July 25th Star Party at Mingo Observatory

The AAAP hosted another popular star party at the Mingo Creek observatory this past Friday, and I was very excited to finally take the 6SE out this darker site. I had been assembling several new accessories as well – more on those in a minute. Over the course of the night, we hosted over 100 visitors, and it was one of the best nights of conversation that I’ve had at Mingo since joining the club 2 years ago.

I set up near the reflector room, which featured the 24” Ritchey-Chrétien reflector on the new mount. The mount is amazing – solid and accurate – a true work of art. I wanted to stay close to the building so that I could work the reflector or answer questions as needed, and I wanted to be close to a power outlet :)

I set up the scope (see the photo at the right), doing a finder scope alignment and visually testing the overall collimation. I had just added some Bob’s Knobs to help me easily collimate the scope, and it appeared as though it was decently collimated at first glace. I had also purchased a new Astrozap dew shield, and added that to the front of the scope. The sun was still setting, and I had a bit of a wait before two decent alignment stars appeared. I also found some small blinking red LEDs at Radio Shack that I used to mark the tripod legs and power supply. I found that these worked really well – people saw the lights and knew to walk carefully around them. They can be purchased in most stores, or online here.

I walked around to speak to some members, and had some great conversations about equipment, accessories, books, and the club. There were some new members, and we had a lot of fun looking at and discussing the new reflector mount.
As the night progressed, I had some great conversations with the guests, and really appreciated how friendly and interested the crowds of people were. We discussed equipment, various Messier objects and nebulae, and other fun geek stuff :)
I found that my scope performed better than ever, keeping objects centered in the eyepiece for as long as I wanted. I spent some time with Jupiter at over 350x, and even with the less-than-optimal seeing it was a fun view, allowing me to see more cloud bands than I’ve ever seen.

I observed a bunch of objects over the course of the night, including: the Ring Nebula, the Dumbbell Nebula, M13 (Hercules Cluster), the Wild Duck Cluster, the Swan Nebula, the Lagoon Nebula, the Trifid Nebula, the Eagle Nebula, and many others. I was impressed with the new nebula filter that I had just received that week. Based on several recommendations, I decided to buy the NPB filter from Omega Filters (available here). It really helped to make the various nebulae “pop” from the eyepiece. The Trifid was tough to spot, though I had heard from others that night that they had similar problems seeing it well. Not sure why.

I really enjoyed the southern views of Mingo, and spent most of my time observing that part of the sky. The Milky way did become visible as the night went on, but the overall brightness was not as high as other nights that I’ve spent on the hill. In fact, after midnight, the conditions began to get worse. Clouds began to form towards the horizon and haze ruined the south.

I spent the last part of the night with a few members and guests running the reflector. Having a true computer-controlled telescope is really a blast – just find an item on the screen (the computer uses The Sky software), click it, click “slew”, and sit back and watch the enormous 24” scope track in just seconds. It was fast, accurate, and whisper quiet. The mount makers should really be commended on their work, as well as the members that spent so much time and effort getting the new mount installed and configured.

Another great night out! Hope to see even more people for the next one!

Special Thanks to AAAP member and professional photographer Dave Smith for allowing me to repost a few of the images that he took at the party. For the entire set of images, please visit this site.

Todd

Training at Mingo Creek Observatory

I was very excited and honored to be part of the first training class at the Mingo Creek Observatory over the weekend. Who knew the hobby would bite me so hard? :)

During the training, I learned the ins and outs of opening and using the observatory, and got some hands on training with the two massive scopes there (24" GoTo reflector, 10" refractor). The 24 has the new StellaCam3, a CCD camera which offers some pretty dang impressive views of DSOs through just the attached 5" refractor. I can only imagine what a larger scope can do. The 10" is a beauty - just a massive scope on an equally massive steel and aluminum EQ mount, all set on a pier. You have to really shove it to get it moving...it's fun :)

I stayed over the dinner break and watched part of the new Timothy Ferris PBS special "Seeing in the Dark". I will TiVo it later this month when it comes on. Great stuff for amateurs like myself. Who knew former Viking's running back Robert Smith was an avid skywatcher? Cool!

After dinner I did some more hands-on stuff and watched as the StellaCam3 was put into action. With a 30-second exposure we were able to see the central star in the Ring Nebula, and the nebula itself was bright and well formed.

I called it a night at 9PM so that I could spend some time with my wife - I'd been out for almost 6 hours at that point. The night was mostly cloudy, and the south was a complete washout with clouds and smoke from some concert's fireworks. I'll go back next week (now that I'm cleared to use the Observatory!) when my brother is in town.

Thanks to all of the AAAP members who helped with the training - it was a blast, and again, I am honored to be a part of the keyholder team. The picture below, from member Al Paslow's site, is the newly trained team. I'm the goof in the jeans, sunglasses and Firefly "Blue Sun" t-shirt.



Best,
Todd

Andromeda

Just a quick update to a few previous posts, as well as a short observing note.

I did manage to catch some Perseid meteors after all, spending about an hour outside on the Sunday before it ended. I was able to catch 4 good solid streaks, though I likely missed some while goofing with the binoculars. Glad I didn't miss them this year! Managed to get sidetracked pretty bad a day later with a kidney stone. I would not recommend that anyone get one of these...drink lots of water, kids!

As for the new scope...the deal on the LX200 was amazing, but my wife and I decided we should concentrate on getting the house done (we're in the middle of a major remodel including the kitchen, bath, and deck). There will always be scopes to buy, thanks to Astromart.com :) I put the money in my savings account. With football starting soon, I'm tempted to buy a 50" plasma, too. I need a 2nd job I guess.

And finally, I managed to see the Andromeda Galaxy tonight in my Nikons as well as 'ol blue. Reaction? YAWN. I need darker skies and a larger scope. MUST HAVE MORE DETAIL :)

I'll be headed off to Mingo next weekend for a training session on the observatory and the gear inside. There's a Star Party afterwards, should the skies cooperate. I'm very excited to meet more AAAP members when the sun is out - it's easier to get to know people when you're not all standing in the dark!

Until next time,
Todd

Friday Night at Mingo Star Party

I journeyed out to Mingo park again on Friday, where the AAAP was holding another weekend of star parties. I meant to go Saturday, but Friday was looking good and my kids somehow got to bed early. Go figure!

I brought my usual gear, but this was the first time with the new eyepieces and case (pics coming soon). I setup my tripod, for the camera and binoculars, my scope (‘ol Blue), my beach chair and the small equipment table. The table is actually a kids folding table that I steal from my 6 year old. Remind me to get a real observing table.

Venus and Saturn were close together, but setting fast. I used the barlowed 9mm to view them both at 155x, which was a treat. It’s the largest I’ve seen either in this scope, and they both looked great. They moved fast, so I decided to try Jupiter for a while.

Jupiter stayed out all night, and Mingo has a GREAT view of the southern sky. I saw more in the south tonight than I ever have before. Jupiter and the 4 main moons barely fit into the eyepiece view at 155x, but I got them. Better detail than I expected, including 2 cloud bands and possibly the red spot (I may have seen it, or I may have wanted to see it so badly that I faked my own eyes out ;-)). At that magnification, it moved out of view FAST. Tracking would be a good thing to have on the next scope, so maybe the Dob is out after all.

By far, my favorites of the night came from Sagittarius, where I was able to see several Messier objects with just the binoculars. I spotted M8 (Lagoon Nebula), M20 (Trifid Nebula), and M21 in what has to be the prettiest binocular-ready section of the sky. The Milky Way was “flowing” right out of the teapot of Sagittarius, and made my night. I can only imagine what darker sites would do for this part of the sky.

I also spent some time on Antares in Scorpius, and again used binoculars to find M4. By this point, I was also viewing M4 and M25 through the 24” reflector Mingo’s observatory, so I was getting a little spoiled. This scope now features a rotating turret of eyepieces, so changing between the 5 or 6 magnifications was perfectly simple. A great star party addition, especially since those eyepieces were all Tele-Vue Naglers. What I’d give to have a set of those in my eyepiece arsenal! Someday!

I started packing up at about 12:45, just as a lovely reddish-brown moon rose behind me. I took several shots of the moon, none of which really worked. Ah well.

Overall, a great night! I met several new people, and I’m sure I’ll even remember their names someday (I’m terrible with names!).

Mingo Creek Star Party

What a night! This was my second trip out to Mingo, this time deciding to come alone. The boys had been out playing all day and were exhausted, so I put them to bed early and headed out to the observatory hill.

Earlier in the day, I dug out the old Bushnell 3" reflector that my wife had given me years ago. I never had much luck using it, and I’m fairly certain it was because I didn’t know what I was doing. That, plus the fact that the telescope shipped with two rather poor plastic lens eyepieces and an even worse 3x Barlow. The low powered eyepiece was now missing, along with two of the tripod wing nuts and the screw that connects the fine adjustment rod to the scope body. I hit the Ace Hardware to search for the wing nuts, only to discover that they were not 1/4-20 as I had hoped…they were metric. Eesh. Instead of 50-cent wing nuts, I was forced to buy two $2.35 metric ones. It was all in the name of science, so I can't complain :)

I sent an email to the AAAP group earlier in the day, asking for help with the eyepiece. A fellow member wrote back to say he had one for me to use, and I was thrilled. I’d have to worry about collimation later - I was already running out of time.

I arrived before sunset and set up next to Fred, the AAAP member that allowed me the use of his eyepiece. Fred's truck was full to the brim with astronomical goodies, and he was in the process of setting up his 11" Celestron SCT. His computer-controlled CG-E mount was stunning to look at – it was HUGE. I know what I want in a scope, and I know what I can afford…that CG-E mount will have to wait :)

Fred handed me one of his 25mm eyepieces, and I set about aligning the finder scope on my Bushnell. I'm fairly certain that the Bushnell folks found the worst finder and mount imaginable and placed them on my scope. This is the 3-thumbscrew single ring type, and so I ended up aligning it about 10 times over the course of the evening. This led to my yelling "A Telrad, my kingdom for a Telrad!" several times throughout the night. I'll be picking up that little helpful tool soon.

Overall, the Bushnell worked fine. With the focuser completely pulled in, I was able to keep decent focus all night. I'm fairly certain I need to collimate the heck out of this thing, but for a grab-n-go scope, it worked fine.

So what did I see with 'ol Blue? How about 3 planets and 5 planetary moons in 10 minutes? Not too shabby for my first real night of telescopic observing. Venus was out first, and the scope rendered a lovely half-circle in the eyepiece. As Fred explained to me earlier, it was in its greatest elongation of the year - at the greatest angular distance from the Sun as seen from Earth. Very cool little fact to learn.

Up next was Jupiter, blazing away towards the south. It was very bright, and visitors couldn’t believe that the bright “star” they were looking at was actually a planet. Jupiter showed himself as a beige disc, very crisp, and with a small darker band towards the bottom. All four of the Galilean moons were visible, with 3 clustered below and one fairly far above. Antares was just to the south-east of Jupiter, and was sparkling brightly all night. I kept thinking I was seeing an airplane – it was so colorful. Scorpius may be my new favorite constellation.

Then Saturn popped up, and I grabbed a clear enough view of it to see distinct rings. The last time I had used this scope was when my brother took it out in my backyard in Florida. He found Saturn, and it looked like a mushy blob. Tonight, Saturn was clearly defined and there was space between the planet and its rings. Amazing what a better eyepiece will do! Titan showed up as well, just a tiny pinprick below the planet.

I met several very nice people, as well. Lots of great gear, lots of great conversation. Some of my favorite moments were spent discussing the two homemade trussed Dobs that were brought. Amazing what is possible with hard work and some inventive use of plumbing parts. Can you make a Crayford focuser from PVC pipe and some plastic rollers taken from old data tapes? Apparently you can! I took a picture of this one, and I’ll try to post it tomorrow. Thanks to Gary for taking me on a tour of your handmade beauty of a Dob.

Later, as the party dwindled down to the last few cars, Fred showed me some of my favorites in his SCT. We looked at Jupiter again, M13, the Blackeye galaxy, the Ring nebula, and a "double-double". My first time seeing many of these!

Thanks again to everyone that came out to the party. I found myself saying “THIS is why I joined this club” several times. Plus, visitors actually liked looking in my scope to see Jupiter. I had a blast telling them what I knew about the equipment, the stars, the planets, and the AAAP. What a great night!

Best part? Fred let me keep that eyepiece...and I was out again on Sunday showing the kids those same three planets before they went to bed. There are some great memories in 'ol Blue afterall.

Until next time, may your skies be clear and your scopes be collimated!
Todd