Laurel Highlands Star Cruise 2001

Chris Oyster with the TV85.  (All photos on this page are credited to Larry Oyster unless noted otherwise.  Thanks Larry!)

Milk and Fire in the Sky

(a.k.a.) The Laurel Highlands Star Cruise (Extended)

June 13-18, 2001

The Pittsburgh Amateur Astronomers have much to be proud of with the 2001 edition of the Laurel Highlands Star Cruise.

1. They have found an excellent dark sky site with convenient access
2. The children’s activities make this a great family trip
3. Speakers were superb
4. Camping facilities were complete
5. Could not meet a nicer group of people in attendance

For more details on the event and site see the official website at http://www.members.home.net/lhstarcruise/

Larry Oyster with his new TV102.  The scope performed beautifully on deep sky objects.  Larry found 33 Messiers in one night-a record for him in an evening.

I setup on Wednesday evening and met Jim Turner from North Carolina. The weather forecast had been all over the place, but one thing was for sure, it was going to be hot and humid until the low pressure system passed on Saturday. Conditions during the hot and humid nights were quite useable for deep sky work.  Mars never really showed its stuff.  The crowd picked up throughout the day on Thursday and seemed to peek on Friday afternoon. I believe I heard a number of around 280 in attendance.

Camp:

Observing/Astrophotography equipment in the camp: C14, TV102, 10" Cave Astrola, AP 130EDT, TV101, TV85, Fuji 16x70, Fuji 7x50.

WE WON: Yes, our camp won a major door prize. My niece, Elizabeth, won a complete telescope setup with a value of over $1,000!!! It is an ETX90 with Autostar and tripod. Unfortunately, the night she won was the worst night of viewing during the event. 

OVAS setup camp on Thursday. Larry and Chris Oyster and Don Kemper joined me in representing OVAS. My two children, Stephen and Jennifer, along with Jon, Caroline, and Elizabeth Auvil drove up on Friday. My Kendrick observing tent served me well on its second starparty.

I really like the new AP guidescope and rings as well as the Pocono ST4RF flipmate for the ST4.  After initial calibration fo the ST4 with the flipmate, finding, focusing, and centering a guidestar is a snap.  If I am setup for extended periods of time, I leave the ST4RF in position and will never have to take the ST4 off of the guidescope.  The AP guidescope gave me plenty of room to find a guidestar as well as very controlled movement of the scope as compared to the Losmandy 108 rings. Here is a link to one of the shots I took with this setup at this party < Snake nebula >

We met many great folks that camped nearby.  Jeff Ballard from the DC beltway area had a 10" Orion XT.  Jeff became an instant friend and it was a joy to have him in our camp.  The views through the Orion XT were simply awesome.   I was extremely impressed with its performance and feel it is the best value in astronomy right now.  Jim Turner from North Carolina was also a guest in our camp.   He had a great pop-up tent that was stored in a motorcycle trailer weighing only 19 lbs.  He had a Celestron 11" on a homemade go-to alt-az mount powered by Meade Autostar motors and hand controller.  It was pretty impressive.  Jim provided great assistance to my brother-in-law on their new ETX 90 Autostar.  Thanks Jim.   Matt from Harpers Ferry was also nearby with his 24" Tectron.  The views were incredible and Matt is a very accomplished observer.  The talent of these individuals is impressive and we were very fortunate to have them in our camp.

Camp with the (clockwise starting on the left) TV85 on Telepod, C14, TV102 on GM8, AP 130 on AP600 QMD, and TV101 on GM8. 

Here I am with my new (used) TV101 and Taurus Tracker III for imaging.  This shot was on Sunday.  Most attendees had already left.  Look at that sky!

Best Views: The best views were on Sunday evening. You know it is good when two of  the best views are non-telescopic!

1. AURORA! At 2:15 a.m. I was tinkering with a photo setup and talking with Larry. As I looked up toward the North I saw a beam of light shooting up at least 20 degrees. My first thought was that there was an airplane or airport or something with an incredible spotlight. I then realized that this was not an isolated beam of light, but was moving and spreading from the north-northwest to the east. I then realized what it was and shouted "Aurora" so all those on the field would know about it. We had done some solar viewing earlier in the day and the sunspot activity was certainly high. I did not really think about an aurora that night. This was my first, so please excuse my enthusiasm and my inability to diagnose the phenomenon with speed. The "fire" continued until dawn. It would subside and then pick back up again. The first sighting around 2:25 had no pronounced color, but was intensely bright, as bright as the Milky Way or brighter. Then at 3:45 a second wave started and that seemed to have shades of red. This patch of red was seen just below the Big Dipper. It was a glorious treat and now I want to see it again. I had two exposures going through my scopes and had no camera to shoot the aurora.   Talk about frustration.  Looking back, I should have shut down the exposures and shot the Aurora, afterall, M8 will always be there, right?
2. Milky Way: At about 2:30 the Milky Way arched straight overhead. The closest edge on galaxy. Not even a 36" reflector can outdo this sight. It was awesome to see it stretch from below Sagittarius to below Perseus. It may have been the prettiest sight I have seen, ever. 
3. Omega nebula in all scopes with and without the OIII filer.  This nebula really had some contrast in these skies.  I could see the extended nebulosity below the base of the swan.  Great treat. 

The Site: Pine Hill campground near Bruceton Mills, WV

Pine Hill is located about 10 minutes off of I-68 which runs just below the Mason-Dixon line. The elevation at the site is around 2,200 feet. It is a beautiful forested area with Morgantown the nearest city of consequence about 30 miles to the west.

Limiting Visual Magnitude: The best night for a true evaluation of the site was on Sunday night. This night I tried to find a different star overhead rather than rely on the Little Dipper stars. I settled on one in Hercules. Two stars close in proximity 50 and 48 Herculis (reference Sky Atlas 2000). The Sky software plots these two as being separated by only 20". Maybe I am using my imagination, but I am quite sure I saw the two stars with averted vision, separated distinctively.  I am not aware of the limitations on the capability of the naked eye to split stars. 48 Herculis is listed at magnitude 6.59 in The Sky software. 50 Herculis is listed as 5.73. The sky that night was simply awesome.

Light domes: There is one noticeable light dome to the north-northwest that I assume is associated with Morgantown, WV. It rises no more than 15 degrees above the horizon and was not significant in any way. There is 24 hour construction on a new prison within 5 miles of the site that will need to monitored. Perhaps, we can be pro-active and initiate a dialogue with regards to friendly lighting similar to the example at Stellafane. I would not hesitate at all to use this site for astrophotography. As a matter of fact, I am thinking of going there during the August new Moon to beat some of the humidity of the lowlands.

The field: The observing field is quite large and has plenty of room for more participants. It provides excellent horizons. There is no electricity on the field, however. 4 porta-potties were in place on the field. The bathhouses are located in the main camping area, which is about .3 miles away. It is a nice walk or a short drive. The bathhouses are comfortable and convenient. The field can accommodate large RV’s. The organizers sectioned off the entire field with observing spaces that were quite large. This really added structure to the field and provided defined areas for foot and vehicular traffic.

Laurel Highlands Star Cruise: The Event

The presentations were solid. I saw two formal presentations, took the kids to the "Beginner Astronomy" course, saw a couple of movies, and viewed the "Who Wants to Be An Astronomer" game show. All presentations were excellent with high-quality video and sound. The speaker tent was comfortable with dark plastic on the underside to enhance the video projection images on the screen.

The vendors are listed on the starcruise website. I particularly enjoyed the opportunity to meet with Roger Blake of Taurus Tracker fame. We had a great discussion on astrophotography and he let me demo one of his Taurus tracker III on my TV101. I bought itJ , but only after none of my 15 raffle tickets won me a $200 discount. Roger images with a 10" Cave. This is of interest to our club since we have a 10" Cave that we recently sold to our newest deep sky hunter, Don Kemper.

Don Kemper with the 10" Cave.  Don is known as the "Caveman" as he is also a spelunker.

Bob Novak, accomplished telecsope maker, was also in attendance.  He visited our site one day and I learned more about telescopes in that brief time than I had learned in my last 5 years. Bob's current project is a 16" Ritchey Chretien!  Whenever Bob is around, talk with him about telescopes.  I bet you learn something.

The organizers have gone out of their way to make this event attractive to all astronomers, regardless of knowledge level. Beginning classes are held for families, rocket launches for the children, game shows- it really is a great family event. I have attended many starparties, Laurel is the only one I have ever thought of taking my children to. 

Family and friends played some UNO during the afternoon

(photo credit to Larry McHenry)

The door prizes were a significant improvement over those in 2000. Everything was better in 2001 than in 2000. Experience with these events proves to be invaluable. The leadership of the event has been very open to ideas and polled attendees on their priorities as well as the preferred times for the event in subsequent years. The Pittsburgh astronomers have a great event brewing here, and as a native West Virginian, I want to help make this event successful.

Black Forest Star Party 2000

Cherry Springs - Blackforest Star Party 2000

The weather was not very cooperative for the 2000 BFSP.  Nonetheless, we met some great folks, watched some movies, and saw some great equipment.  It was obvious from the darkness of the sky on the cloud layer that conditions can be very nice at Cherry Springs.   Here is the link to the Blackforest Star party.  Here is another link to Cherry Springs that is posted by Tom Bemus.

Well, here is camp at Cherry Springs.  New tent and new awning served us nicely.

Tom Bemus is a major promoter of Cherry Springs.  Here, he shares views through an AP Stowaway.  

Part of the observing field at Blackforest. 

Winter Star Party 2001

The following is a repost in an attempt to preserve some of my astronomical history.  Hope you enjoy this step back in time.  

The Cry:

The winter of 2000 was – well – cold! We had 15 days of temperatures below freezing. That is just too cold for me. Frustrated, I went to the net for help. I posted the message below to the Astro-photography mailing list on January 19, 2001.

Hey APML,

Well, I have officially had it (too much winter for me already)! I am

planning a trip to Chiefland, FL < http://www.c-av.com/ > for the Feb. new

Moon period starting around Feb. 21. Anyone want to get together down

there? If so, please reply to my email below so we can make plans off

line. I will be driving down from West Virginia. I have never been there,

so it will be all new to me.

I got a response! Kirk Rogers, from Maine, was going to the Winter Star Party in West Summerland Key, FL. He said he may have an extra ticket and asked if I was interested in it. The Keys were a little further south than I had originally planned for my trip. I would now have to take a full week of vacation rather than 2-3 days. Why not? Let’s go. I got a ticket and planned on meeting Kirk at the WSP.

The Skies:

The WSP is located between Marathon and Key West on West Summerland Key. It is held at the Camp Wasumkee Girl Scout camp. There are significant light domes from Key West and Marathon to the west-northwest and east-northeast, respectively. The southern view is quite nice and isn’t that what we are here for anyway? The following conditions were recorded for each night:

I would probably rate WSP skies as a Class 4 on the Bortle Dark Sky scale. The clouds to the south are not illuminated at all. If you just concentrate on southern objects to the zenith you will find the skies quite useful. I never looked at any deep sky objects 20 degrees north.

The People:

Rick Singmaster, Al Nagler, Tom Back, Markus Ludes, Jim Kendrick, Tom Clark, Mike Peoples and others. 

On Tuesday evening, a man and woman were walking around the campsites in stealth mode. It was Al Nagler and his wife. In retrospect, I believe Al was mapping out the location of all of the Televue scopes to return at another time for some field-testing. This night Al pointed my TV 85 to M46 / M47 to share the view with his wife. Later that night I moved my scope for a look at the Pleiades and saw horrific green colored stars. Oops! I had forgot that I left my Orion Ultrablock filter on my 22 Type 4 Nagler from the previous night while viewing Eta Carina. I told Al the story the next day and he had a chuckle and thought the view of M46/M47 was a bit dim. 

I had a very pleasant dinner conversation with Tom Clark and his wife one evening.  He extended an invitation for us to visit Chiefland sometime.  I hooked up with some friends from the Carolinas and we stopped at Chiefland for a night on our return trip home.  Conditions that night were heavy dew with ground fog.  We slept on the picnic benches (first for me).  I hope to return for an extended stay at Chiefland sometime in the future.

I also made some great new friends.  Kirk Rogers and George Whitney setup in camp with me.  They are great guys who are very knowledgeable about astronomy and photography.  They have great equipment to look through, too.  While I was taking pictures, Kirk and George let me play around with their LX200's.  Pretty nice, huh?

Hideaki Kimura, David Connor, and Paul Titus are new astronomy friends after WSP.  We observed together and drove to Chiefland on Saturday together.  I look forward to meeting up with them at future star parties.

WSP was also a chance for me to hook up with fellow astrophotography Joe Morris.  Joe had spent the previous week at Chiefland doing some AP.  He is a fabulous imager and I hope to work with him on other trips for astrophotography in the future. 

 The Scopes: 

Markus Ludes shares views through the 8" TMB with Coronado H-Alpha filter.

I can’t think of too many scopes that weren’t there. I did not see any large Takahashi refractors (5" or larger). I saw all Astro-physics except for a Stowaway and the Mak-Cass. Markus Ludes had 4 TMB’s on the field – 105 f6.2, 105 f8, 152 f8(?), and 180 f9. The Starmaster dobsonian dominated the observing field. I estimated the Starmaster to Obsession ratio was 6-1. The 36" yard scope was present.  There were some TEC Maks on the field.  A couple of 13" Coulter's.  Takahashi Epsilon 130's.   All TeleVue's.  Just about any type or brand of scope you could hope for was there.  

This observer was sharing tremendous daytime views of Venus through his 7" AP refractor.

The Observing:

One of the highlights was observing the Sun through Coronado solar filters. The view through the TV 102 and Coronado were simply awesome. Al Nagler commented that these were the best solar views he had ever seen. Markus had the TMB 8" setup with a Coronado and binoviewer. I did not get to look through this setup. The lines were quite long at times. I heard the views were outstanding.

I was extremely happy with the performance of my Kendrick/Baader solar filter on my 130 EDT. Granulation, sunspots, and faculae were very obvious. 

The highlights are definitely the planets and Omega Centauri.  Al Nagler actually gave me my first view of Omega Centauri in a TV 102.  Omega Cen through a big dob is something to behold.  It is truly unbelievable.  Other objects I viewed through the courtesy of many different scopes and their owners were: 

NGC 3268 and 3271- a great pair of galaxies in the same field of view, 

Comet McNaught-Hartley, a diffuse glow with no real bright central head, 

Centaurus A, spectacular in the large dobs, dark lane with subtle structure very obvious, 

Galactic Wanderer - furthest globular cluster in the Milky Way located in Lynx, 

Eta Carina, I enjoyed the Fujinon 16x70 views of this the most, 

Jewel Box,  small but colorful cluster, 

Gum 17, a nebulosity patch that is part of the Vela Supernova remnant.  I tried to photograph this object- captured the nebulosity, focus is good, but field rotation with 90 minute exposure.

The seeing is so good, my TV 85 easily split the 1.4 arc second double of Eta Orionis.

The Mounts:

I caught my first glimpse of the Yang GT-One mount. It looked a little different from the website pictures. The controls were not on the side of the mount head. I never had a chance to check out the mount performance. I also had a chance to see the MI-250 mount with a C-14 riding on top. A new high-capacity mount was being demonstrated at the vendor table. The mount is made by Wide Sky Optics and is the Millennium Mount. I believe Pocono will be a retailer in the US for the mount. Website is < http://www.millenniummount.com/ >   There were many AP mounts.  Some of the older 800 and 1200.  A few GTOs.   I saw at least one Takahashi EM200. 

The Presentations:

I saw 3 terrific presentations at WSP. 

R. Scott Ireland presented a digitized self running program that featured astroimages from his collection as well as some from Herm Perez.  The presentation was accompanied by two symphonic selections that set the mood perfectly.  This presentation was so popular that he gave an encore performance.

I was told Donald Parker presentations were not to be missed.  Unfortunately, his presentation came on the day after an all-night photo session.  I was wiped out.   I woke up about 12:30 and his presentation was at 1:00 p.m.  I showered and decided that eating was my next priority and I would just have to miss the presentation.   I get my lunch, sit down, and what is on the TV- Donald Parker's presentation is being transmitted live and direct to the lunch room.  There was only one other person in the lunch room with me.  It was air conditioned, not crowded, I was eating and watching Donald's talk.  I really lucked out on this one.  Yes, Donald's presentations are not to be missed.  His presentation was on Mars.  He presented CCD images of Mars and its unique features and instructed as to how to note these features during visual observations.  

Peter Ceravolo presented a personal account of his imaging quest to put together an animated sequence of comet Hyakutake.  His dedication to this imaging quest was quite remarkable and worth every moment.

Our Camp:

This was our home for 5 days.  George Whitney prepares for CCD imaging of the planets.

In our camp, we had 2 x 10" Meade LX200’s, a Tak FS78, a Ceravolo 6" Mak-Newt, a Tak Sky 90, 2 x AP 130EDT’s, 16x70 Fuji's, 7x50 Fuji's, and one TV 85. We also had a Losmandy G-11 Gemini mount, a GM8, an LX200 on Milburn wedge, a Telepod mount, and an AP 600 QMD mount. 

Photo courtesy of Paul Titus-Thanks Paul.  It is nice since I double exposed my roll of film:-)

This was my first outing with the Kendrick tent.  I positioned the tent as a wind block against the prevailing winds and it served quite nicely in blocking the winds.   The tent withstood the 20+mph winds, a fairly heavy rain, and plenty of sun.   I am very pleased with the functionality of the Kendrick tent.

Al comes to visit:

Al Nagler returned to our camp on Thursday night. He had the new 9mm Nagler and wanted to give it a try on my TV85. We put it in the scope and checked out Jupiter. Of course, I have never seen Jupiter like this before. The steady skies of West Summerland Key were quite remarkable.

The view through the 9mm Nagler was quite comfortable. The 9mm had very nice eye relief with no blackout spot and a very large field of view. It was as if the image was just sitting there on the front of the glass.

Here is what Markus Ludes posted to the SAA newsgroup regarding the new 9mm Nagler views on my TV85.

From: "Markus Ludes" <apm_telescopes@web.de>

Newsgroups: sci.astro.amateur

Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2001 11:00 AM

Subject: Re: Mystery Nagler

 

Some words about the new 9 mm Nagler from first observing sessions with

uncle Al together at WSP.

 

The new 9 mm looks like an 19 mm Panoptik in outer designing and sizes,

extremly compact special designed to be more easy used on Binoviewers.At

Daytime you find again the blue fringe at the edge of fieldstop (as mot

newstyled TV show up), at nightime it was not a issue.

One night at WSP 2001, Al invited me to take a look through his Combo TV 85

and new 9 mm Nagler. It was impressive, the stars have been pinpoint to the

edge , the look in view have been extremly comfortable. Same eyepiece used

in an Sky 90 showed an nearly not usuable image, off-axis aberrations like

in an fast Dob , which confirms that the TV 85 is superior in fieldflattnes

against the Sky 90.

I was intersted to see how this new 9 mm baby compares against my old 9 mm

(without rubber) and I was wondering to see that the new 9 mm show up an

better fieldcorrection than my lovely old 9 mm, which showed not that

perfect edge correction.

Of course we asked Al about the price , Al answered it is not fixed, but

expected to be around 4 40~ $ 50 more expensive than the present modell

clear skies

 

Markus

Al wanted to compare the TV 85 with the nearby Sky 90. We had an assortment of eyepieces and began the comparison on Jupiter. The two scopes were very comparable on Jupiter. Another comparison evolved between the 2.8-mm Takahashi ortho and the 3mm Radian. I believe most observers agreed that the 3mm Radian outperformed the Takahashi on Jupiter in both the TV85 and the Takahashi Sky 90. The 2.8mm was brought to the camp by Markus Ludes. He and Al had a lively discussion on the performance of the eyepieces. I was too busy tending to astro-photography business to catch all of the details.

Al then went to Sirius for the star test. The diffraction ring pattern was as stable as could be hoped for. Al remarked that it was very difficult for him to duplicate the diffraction images at WSP in his testing facility. He was very impressed with the "seeing" conditions that night. The color in the TV85 may have been slightly less than in the Sky 90. Both the TV85 and the Sky 90 had been returned for pinched optics. All in all the TV 85 performed very well and Al was very happy with the performance. 

I'm Hooked:

Looking at M42 in shorts in February is awesome.  I am hooked on the WSP.  My advice is to have some preparation for blocking the wind.  If you do, you will dramatically extend your viewing/photography time.  The skies due south are quite nice.  My astrophotos of southern objects did not come close to reaching the sky fog limit with E200 pushed two stops shooting at F/8 for 90 minutes.  The "seeing" conditions were unlike any I have ever seen before.  If you want to know how your scope is performing, go to WSP.  It is a must for serious planetary observers.  The catering service was very dependable and the food quality was very good.  We set up camp right on the waterfront.  Many setup nearer to the back of the camp.  I believe this is to reduce exposure to the wind.  I did find the car headlights to be very distracting when I visited observers on the back side of the camp which is right next to highway 1.  The presentations were outstanding.  The WSP is a great star party and the organizers have much to be proud of.  I hope to return in 2002 with my observing buddy and his 20" Obsession:-) 

Sedona Panoramic

Sunset at one of America's most beautiful locations.  Image now in the Landscape/America's Southwest Gallery.  

Venus Transit 2012

We stayed in our own backyard for the 2012 transit, unfortunately the weather did not cooperate.  We had some plans to try some through the scope imaging, but clouds simply would not clear.  We had a very quick look at the first moments of 1st contact.  Can you see Venus nibbling away at the solar disk?  (Please click on image for full size).  Members of OVAS setup varying white filtered light and hydrogen alpha filtered light solar scopes at the observatory and near the High School football field.  But the clouds simply thickended moments after 1st contact.  

Here is Brent Maynard in the dome with the C14 imaging through a white light solar filter.  He captured a very nice nibble of Venus from the solar disk.  All images are clickable for larger versions.  

Rodger Blake with his arsenal of solar scopes and demonstrating his video gear.  It was great to see Rodger again with all of his astro-toys!

Here is my setup for the event with the Astro-Physics 130EDF and Mach1 mount with Canon 5DMKII camera.  It is always nice to give these special events a real-go effort even though the weather didn't cooperate.  We are ready for the next one in 2117!