Astronomy for Everyone

Wednesday was the day to go into Key Weird (that's Key West for those of you not familiar with the Florida Keys), waste away in Margarittaville, and have a Cheeseburger in Paradise. I opted out but the guys all got into Dave's Lincoln Town Car and headed out. I took my DSLR and wandered the entire beach and campsite to take pictures. The damage from Hurricane Georges in 1999 was still evident. Large uprooted trees littered the beach area at the west end. I spotted a scope set up on a rock on the beach at the far west end of the campsite. When the guys got back they all took naps in preparation for a good night's observing. The wind was still blowing at a pretty good clip, but we hoped it would die down by nightfall. At 3:30 p.m. we gathered the club members beachside and scattered some of Rick Donnelley's ashes on the beach. We toasted his memory back in the swamp, then got in line for the barbeque that the host club, Southern Cross Astronomy Society, was throwing for all participants that night. We stuffed ourselves with beef, pork, chicken, beans, coleslaw, and ice cream. Wind and clouds and too much toasting with Courvoisier VSOP had us all in bed by midnight.

It was Thursday and the wind had finally dropped. That night turned out to be THE night! Several of us clustered around Vic Menard's 22" StarStructure and what a night we had! We got the PUP!!! without a filter. It was readily visible even though it's not at maximum separation. From there we did one gorgeous planetary nebula after another. NGC 2440, The Bipolar, looked fantastic through Vic's new 8mm Ethos. So did just about everything else. One funny moment came when Vic turned the scope to the Eskimo, and started babbling an incoherent description to his wife Lynne. None of us had the slightest idea what Vic said but Lynne understood perfectly. We then looked at M81 and M82. Vic noticed what he called "glitter" sprinkled all over M82. I figured the brownie he'd just eaten was a "funny" brownie, but no, I saw it too. So did everybody else. None of us had ever seen that effect before. We also saw a bit of "glitter" on M81. After several hours of excited observing, some clouds came up and sprinkles of rain spattered our faces. The scope was quickly covered and I went to bed at 4:00 a.m. What a night!

We got up bright and early on Sunday morning and headed into Big Pine Key and the Crack'd Egg for breakfast. When we got back to Camp Wesumkee, we went out to the berm and assembled the 3 telescopes we brought. Jerry Lowrey had followed us in his truck with his 18" Starmaster. We got Jerry's scope up but discovered that the RS-232 jack on his black box was broken, so Jerry shoved a piece of a toothpick into the plug with the jack so that it would make contact. Astronomers are nothing if not inventive. We also got Kent's 12.5" Starmaster (my old scope) up and collimated, and then helped Dave finish off with his 18" StarStructure. We covered the scopes and waited for it to get dark by visiting with other club members and friends we hadn't seen since WSP last year. Preston and Liz Starr had come out all the way from Texas. I hadn't seen them since WSP 2007 so Liz and I had a lot of catching up to do. We made do with what Dave call's "pig food" for dinner. Each of us had brought food in cans, like Chef Boyardee, canned spinach, canned fruit, you name it, and ate it straight out of the can. I had brought an entire case of Coke on ice and Kent and I had already gone through several cans by the time it got dark. We took our eyepiece cases out to the berm and started alignments, only to discover that Jerry's Telrad was dead and without an alignment, he couldn't get his drive system working. Kent's scope had no drive so he and I had a ball looking for things the old-fashioned way. The seeing wasn't great and the transparency could have been better but it was clear. Later on, at about 11:00 p.m. we got Eta Carinae, NGC 3275, in Kent's scope. It wasn't the best view because there was light cloud cover over the ocean in the deep south, but we got it with no problem. Kent and I went through several objects, while Dave and Jerry fussed with drive systems. We hit the rack at about 2:00 a.m. after views of the Coal Sack and the Jewel Box in Crux. Great night!

This year marked the 25th anniversary of the Winter Star Party and the members of SCAS did not disappoint. We left Bradenton on Friday night, 2/20, at 10 p.m. I rode down with my long-time observing partner, David Gracey, and our good friend Kent Hays. After 3 coffee stops and a gas stop, we got down to West Summerland Key at 5:40 a.m. on Saturday to wait in line. We all tried to take catnaps in the car, but the only one who was successful was me, curled up in the front seat. About 4 hours later the sun and my bladder got me up and I trekked about 1/4 mi. up to the front gate to hit the porta-potty. We got out lawn chairs and iced tea and socialized with other astronomers until it was time to go in at about 1 p.m. From then on it was a lot of hard work. We had to unload the trailer, set up scopes, pitch tents and canopies, get out lawn chairs, and get everything set up for the week. Kent and I were sharing a huge cabin tent; it took 4 people to get it set up. Once done, we zipped shut the "wall" between the two rooms and Kent and I had our own private 10x10 spaces. Sleeping bags and cots followed, and after about 4 hours of hard work, we had the Swamp (Dave's big canopy) set up, and were ready to rock and roll. But hours of hard work, plus no sleep, drove us to bed pretty early. We were all too tired to get the scopes fully set up and collimated, so we contented ourselves with binoculars and a relatively early bedtime.

Susan is alive and well in the Florida Keys at the Winter Star Party. She had hoped to make daily posts, but she reports that the bandwidth is so limited that she can rarely connect to anything But, she's having a great time and the weather has allowed some fantastic views.

She'll be posting a complete report, probably with pictures, when she returns, so check back towards the middle of next week.

Steve

We leave for WSP tonight at 10:00 p.m. Everything is packed except the last minute stuff, and we're hoping for good weather. I'm charging batteries, and the last load of laundry is in the dryer. I need to hop in the shower and eat dinner, throw the rest of the stuff into the car, and then we're off! I'll try to report in daily and let everybody know who is there and what we get to observe. Cheers!

WHEW! A reprieve! We aren't leaving for WSP until Friday night, not Thursday as previously reported. We hope to pull in at the gate by 6:00 a.m. Saturday morning, which should be easy. I've got some of my stuff packed and am meeting up with Dave at the Dog Park in a few minutes to transfer it to his car. I hope the weather is better in the Keys than it has been here; we've had clouds the past 3 nights in a row. The last minute stuff will be a killer, though. It's always something - where's the charger for my laptop?! for my cell?! for my camera?! ACK!!!

The Winter Star Party is upon us and our group leaves on Thursday, 2/19/2009 at 5:30 p.m. I have loads of laundry to do, a tent to borrow, stuff to pack, and dozens of related chores to get done before then. This year WSP is 10 days, saluting their 25th anniversary. I'm taking loads of camera gear to see if I can get a decent image of Comet Lulin. This year I'm riding with my long-time observing partner, Dave Gracey, and another club member, Kent Hayes. We'll be cruising at about 75 mph in Dave's Lincoln Town Car towing a cargo trailer loaded to the absolute ceiling with astro-gear, and caravaning with several other club members. Ten days in the Keys - it just doesn't get any better than that, unless you're lucky enough to live there. Yee-HAH!! There will be wi-fi on the field, so I'll be posting to this blog daily from the Keys. Stay tuned!

The Winter Star Party in the Florida Keys is a little less than 3 weeks away and counting.  I've already packed half the stuff I'm taking.  This is my favorite star party of the year and for a change, I am NOT vending, so I get to observe, sleep late, and otherwise goof off with the rest of our club members who are also going.  I can't wait!  Let's hope for good weather.