[Lvas] Cathedral Gorge

Mon May 25 17:44:55 PDT 2009

Fred,

I'm sorry about this weekend.  I tried to send out as accurate a weather 
forecast as I could, without trying to sway members one way or the 
other; just tried to let the members draw their own conclusions about 
attending.  I had to work into the evening on Friday and would have been 
very late getting there, had I tried.  I had touched base with the 
Rangers during the day and posted their current conditions and the 
updated forecast on the website.  I also followed up with them on 
Saturday with pretty much the same results.  I just couldn't see driving 
up there with no hope of being able to observe.  Any other time I would 
have been there with you.

I'm going to try to get the word out to our members through the website 
about weather forecasts for our future events.  Hopefully our members 
will begin to check the website as they make their plans for attending 
future events.

Because Friday and Saturday were a bust for observing, I drove down to 
Joshua Tree National Park Sunday afternoon and joined up with the 
Southern California Desert Video Astronomers for the last evening of 
their four-day star party at Joshua Tree Lake Campground.  Although it 
wasn't your cup of tea, Fred, I enjoyed watching and participating in 
their orchestration of a video star party.  They had five large screen 
projectors with switchers and audio to display the images being pulled 
down by 8 video (Mallicam) observers.  They had an experienced 
astronomical narrator that described each object as they were displayed 
on the screen.  Friday and Saturday nights they had over 200 visitors.  
Last night it was down to about 50.  I primarily used my Orion ST120 to 
provide wide-field views of the Leo Triplet, the Virgo Galaxy Cluster, 
M13 with propeller, and other objects (See attached single frame images).

Leo Triplet - Captured early in the evening - skies were still a little 
bright
M81 and M82 - even the Mallincamers were impressed with this wide-field 
- most of them had larger scopes with much narrower fields of view
Virgo Cluster - Counted 10 galaxies in this image - same here - the old 
Mallincamers had never seen this many galaxies in the same field of view
Veil Nebula - NGC 6960 - The upper half, I believe
Veil Nebula - NGC 6995 - The lower half
My M13 image didn't come out as well as I would have liked - on the 
monitor I could clearly see the propeller, but my captured image was 
washed out - I'll need to turn down the brightness a bit to get the 
propeller to come through like I saw it on the monitor.

After the public star party was over, I used the rest of the night to 
observe and capture our Observer's Challenge Objects for April, May, and 
June.  I wasn't able to get the Virgo Diamond.  By the time the public 
star party was over, the Diamond had already set.  I've got to figure 
out how to get my LX200 to help me locate the Diamond using RA and Dec.  
I'll try to get it while I'm in Alabama on vacation next week or maybe 
at Kaibab Lodge later in the month.

Anyway, Fred.  I'm sorry you were about the only one there.  The 
elements just combined against us this weekend.

Take care.

Rob

Fred Rayworth wrote:
> All,
>  
> Well, I finally showed up to an out of town star party and I was 
> almost the only one there, and certainly the only one with a scope!
>  
> Though I was a bit disappointed to see no other brave souls willing to 
> drive 161 miles or so, we had a good weekend and got to test our new 
> folding travel trailer. When we got there late Friday, we got rained 
> on. We made a round of the park and there were no empty spaces. 
> However, we forgot to fill the water tank and had to go back down to 
> the water station and fill up. By the time we got back, there were two 
> emtpy spaces and we pulled in. Then I discovered another water faucet 
> right across from our space!
>  
> Friday night, never saw a star. I heard it cleared up a bit after 
> midnight, but I was asleep by then and disgusted.
>  
> Saturday was stormy all day. Walked around the park and saw the 
> sights. We went into Panaca just to say we did. We got back and in the 
> late afternoon, the storms hit and it rained pretty hard for a couple 
> of hours. Plugged in my generator to recharge the battery and 
> something shorted out because of the water, and the battery only 
> charged intermittently. Finally gave that up and waited for the rain 
> to stop. Started a campfire and sat by it until about 10. As we were 
> dousing it, I looked up and saw the big dipper. By then, I was in no 
> mood to set the scope up in sandy mud, so we just went to bed. Woke up 
> this morning and the sky was clear as a bell.
>  
> So, that's my first official club out-of-town star party.
>  
> Fred
>  
>
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