscanoers.com, canoes for two are $38 a day, tubes $20, one-person kayaks $25, including life jackets and paddles; $4 for pickup.

A three-day fishing license for nonresidents costs $15.75 at the Merritt Trading Post, (402) 376-3437, which also offers boat rentals at varying rates.

Burrowing owls, hundreds of bison, around 70 elk and plenty of prairie dogs live in Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge, founded in 1912. We took an auto tour and also enjoyed the one-mile hike to Fort Falls. Four miles east of Valentine on Highway 12; (402) 376-3789. Visitors center open Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. TERESE SVOBODA