453 replies to this topic

[Ionthesky]

The speakers and the subject matter were also great.  Hats off to the star party committee for a well-run event once again!

[belliott4488]

How was Saturday?

It was back and forth between blue skies with puffy cumulus clouds and intermittent rain showers most of the day, but it had pretty well cleared up by the time I left at around 6:00. I heard from a friend who stayed the night that it was clear until 8 or 9 pm when the clouds and threat of rain returned and forced her to cover her scope. She said the cloud cover was down to maybe 30% a couple hours later, but she never saw it clear up entirely.

 

She's staying tonight, Sunday, in hopes of getting one clear night. She wasn't able to arrive before Friday, so she missed the fantastic nights I had seen earlier in the week.

[Ionthesky]

So... next year, the September new moon falls on Sunday the 21st.  Has the date been set yet for BFSP '25?  Will it be 9/19 - 9/21?

 

Edit:  I don't want to seem anxious or anything... 

Edited by Ionthesky, 08 September 2024 - 03:18 PM.

[belliott4488]

Friday night was mostly clouds & rain, AFAIK (had dinner in "Cloudersport" with friends and felt raindrops when we came out of the restaurant.  Didn't return to CSSP until morning.)

 

Went to bed a little after 9pm and was awakened around 1:30am by neighbors where we were staying.  It was raining then.   Couldn't sleep...looked out the window at 3am and the sky was beautiful!  Went out to the car and got the little OneSky out and enjoyed the sights in the sky til 5am, then called it a night.  That helped to make the weekend a success.

 

Kind of like hitting that sweet tee shot on the 18th hole after an otherwise forgettable round of golf...  

As far as I could tell from inside my tent at CSSP, it rained without a break from around 10:00 pm Friday until 7:00 or 8:00 Saturday morning.

[Ionthesky]

Oops...my lengthy story referred to Saturday night...duh.

Sorry for any confusion.

[Pilot87178d]

Funny how things seem to go.....worried over the weather at CCSP and finally decided to put all my viewing chips on Staunton River at the end of this month.  So, the weather that hit CCSP on Saturday hit us in Central Maryland on its way North-West, but cleared out here at 4:30 PM-ish.....was enough to reveal a fresh clear sky about as good as a Bortle 5 can ever get.  Very good and very rare viewing by staying home. Will try BFSP again as it is the all time personal annual fav!

Marc

[Skywatchr]

So... next year, the September new moon falls on Sunday the 21st.  Has the date been set yet for BFSP '25?  Will it be 9/19 - 9/21?

 

Edit:  I don't want to seem anxious or anything... 

Anxious?   I hope 9/19 - 9/21 is the date of BFSP 2025. August is just a bit too hot, and later in September brings the winter constellations up a bit earlier.

[Skywatchr]

How was Saturday?

Windy.  Saturday night was windy and cold.  But there were a lot of big sucker holes to enjoy.

[Skywatchr]

Tony with the beautiful 28 inch Dob, just to let you know you left your chair behind. Please let us know what to do with it. Thanks for the views!

Yeah I talked with Tony a few times.  I got his business card from him.  Though I am positive John Vogt (and a few others) knows how to get in touch with him too. That is a pretty nice chair. I might get one myself.   

[WillR]

I left Friday along with almost everyone camped around me. Sorry to miss the talks, especially Larry’s but we had lovely skies Wednesday and Thursday, the two nights I was there. Also sorry I didn’t get a look through John Vogt’s scope earlier because I missed him.

 

I look forward to next year.

[bobclark86]

Despite living within two hours of Cherry Springs for my whole life -- and living about 20 miles away in my early childhood, visiting the park for Easter picnics in the snow back in the days when the only nighttime use it got was as a makeout spot for my older cousins -- I'd never actually been there at night for observing.

 

I decided to go a day early, and I wasn't disappointed. Thursday night was amazing. Like verging on a religious experience amazing. Yes, I cried a little. But I got up there maybe 10 minutes before sunset thanks to a late start and "flatlander" traffic (As an astro-tourist, am I the flatlander now?) and had to make camp in a hurry. As such, I was too tired to make an observing plan or mess with my 8" SCT or my Dob, so I spent most of my night with binoculars or just my eyes.

 

Friday during the day was lovely, giving great weather to the half the field that packed up and went home. I dragged my tent closer to a power pole and found a lump to pitch my little tent on. I got out my PST and looked at the sun for a while (grumbling about it being a singular star at a "star" party, as opposed to "stars" plural). Then it rained. A lot. There was even a tornado the next county north. 

 

Saturday during the day was rainy and windy, and sometimes sunny. I did some horse trading at the swap meet (my pile of $1 coins ended up in about four different pockets) and I left with about as much stuff as I came with thanks to aforementioned horse trading, but I had fun and met some new people. I sat in on the Galileo talk which I enjoyed greatly as a history nerd, and I caught the end of the moon talk and the park updates on my car's radio as I took a nap in the one dry, warm and soft place I had to sit.

 

Saturday night was terrible for the imagers, but surprisingly fun for the binocular and grab-and-go folks. Got to see a young crescent moon very well right after sunset, and I'd get maybe 5 minutes at a time where a section of the sky was clear. I and some folks from the Harrisburg and Rochester clubs were in the south end of the field just looking at random stuff with no real purpose -- as if you spent a lot of time setting up something big for a single target, the clouds would roll in. I had out my binocs and an 80mm ED I picked up at the swap meet on a camera tripod (sans finder, so I could only get it on big stuff like the Double Cluster and M31). A lot of folks didn't even unwrap their scopes. We had a bit of rain that woke me up briefly (I went to bed around 11 due to clouds getting thick), but I got up at 3 to a completely clear sky. Grabbed my binoculars and had a fun time looking at Orion, Taurus, the Pleiades and picking out the Galilean moons of Jupiter at low power before going back in my tent (because it was below 40 degrees and I was dressed in an expedient fashion for, umm, an unrelated activity).

 

For serious stuff, the weather was 1/3, with a 0% for the official star party. But the experience was 10/10, would go again. But I'm thinking a pop-up camper or one of those cute little teardrops that my Forester could tow would be a good idea for next time.

 

EDIT: Forgot I had my camera set up Thursday. 

 

Facing West

 

 

Facing North

 

Facing south:

 

 

 

Edited by bobclark86, 09 September 2024 - 12:23 PM.

[jrsbww1]

Nice star party!  Very interesting presentations.  Nice to have multiple monitors above to everyone could see the presented material all the way to the back.  

 

I see two of the three presentations on You Tube.  Did the first one on Mega-Constellations and Space Junk get recorded?  I was interested in some of the URL's.

 

On topic of space junk... the article linked below is interesting in regards to collecting space junk lowering orbits so the junk can burn up on re-entry.   My hope when I started reading the article was they would collect space debris and bring it back down for recycling.  So only a slight improvement as burning this stuff up on re-entry only leads to the next problem.  What are we introducing into the atmosphere burning up all our space waste.   

 

https://www.space.co...exclusive-video

[Mark F.]

But I got up there maybe 10 minutes before sunset thanks to a late start and "flatlander" traffic (As an astro-tourist, am I the flatlander now?) and had to make camp in a hurry. As such, I was too tired to make an observing plan or mess with my 8" SCT or my Dob, so I spent most of my night with binoculars or just my eyes.

 

 

That was my experience with the Almost Heaven Star Party a week earlier.  I got too late of a start on Friday, so by the time I arrived at Spruce Knob, there was just enough time to set up camp.  Like you, I spent that first night just drinking in the sky, using binoculars, and taking photos of the Milky Way.

 

The next two nights were a bust - rain and clouds.  But Monday night was the gem.  Very clear, good transparency, but cold.  It was a long drive and I only had one night of viewing, but I'm still very glad that I went.

[peleuba]

Friday September 6th, Zodiacal light with Mars, Jupiter and Orion rising.

 

Nice photo!  I see very faint hints of Barnard's Loop encircling Orion.  I thought Monday and Tuesday nights - pre star party - were particularly good.

Edited by peleuba, 09 September 2024 - 02:51 PM.

[peleuba]

I just returned from about a week of observing at Cherry Springs.   It was good to see more Dobs in the field then the last couple of years...

 

 

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[Ionthesky]

Thanks for posting these great photos, Paul!

[WillR]

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On that last one, you will see a small camera mounted on top of the mirror box. This guy had a program that tracked using this camera for plate solving. I didn't talk to him for long, because he was busy and not particularly chatty. Nor did he offer views. I think he said it was a 25.5" to beat out his friend with a 25". 

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Edited by WillR, 09 September 2024 - 07:51 PM.

[WillR]

Nice star party!  Very interesting presentations.  Nice to have multiple monitors above to everyone could see the presented material all the way to the back.  

 

I see two of the three presentations on You Tube.  Did the first one on Mega-Constellations and Space Junk get recorded?  I was interested in some of the URL's.

 

On topic of space junk... the article linked below is interesting in regards to collecting space junk lowering orbits so the junk can burn up on re-entry.   My hope when I started reading the article was they would collect space debris and bring it back down for recycling.  So only a slight improvement as burning this stuff up on re-entry only leads to the next problem.  What are we introducing into the atmosphere burning up all our space waste.   

 

https://www.space.co...exclusive-video

Do you have a link to Larry's talk on Galileo?

[Dave Mitsky]

The conditions on Sunday night were superb.

[Skywatchr]

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That second photo is my 18" F/5.