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llanitedave
Humble Megalomaniac
Reged: 09/26/05
Posts: 20063
Loc: Amargosa Valley, NV, USA
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On the 12th and 13th of October, the Las Vegas Astronomical Society hosted a public outreach star party at the Furnace Creek air strip in Death valley National Park. It also included daytime presentations. The first night was interupted early by threatening weather, but things cleared up quite nicely for Saturday night. The seeing wasn't great, and didn't improve much over the night, but it wasn't terrible either. There was a bit of turbulence, but I could clearly resolve Neptune's disk in my 10", and in the wee hours was able to catch just a hint of a magnitude 15.3 star near the variable S Arietis.
Pictured below is the early afternoon scene, with most of the observer's still at dinner. In the center is the 25" Obsession of LVAS Treasurer John Heller. I was a bit disappointed by the small number of scopes there at that point, but as the light began to fall below the threshold for casual photography, a lot more people showed up, both astronomers and the public, and the event became extremely well-attended. John's scope, as might be expected, drew a long line of viewers, and there were many good questions asked. A number of the visitors were seeing the Milky Way for the first time, and it was a real pleasure to be able to share our love of the night sky with them, and explain what it's all about, and at least with some of them, being able to see the light actually come on.
By about 10:00 p.m., most of the visitors had left, and the rest of us had the sky to ourselves.
A very nice way to spend an evening!
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"Truth" is that which confounds our expectations...
Science is a bazaar, not a cathedral
"S.O.E." (Sauron's Other Eye), with 16" Royce conical mirror: A permanent work in progress.
The "Eye of Sauron" Observatory Open for Business!
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square_peg
Postmaster
Reged: 03/26/04
Posts: 36712
Loc: Maple Valley, WA
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Nice. I was in Death Valley at night last January. It's really quite dark there.
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Tom (Pegster)
DSH-8 (GSO Dob)
15x70 Oberwerks
ED80/SVP
WO 66P
Sears Discoverer EQ 60/900
8x42 Regals
History is Philosophy teaching by examples.
Thucydides
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arczeneb
sage
Reged: 11/14/04
Posts: 232
Loc: SW Desert
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I arrived on Thursday but observing was in the campground as the landing strip permit was only for Friday and Saturday. Thursday being the best clear skies. Friday arrivals were from Palm Springs, Indio, Southern CA a group for Oregon, Las Vegas and others. Scopes ranged 3" to several with couple 25" and 20", 16" lightbridge, 6" achro, imaging group along with others. Several make and models were represented but no Ethos.
But Friday around 11pm the clouds rolled in and clear again till around 0200am. All packed as drops of rain passed through. Saturday LVAS group provided solar observing in front of the general store around noon for the public. Also John LVAS gave a talk on Friday and Saturday in the visitors center.
Back to Saturday the skies cleared not the best but good enough to observe till the wee hours. As sundown arrived several scopes came out and so did the public. The Oregon group headed up to Dantes Peak parking area for the higher elevation observing with several scopes in tow.
Next Death Valley star party Febraury 2008.
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C102 (Vixen) 80's
8" Porta ball
Meade AR6/Giro mount/Stellavue 80mm finder
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llanitedave
Humble Megalomaniac
Reged: 09/26/05
Posts: 20063
Loc: Amargosa Valley, NV, USA
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Professional astrophotographer Wally Pacholka, of http://www.astropics.com took this photo of Elaine and I after it got completely dark. I don't remember what I was looking at while the shot was being taken, but it may have been the Ring Nebula. In the original you can see the Lagoon Nebula quite clearly and even the Trifid. That's Jupiter over Elaine's shoulder, of course.
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"Truth" is that which confounds our expectations...
Science is a bazaar, not a cathedral
"S.O.E." (Sauron's Other Eye), with 16" Royce conical mirror: A permanent work in progress.
The "Eye of Sauron" Observatory Open for Business!
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Zebra24601
Postmaster
Reged: 10/09/05
Posts: 16397
Loc: San Gabriel Valley, CA 91770
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That's a picture worthy of a major blow-up. 
I've seen some of Wally's pictures before. He does do nice astro-terra photography.
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Zebra24601
Meade 8" SCT w/UHTC * Celestron 100ED * Celestron C11 * Celestron Firstscope 80EQ
Coronado 60mm Solar Max II * Meade LXD55 mount * Orion Sirius goto mount
Bushnell Voyager 4.5" Compact Reflector * Barska 15x70 binoculars * Galileoscope
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Zebra24601
Postmaster
Reged: 10/09/05
Posts: 16397
Loc: San Gabriel Valley, CA 91770
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Here's a Wally picture that's on the Joshua Tree National Park website. They also used his picture of Orion on the annual pass for Joshua Tree National Park.
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Zebra24601
Meade 8" SCT w/UHTC * Celestron 100ED * Celestron C11 * Celestron Firstscope 80EQ
Coronado 60mm Solar Max II * Meade LXD55 mount * Orion Sirius goto mount
Bushnell Voyager 4.5" Compact Reflector * Barska 15x70 binoculars * Galileoscope
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llanitedave
Humble Megalomaniac
Reged: 09/26/05
Posts: 20063
Loc: Amargosa Valley, NV, USA
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Todd, it was definitely a nice bonus to have him there. We didn't know who he was at the time, but we did know his photos. Once we connected the two, it was easy!
The original he sent us was 2.2MB. I'm not sure, but I think he uses film and a large-format camera. He got several other people in their viewing as well -- I'm sure there are a number of good shots coming out of this.
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"Truth" is that which confounds our expectations...
Science is a bazaar, not a cathedral
"S.O.E." (Sauron's Other Eye), with 16" Royce conical mirror: A permanent work in progress.
The "Eye of Sauron" Observatory Open for Business!
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