Black Forest Star Party 2002
Dave Barrett of High Point Scientific with his Tectron 24" scope. Dave always provides some of the most incredible views at a starparty. I will never forget the H2 regions in M33, the spiral arms of NGC 6946, and the Horsehead nebula. Dave has his scope performing at maximum potential. Amazing real-time images. Thanks Dave!
Black Forest Star Party 2002 (extended)
Sept. 4-9, 2002
Another great Blackforest Starparty. Attendance continues to increase with a reported 450+ for 2002. Skies were great to fair on the 4 nights I was there. If you could have extended your stay, skies were great until Wednesday morning. The trees lining the state highway are a very nice addition. I encourage all who partake of the Cherry Springs park to consider supporting the Cherry Springs fund. More information at Gary Honis's webpage.
For more details on the event and site see the official website at http://www.bfsp.org/starparty/
The Aurora
The week had already been quite nice, but Saturday was shaping up to be " the night." I was moving to a more northern photographic target, when just as twilight started to wane I noticed a brightening in the north. I knew this was not a man-made light source. I said to my photographic friends, "Bummer, we have an aurora tonight." At first it was an undifferentiated green glow on the northern horizon, but by around 9:00 p.m., the show began. Most of the intensity was in the northwest in Ursa Major. Reds, blues, greens, bright white pillars, by far the best show I have ever seen. Ooohs and aahhs reminiscent of Independence Day fireworks rose up from the observing field. This was an ideal aurora, intensely bright and then diminishing before the photographic window was open<g> The aurora persisted in the north until around 2:00 a.m. with occasional brightening. At the peak, the aurora easily extended into Lyra near the zenith. What an amazing show!
Mike Peoples of Highpoint Scientific selling an astro-accessory
BFSP provides a great opportunity to learn from some of the best in the hobby. Whether it is film photography, CCD, digital camera, deep sky observing, or naked eye observing - you can find a knowledgeable person on your subject of interest. For me, it is great to see friends found through astronomy and often times through the Blackforest. I hope to return to Cherry Springs in the late spring of 2003. See you then!
Laurel Highlands Star Cruise 2002
Artwork by Chris Oyster on Thursday night during the heavy rain. His hopes were realized over the next two nights!
Turn to the Dark Side, my young apprentice
(a.k.a.) The Laurel Highlands Star Cruise
June 6-9, 2002
Opinion paragraph first<g>
I have never seen a harder working starparty crew than the one at Laurel Highlands Star Party. Terry Trees, Larry McHenry, Ed Moss, John Holtz, and many others have developed this event into a premier week-long starparty. They are not content with the current status. They are continually seeking out ideas and suggestions for improving the event. This year, there were many competing starparty events. I have not attended the New Jersey event, but I have attended the Mason Dixon event. If you want dark skies and a starparty, it seems to me that Laurel Highlands is your best bet for the spring in the east. Formal presentations began on Wednesday and concluded on Saturday. Observing began as early as Monday. Many of these activities are children events. I don't believe any event in the east offers programming to that extent. Perhaps the Winter Star Party. Is it a perfect sky? No. There is a light dome to the northwest from Uniontown. It is summer, who cares about the northwest? The summer Milky Way was breathtaking. You can read my observation report below for more details. Granted, Spruce Knob has a better total sky, but if you are wanting to combine a great weekend of observing/photography at a DARK site with a group of amateurs who share your passion for astronomy, Laurel Highlands Star Cruise serves as the standard to beat in the east coast for the spring/summer season. Black Forest is the place to be in the east for the fall schedule of starparties.
Camp:
The OVAS campsite on Saturday night
Observing/Astrophotography equipment in the camp: 20" Obsession, TV102, 10" Cave Astrola, AP 130EDT, TV101, 4" reflector, TV85, Fuji 7x50.
WE WON, again: Our winnings weren't as big as last year, but our camp did well with respect to door prizes. Chris O won the Orion case, Dave T won the planisphere, and I won the set of Night Sky Observer's guide. I can't express how useful this book is to astrophotographers.
Justin (left) and Rodger Blake with their 20" Obsession. Outstanding views were had with this instrument!
Best Views: during my imaging sessions I get to sneak wonderful views from others. Thanks a bunch to all who shared wonderful views!
- Marla, Dave, and Evan Tolley with the TV101 ready for some prime focus photography
The Site: Pine Hill campground near Bruceton Mills, WV
Pine Hill is located about 10 minutes off of I-68 which runs just below the Mason-Dixon line. The elevation at the site is around 2,200 feet. It is a beautiful forested area with Morgantown the nearest city of consequence about 30 miles to the west.
Limiting Magnitude- Sky background flux of 70: Now that I have begun imaging with CCD, I can utilize technology in quantifying our sky conditions at Laurel Highlands. I took background measurements on Saturday night. Friday night was a little more transparent, but turbulent conditions prohibited imaging with CCD. Here is a link to the mathematical calculations and theory behind the technique. A special thanks to Stan Moore for making the webpage available!
http://home.earthlink.net/~stanleymm/StandardBackground.html
The numbers according to my camera (ST10e) have a background flux of 70. That seems to compare very favorably with some of the darker imaging sites in the California mountain ranges.
Light domes: There is one noticeable light dome to the north-northwest that is from the Uniontown area. It rises no more than 15 degrees above the horizon and was not significant in any way. 75% of the sky is excellent. The southern sky is gorgeous.
Chris and Larry Oyster with the TV102. Larry observed some very dim objects courtesy of the outstanding skies at Laurel Highlands
Laurel Highlands Star Cruise: The Event
The field: The observing field is quite large and has plenty of room for more participants. It provides excellent horizons. There is no electricity on the field, however. The bathhouses are located in the main camping area, which is about .3 miles away. It is a nice walk or a short drive. The bathhouses are comfortable and convenient. The field can accommodate large RV’s. The organizers sectioned off the entire field with observing spaces that were quite large. This really added structure to the field and provided defined areas for foot and vehicular traffic. The heavy rains on Thursday really created a mud-bog on Friday. The hot Sun and gentle wind dried the field much quicker than I ever would have expected. I feared that the ground moisture was going to lead to ground fog on Friday night. The sky could not have been clearer on Friday night. We were very relieved.
Chris Oyster presents his 4" reflector to the group touring unique telescopes. This is a reflector of unknown make that has been refurbished and painted and gave some pretty nice views.
Don Kemper relaxing at the rocket launches
Food was catered by a local deli shop. The food was prepared off-site and brought to the campground. Mealtimes were relatively fixed. Snacks were available until around 11:00 p.m. The food was very good. Not as convenient as having May's around at all hours of the night, but I certainly did not go "without" when it came to food. Very nice caterer and I am sure they learned a lot about planning food for a starparty.
Rodger Blake and the OVAS crew "man" rocket launch pad #6 on Saturday
The door prizes just keep getting better. Two telescopes and a 16mm Nagler type 5 were the big ones I remember. I did win the prize I wanted most, the Night Sky Observers Guide. The Pittsburgh group continues to build this event. I believe the event attendance was a little under 300. Please see their website for future dates. I believe they have moved from the new Moon date on Memorial weekend next year to later in June. This works well for me-I get to go to New Mexico skies for Memorial Weekend next year!
Chris Oyster under a brand new D&G 10" refractor. Cool, huh?
Chiefland Astro-Photo trip 2002
Manatee surface for air at Manatee Springs State park, nearby to Chiefland Astronomy Village.
The astrophotography trip was a great time of fellowship with friends. Unfortunately, the days were beautiful and the nights were not. Nightfall always seemed to bring in some haze/clouds. The clouds would drift in from all directions. It was a very frustrating trip. Next year-Arizona!!!
Fun and frolic at Manatee Springs. The water was very clear at the mouth of the spring.
A big 'thanks" to my father-in-law, a.k.a. the papinator. With no astronomical interest, he accompanied me on the trip to beautiful Chiefland, FL. He got to know the folks at Wal-Mart quite well:-)
Kirk Rogers made the trek from Maine. Kirk has the AP130/TakFS 102 and numerous camera bodies on the MI250 mount.
George Whitney accompanied Kirk from Maine. It looks like he knows what he is doing, but he really doesn't:-)
Warren Keller..he's our feller. The New Jersey native headed south for some astrophotography with his Mak-Cass and Nikon 300mm lens. He caught some very nice shots considering the conditions.
Black Forest Star Party 2001
Black Forest Star Party 2001 (extended)
Sept. 12-17-2001
The Central Pennsylvania Observers hosted the BFSP 2001. Attendance was listed at around 400! Weather was great on 4 out of 5 nights. What a great trip! Everything was there for both visual and astro-imager. Here are some of my memories of the week.
- CSSP is an outstanding dark sky location.
- The new showers at Ole Bull State Park (about 20 minutes away) are awesome. I thought I would never say that a $2 shower was worth it, but Ole Bull is. Lyman Run is building showers, so the drive will be even shorter soon.
- Keynote speech by Ed Ting was just right in content and tone - Thanks Mr. Ting.
- Just about all equipment you could want to see was there.
- Could not meet a nicer group of people in attendance
For more details on the event and site see the official website at http://www.bfsp.org/starparty/
The Site: Cherry Springs State Park
The drive up from the south of CSSP affords this beautiful scenic view. The state park is in the Susquehannock state forest. It truly is a beautiful place for a star party.
Limiting Visual Magnitude: I personally did not perform a visual limiting magnitude. I heard others estimate some nights in the 6.6-6.7 range. The conditions were just fine for astrophotography:-)
Light domes: Only under the worst conditions can you spot a slight light dome in the area of Coudersport. There are no light domes that impact the site at all.
The field: The observing field is quite large and has a little more room for more participants. It provides excellent horizons. Electricity was available on the field courtesy of the Central Pennsylvania Observers and the local Galeton Rotary club. Thank you!! The growth of the star party is probably leading to the necessity to section off the field for a more efficient use.
I arrived on Wednesday evening and met Nick and Ken, both deep sky observers with beautiful truss dobs. My apologies to the deep sky observers, but for me, this meeting was an imagers dream. There were more imagers in attendance at BFSP 2001 than at any other star party I have attended. I learned a lot of new techniques. Below are some of the imaging setups at BFSP.
I did not get the name of this imager, but his imaging system was very impressive. A C-14 on a Losmandy HGM200 mount with an ST8 camera. The night we visited he had some beautiful raw images of NGC 6946 on his computer monitor.
John Varljen with a great imaging platform: an AP 155 with 4" focuser, AP 1200 GOTO mount, nitrogen purge, ST-4, and Pentax 6x7 camera. I learned many new techniques from John. Thanks!
Anthony Davoli with his Vixen 102 and homemade G-11-type mount. Great craftsmanship on Anthony's part. Thanks Anthony for all of your help with handiwork on site!
Fellow APMLer Warren Keller. It was great meeting Warren. He educated me on the use of the STV and twisted my arm to buy one:-) Thanks Warren. Another great imaging system with the Mak-Cas on GM8, Nikon F2, and STV autoguiding.
Best Views: I thought the best views for transparency and seeing were on Sunday night.
- Binoviewers are awesome. The best views for me were of M13 through Ken's 14.5" Starmaster with a TV Binoviewer. Don't remember the eyepieces, but M13 was spectacularly 3-D.
- Saturn in a Binoviewer. Again, Ken shared a tremendous view of a 3-D Saturn just sitting out there in space revealing all of its intricate details. Thanks Ken.
- Most intriguing view was shared by Gary Honis of an extra-galactic globular cluster associated with the Andromeda Galaxy. I believe the designation was Mayall or G-1. It was an observing challenge for me, but very cool.
- Dave Barrett always has the greatest views through his 24" Tectron. In addition to the Horsehead views, his views of Saturn on Sunday morning were simply awesome. My little 5" AP had some pretty nice views of Saturn as well:-)
- Nick helped us frame a photo object by showing us the Elephant trunk in IC1396.
- Gary Honis shared a great view of NGC 253 were dark lanes were very obvious.
- We had some tremendous daytime solar observing as well through Fran's 6" refractor and my TV85/SolarMax. Several flares were noted, prominences were changing rapidly, and sunspot rotations were noted during the course of 5 days.
- After this event, Cherry Springs reputation has only grown as being a great gathering place for observers and imagers. The Central Pennsylvania Observers did a tremendous job, especially considering the tragic events earlier in the week. BFSP is definitely a priority event on my schedule. I only hope to be able to get to CSSP more often than once a year. Clear skies!
Laurel Highlands Star Cruise 2001
Chris Oyster with the TV85. (All photos on this page are credited to Larry Oyster unless noted otherwise. Thanks Larry!)
Milk and Fire in the Sky
(a.k.a.) The Laurel Highlands Star Cruise (Extended)
June 13-18, 2001
The Pittsburgh Amateur Astronomers have much to be proud of with the 2001 edition of the Laurel Highlands Star Cruise.
- They have found an excellent dark sky site with convenient access
- The children’s activities make this a great family trip
- Speakers were superb
- Camping facilities were complete
- Could not meet a nicer group of people in attendance
For more details on the event and site see the official website at http://www.members.home.net/lhstarcruise/
Larry Oyster with his new TV102. The scope performed beautifully on deep sky objects. Larry found 33 Messiers in one night-a record for him in an evening.
I setup on Wednesday evening and met Jim Turner from North Carolina. The weather forecast had been all over the place, but one thing was for sure, it was going to be hot and humid until the low pressure system passed on Saturday. Conditions during the hot and humid nights were quite useable for deep sky work. Mars never really showed its stuff. The crowd picked up throughout the day on Thursday and seemed to peek on Friday afternoon. I believe I heard a number of around 280 in attendance.
Camp:
Observing/Astrophotography equipment in the camp: C14, TV102, 10" Cave Astrola, AP 130EDT, TV101, TV85, Fuji 16x70, Fuji 7x50.
WE WON: Yes, our camp won a major door prize. My niece, Elizabeth, won a complete telescope setup with a value of over $1,000!!! It is an ETX90 with Autostar and tripod. Unfortunately, the night she won was the worst night of viewing during the event.
OVAS setup camp on Thursday. Larry and Chris Oyster and Don Kemper joined me in representing OVAS. My two children, Stephen and Jennifer, along with Jon, Caroline, and Elizabeth Auvil drove up on Friday. My Kendrick observing tent served me well on its second starparty.
I really like the new AP guidescope and rings as well as the Pocono ST4RF flipmate for the ST4. After initial calibration fo the ST4 with the flipmate, finding, focusing, and centering a guidestar is a snap. If I am setup for extended periods of time, I leave the ST4RF in position and will never have to take the ST4 off of the guidescope. The AP guidescope gave me plenty of room to find a guidestar as well as very controlled movement of the scope as compared to the Losmandy 108 rings. Here is a link to one of the shots I took with this setup at this party < Snake nebula >
We met many great folks that camped nearby. Jeff Ballard from the DC beltway area had a 10" Orion XT. Jeff became an instant friend and it was a joy to have him in our camp. The views through the Orion XT were simply awesome. I was extremely impressed with its performance and feel it is the best value in astronomy right now. Jim Turner from North Carolina was also a guest in our camp. He had a great pop-up tent that was stored in a motorcycle trailer weighing only 19 lbs. He had a Celestron 11" on a homemade go-to alt-az mount powered by Meade Autostar motors and hand controller. It was pretty impressive. Jim provided great assistance to my brother-in-law on their new ETX 90 Autostar. Thanks Jim. Matt from Harpers Ferry was also nearby with his 24" Tectron. The views were incredible and Matt is a very accomplished observer. The talent of these individuals is impressive and we were very fortunate to have them in our camp.
Camp with the (clockwise starting on the left) TV85 on Telepod, C14, TV102 on GM8, AP 130 on AP600 QMD, and TV101 on GM8.
Here I am with my new (used) TV101 and Taurus Tracker III for imaging. This shot was on Sunday. Most attendees had already left. Look at that sky!
Best Views: The best views were on Sunday evening. You know it is good when two of the best views are non-telescopic!
- AURORA! At 2:15 a.m. I was tinkering with a photo setup and talking with Larry. As I looked up toward the North I saw a beam of light shooting up at least 20 degrees. My first thought was that there was an airplane or airport or something with an incredible spotlight. I then realized that this was not an isolated beam of light, but was moving and spreading from the north-northwest to the east. I then realized what it was and shouted "Aurora" so all those on the field would know about it. We had done some solar viewing earlier in the day and the sunspot activity was certainly high. I did not really think about an aurora that night. This was my first, so please excuse my enthusiasm and my inability to diagnose the phenomenon with speed. The "fire" continued until dawn. It would subside and then pick back up again. The first sighting around 2:25 had no pronounced color, but was intensely bright, as bright as the Milky Way or brighter. Then at 3:45 a second wave started and that seemed to have shades of red. This patch of red was seen just below the Big Dipper. It was a glorious treat and now I want to see it again. I had two exposures going through my scopes and had no camera to shoot the aurora. Talk about frustration. Looking back, I should have shut down the exposures and shot the Aurora, afterall, M8 will always be there, right?
- Milky Way: At about 2:30 the Milky Way arched straight overhead. The closest edge on galaxy. Not even a 36" reflector can outdo this sight. It was awesome to see it stretch from below Sagittarius to below Perseus. It may have been the prettiest sight I have seen, ever.
- Omega nebula in all scopes with and without the OIII filer. This nebula really had some contrast in these skies. I could see the extended nebulosity below the base of the swan. Great treat.
The Site: Pine Hill campground near Bruceton Mills, WV
Pine Hill is located about 10 minutes off of I-68 which runs just below the Mason-Dixon line. The elevation at the site is around 2,200 feet. It is a beautiful forested area with Morgantown the nearest city of consequence about 30 miles to the west.
Limiting Visual Magnitude: The best night for a true evaluation of the site was on Sunday night. This night I tried to find a different star overhead rather than rely on the Little Dipper stars. I settled on one in Hercules. Two stars close in proximity 50 and 48 Herculis (reference Sky Atlas 2000). The Sky software plots these two as being separated by only 20". Maybe I am using my imagination, but I am quite sure I saw the two stars with averted vision, separated distinctively. I am not aware of the limitations on the capability of the naked eye to split stars. 48 Herculis is listed at magnitude 6.59 in The Sky software. 50 Herculis is listed as 5.73. The sky that night was simply awesome.
Light domes: There is one noticeable light dome to the north-northwest that I assume is associated with Morgantown, WV. It rises no more than 15 degrees above the horizon and was not significant in any way. There is 24 hour construction on a new prison within 5 miles of the site that will need to monitored. Perhaps, we can be pro-active and initiate a dialogue with regards to friendly lighting similar to the example at Stellafane. I would not hesitate at all to use this site for astrophotography. As a matter of fact, I am thinking of going there during the August new Moon to beat some of the humidity of the lowlands.
The field: The observing field is quite large and has plenty of room for more participants. It provides excellent horizons. There is no electricity on the field, however. 4 porta-potties were in place on the field. The bathhouses are located in the main camping area, which is about .3 miles away. It is a nice walk or a short drive. The bathhouses are comfortable and convenient. The field can accommodate large RV’s. The organizers sectioned off the entire field with observing spaces that were quite large. This really added structure to the field and provided defined areas for foot and vehicular traffic.
Laurel Highlands Star Cruise: The Event
The presentations were solid. I saw two formal presentations, took the kids to the "Beginner Astronomy" course, saw a couple of movies, and viewed the "Who Wants to Be An Astronomer" game show. All presentations were excellent with high-quality video and sound. The speaker tent was comfortable with dark plastic on the underside to enhance the video projection images on the screen.
The vendors are listed on the starcruise website. I particularly enjoyed the opportunity to meet with Roger Blake of Taurus Tracker fame. We had a great discussion on astrophotography and he let me demo one of his Taurus tracker III on my TV101. I bought itJ , but only after none of my 15 raffle tickets won me a $200 discount. Roger images with a 10" Cave. This is of interest to our club since we have a 10" Cave that we recently sold to our newest deep sky hunter, Don Kemper.
Don Kemper with the 10" Cave. Don is known as the "Caveman" as he is also a spelunker.
Bob Novak, accomplished telecsope maker, was also in attendance. He visited our site one day and I learned more about telescopes in that brief time than I had learned in my last 5 years. Bob's current project is a 16" Ritchey Chretien! Whenever Bob is around, talk with him about telescopes. I bet you learn something.
The organizers have gone out of their way to make this event attractive to all astronomers, regardless of knowledge level. Beginning classes are held for families, rocket launches for the children, game shows- it really is a great family event. I have attended many starparties, Laurel is the only one I have ever thought of taking my children to.
Family and friends played some UNO during the afternoon
(photo credit to Larry McHenry)
The door prizes were a significant improvement over those in 2000. Everything was better in 2001 than in 2000. Experience with these events proves to be invaluable. The leadership of the event has been very open to ideas and polled attendees on their priorities as well as the preferred times for the event in subsequent years. The Pittsburgh astronomers have a great event brewing here, and as a native West Virginian, I want to help make this event successful.
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