20 replies to this topic

[John R]

Looking for a place to get out and do something interesting?
How about a nice small star party to attend? Check out the Pennyrile Stargaze at Pennyrile State Park near Dawson Springs, KY. This is an informal star party with no attendance fee. It is held in the state park about 2 miles from the State Park campground.  Nice camping available for tents or motor homes on site at the star observing location that is located near the Park Maintenance Building. Porta potties on site. You can use the state campground showers for a small fee or stay at the campground lodge if you prefer not to camp. The State Park rents lodge rooms, cabins and has a nice restaurant. There is also a golf course in the park. Dawson Springs is about 15 minutes away and has a few restaurants. Being held September 28th to October 6th.  There is a Facebook page under Pennyrile Stargaze that has some limited information and pictures of past star parties. There is also a YouTube video on the star party from 2020 if you do a search for Pennyrile Stargaze.

[lwbehney]

My wife and I have attended this event and she appreciates the amenities of the cabins and the lodge. The park lodge rests inside of a deep valley and the observing field is completely shielded from park lights and has a wonderfully clear southern horizon. Each time I have come to visit, very impressive telescopes have been present. 

[John R]

Up

[John Miele]

I plan to be there. I went last year for the first time and it was a lot of fun. 

 

John

[Terra Nova]

I’m in the LAS and so I am going to try and attend.

[Terra Nova]

My wife and I have attended this event and she appreciates the amenities of the cabins and the lodge. The park lodge rests inside of a deep valley and the observing field is completely shielded from park lights and has a wonderfully clear southern horizon. Each time I have come to visit, very impressive telescopes have been present. 

I am going to reserve a room in the lodge. I really like the KY Resort Park Lodges!

[KevinFH]

Wife, myself and 2 brothers may attend.

I wish it were more formal.

Is there a count of potential attendees?

[John R]

Normally there are 6 or 7 regulars that are there the entire week. Because of the length people come and go pretty much based on the weather. If the weather is good an additional 10 to 15 people may come and go during the week. It is a small event but everyone who attends has always enjoyed it. If you have not already you can get a better idea of the event buy checking out the Facebook page at Pennyrile Star Gaze. There are also few good videos on YouTube that show the area for camping and some of the attendees. 

 

Actually, we like the informal nature. There is no fee for the event, but we do ask for a contribution towards the Porta Potties we rent for the event. Also, the last several years one day during the week we typically do a potluck dinner that everyone enjoys.

[scottinash]

Hope to see you all there!  I plan, at the least, to make it for the second weekend. 

[msmullet]

I've been attending for 5 or 6 years, coming from Cleveland, Ohio. It's my favorite site. Love the casual atmosphere and the friendly crowd. 2023 had the best skies I've seen in a very long time.

[lwbehney]

I see that the weather may be conducive to star gazing on the last day of the originally scheduled days of the Pennyrile Stargaze.  Is anyone planning on attending this event this week Tuesday and Wednesday?

[Terra Nova]

Well darn! I forgot all about this and I’ve got plans to go to my astronomy club’s (LAS) picnic/cookout and star party that weekend and my annual trip to New England the following weekend. Hopefully I can make it next year!

Edited by Terra Nova, 29 September 2024 - 12:49 PM.

[PrreacherBill]

The weather report from the weather channel I see is calling for clear skies every night from Tuesday thru Saturday. That's a definite improvement over last year! Susan and I will be there sometime on Tuesday.

 

Bill Bernauer

[John Miele]

I'm heading up Wed thru Sunday.

 

Can someone re-post the map showing where the observing field is inside the park? I had one and lost it and now I can't seem to find it again...

 

Thanks!

 

John

[scottinash]

I'm heading up Wed thru Sunday.

 

Can someone re-post the map showing where the observing field is inside the park? I had one and lost it and now I can't seem to find it again...

 

Thanks!

 

John

https://maps.app.goo...nRqESyF4YwCBX7A

[IndyTom]

What a blast this year's event was! I had to leave a couple days early, but was there most of the week. There were some cloudy nights, but the ones that were clear were pretty spectacular. Thank you again to everyone who puts in so much work to make that week happen. I am already getting things ready for next year.

 

https://youtu.be/CuA...69F_FX36CudH5NY

Edited by IndyTom, 06 October 2024 - 02:08 PM.

[scottinash]

I was only able to stay one night but greatly enjoyed a full seven hours of much needed manual star-hopping/visual observing Friday night.  Great skies and good company!  I visited a significant list of NGC objects in Cygnus and surrounding areas but I think I enjoyed the long views of NGC7789 Caroline's Rose Cluster more than ever before....truly spectacular!  

 

The extreme high power views of Saturn via Darren's 18" Dob were purely amazing...best I have ever seen in 40+ years of observing!   John's bino mount was crazy impressive and the views were unforgettable!   Hope to see you all next year and hoping for cooler daytime temps then....whew!   

 

Thanks to everyone who keep this event going!    

Edited by scottinash, 06 October 2024 - 01:12 PM.

[John R]

Tentative start date for next year will be September 13th. 

[John R]

Weather was great Tuesday thru Saturday night. Sunday and Monday nights were cloudy but got about a half hour each night where the sky opened up. 

[John Miele]

This was a spectacular success! Field was nice and dry. Every night was clear and every day warm and Sunny. I could even make cell phone calls once I fond the secret cell phone spot (top of the gravel pile on top of the hill at the end of the road past the gate...lol!).

 

The only bad thing was my CPAP battery cable had the wrong connector and I could not run it from my 12V power supply. Other than that all my equipment worked perfectly. 

 

The seeing Friday night was excellent and Saturday night was even better! I normally do not view planets at a dark sky site but we were pumping up Saturn and Jupiter to well over 400X both nights with rock steady views in Darren's 18" Plettstone with Pegasus mirror and my 14.5" Starmaster with a Zambuto optic. Lots of fun!

 

My new binoscope was working great. I'm just amazed at all the NGC, IC, etc. objects the binoscope could pull out. I spent hours cluster hopping all along the Milky Way using Skysafari. My favorite unexpected view in the Binoscope was NGC 246 the Skull Nebula. A faint roundish glow with the tiny eyeball stars clearly visible. And the double cluster was just pure eye candy! I was even able to glimpse NGC891 which is always a tough catch for me in small scopes.

 

We also viewed the Blue Snowball planetary at 320X in the Starmaster and could see some of the outer ring structure.

 

Chris and myself used my Starmaster and his excellent C14 to view M57 at a variety of powers. Our consensus was we each had brief glimpses of the central star but could not hold it in steady view.

 

Overall a lot of fun!

 

cs...John

 

Edit: I should have included that I arrived Wednesday (Oct 2nd) and left Sunday.

Edited by John Miele, 14 October 2024 - 08:28 AM.

[scottinash]

Great report, John!     I was attempting the central star in M57 on that Friday night but other than hopeful imagination, I don't think I can say I bagged it.  However, surprisingly, I'm confident that I logged the very small and faint fuzzy core of nearby galaxy IC1296 (sits in a nice asterism that looks kind of like a smiley face), which I have never been able to positively capture before, even with larger aperture.  

Edited by scottinash, 13 October 2024 - 07:06 PM.