Well, for the most part the observing was good enough last night at Stellafane. There was a period of total overcast later on, followed by a clearing, then occasional clouds, and finally a completely cloud free sky in the early morning. I got a high SQM-L reading of 21.08 mpsas. The transparency was off somewhat, probably due to wildfire smoke, but that wasn't much of a problem.
I was able to qualify for the Stellafane Binocular Olympics pin with the aid of my Canon 15x50 IS and the Telescope Olympics pin thanks to some of my friends from the Chesmont Astronomical Society and the Kopernik Observatory club. The theme of the Telescope Olympics was star clusters and asterisms. Some of the asterisms were rather difficult targets and many of them were quite obscure. A few of them were really worthwhile targets.
I also observed quite a few binocular objects that weren't part of the Olympics, and Saturn and a number of DSOs that likewise were not on the telescope list. The big gun on the field below the McGregor Observatory was John Vogt's homemade 32" Dob. I viewed NGC 6888 (the Crescent Nebula) and M27 through that beautiful telescope and John's night vision gear and took a couple of hand-held afocal iPhone photos.
I saw several meteors and far too many satellites throughout the night.
My Seestar S50 also saw quite a bit of action.
Yes!
I was happy to do some observing with DaveM that night - using my own C9.25 Evolution (left the 20" Dob home) and friend RobertW's Explore Scientific 6-inch Levy Comet Hunter Mak-Newt, longtime friends Rick & Marianne's Obsession 20 F/5 and PatrickM's NMT 16-inch Dob. I did get the 'deep sky' Observing Olympics pin, but didn't try the binocular one. Maybe sometimes I'll go thru it.
Longtime friend SeanW (of Sky & Tel) was observing with us and set up a full-frame DSLR on a SkyWatcher tracker - and has been posting on FaceBook some surprisingly good wide-field images of the M-16/17 area and the M-8/20 area. I thought he had no chance - but his results were very good! He also gave a presentation about his (plus team) multi-year effort to image most of the sky in narrow-band from a remote observatory using a battery of Tak 130mm modified APOs. They are almost complete and ready to publish on-line their final results. The astro pros are already making great use it it.
While far from the best of nights at Stellafane - it offered up good enough conditions for a decent night observing. The 'open clusters & asterisms' observing list was interesting. While there were few 'emotional' targets (M-11 *was* on the list) - sometimes you really need to get away from 'the same old targets' and explore the 'way off the beaten path' objects - again, probably not of the 'high emotional impact' type target - yet still they are 'up there' - and hunting them down can be a challenge even with GoTo or DSCs - plus they add to your connection with the sky and the universe.
As it turned out - Thursday was the only observing opportunity this year - a classic 'Stella-rain' Convention! They failed to have the optical judging - so no 'optical' ATM awards this year. Otherwise - the main presenter was interesting but mumbled a little.
All-in-all -- a very good Stellafane ATM Convention (it's *not* a star party!! 
) - I survived taking my tent down Sunday morning in the rain - my old truck made its last trip before being traded Monday -- perhaps my only regret - not bringing my 20-inch NMT Dob - but I was worried about traveling with it in an old beat-up truck just to have no sky at all to use it.
I very much hope to be back on Breezy Hill next year!
Edited by George N, 06 August 2024 - 09:59 AM.
