Post by Dave Mitsky on Oct 3, 2012 16:22:15 GMT
Here's a brief report on this year's Black Forest Star Party.
www.bfsp.org/starparty/about.cfm
I drove to Cherry Springs State Park on Tuesday, September 11, and left on Monday morning, September 17. I was able to observe every night, although it rained during the evening on Friday before clearing. Some of the nights were a bit hazy, not to mention quite dewy. At times, black clouds would roll by.
A few of the week's many highlights included having my best views ever of NGC 604 (the brightest HII region in M33), NGC 891, NGC 1023, and NGC 7293 (the Helix Nebula) through John Vogt's homemade 32" f/3.9 Dob, some great views of Jupiter (one at a magnification of 833x through a 20" Obsession Dob and another through a 25" Obsession) including shadow and GRS transits, seeing a bolide that lit up the ground and left a persistent smoke train visible through my Celestron 8x42s, and a fine pass of the Chinese Tiangong-1 "space station". M8, M17, M27, NGC 672, NGC 6572, NGC 6888, NGC 6960, NGC 6992, NGC 7331, NGC 7332, NGC 7339, and Stephan's Quintet looked very good through the 32", as well. John and I also observed a number of Abell planetary nebulae, some of which were surprisingly bright and colorful. B33 (the Horsehead Nebula) was an easy target through the previously mentioned 20" Obsession one morning.
I also enjoyed observing with Al Nagler, his bevy of Ethos eyepieces, and my Tele Vue TV-101 apochromat on Saturday night. I was given a loaner 17.3mm Delos that produced very fine images in my telescopes and those of some of my friends. Using "Uncle" Al's 10mm Ethos in the 32" Dob produced fantastic 366x views of M2 and M15. My 10" Sky-Watcher Collapsible Dob provided fine views of many binary stars and deep-sky objects including M8, M11, M13, M16, M17, M20, M22 and most of the other Messier globular clusters in Sagittarius, M24, M27, M30, M31, M32, M51, M56, M57, M71, M92, M110, NGC 6960, NGC 6992, NGC 7000, NGC 7293, NGC 7331, the Double Cluster, Stock 2, and the reflection nebulosity surrounding 4 Cygni.
I had a chance to meet Dr. Heidi Hammel, who gave an excellent keynote talk on the James Webb Space Telescope on Saturday evening.
On the downside, SQM readings at the park have been plummeting. The highest that I was aware of was 21.5. On some of the nights, it was rather easy to walk around sans a red flashlight, once dark adaptation was achieved. We could see the faint flickering of a gas well flare far off in the west last night.
Dave Mitsky
www.bfsp.org/starparty/about.cfm
I drove to Cherry Springs State Park on Tuesday, September 11, and left on Monday morning, September 17. I was able to observe every night, although it rained during the evening on Friday before clearing. Some of the nights were a bit hazy, not to mention quite dewy. At times, black clouds would roll by.
A few of the week's many highlights included having my best views ever of NGC 604 (the brightest HII region in M33), NGC 891, NGC 1023, and NGC 7293 (the Helix Nebula) through John Vogt's homemade 32" f/3.9 Dob, some great views of Jupiter (one at a magnification of 833x through a 20" Obsession Dob and another through a 25" Obsession) including shadow and GRS transits, seeing a bolide that lit up the ground and left a persistent smoke train visible through my Celestron 8x42s, and a fine pass of the Chinese Tiangong-1 "space station". M8, M17, M27, NGC 672, NGC 6572, NGC 6888, NGC 6960, NGC 6992, NGC 7331, NGC 7332, NGC 7339, and Stephan's Quintet looked very good through the 32", as well. John and I also observed a number of Abell planetary nebulae, some of which were surprisingly bright and colorful. B33 (the Horsehead Nebula) was an easy target through the previously mentioned 20" Obsession one morning.
I also enjoyed observing with Al Nagler, his bevy of Ethos eyepieces, and my Tele Vue TV-101 apochromat on Saturday night. I was given a loaner 17.3mm Delos that produced very fine images in my telescopes and those of some of my friends. Using "Uncle" Al's 10mm Ethos in the 32" Dob produced fantastic 366x views of M2 and M15. My 10" Sky-Watcher Collapsible Dob provided fine views of many binary stars and deep-sky objects including M8, M11, M13, M16, M17, M20, M22 and most of the other Messier globular clusters in Sagittarius, M24, M27, M30, M31, M32, M51, M56, M57, M71, M92, M110, NGC 6960, NGC 6992, NGC 7000, NGC 7293, NGC 7331, the Double Cluster, Stock 2, and the reflection nebulosity surrounding 4 Cygni.
I had a chance to meet Dr. Heidi Hammel, who gave an excellent keynote talk on the James Webb Space Telescope on Saturday evening.
On the downside, SQM readings at the park have been plummeting. The highest that I was aware of was 21.5. On some of the nights, it was rather easy to walk around sans a red flashlight, once dark adaptation was achieved. We could see the faint flickering of a gas well flare far off in the west last night.
Dave Mitsky