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(This article originally appeared in the second quarter 2003 STAR Newsletter. -I)
My
First Winter Star Party
by
Bill Webster
How
would I describe my first Winter Star Party? A great vacation with a
telescope would be one way. A week in the sun near Key West, Florida
in February is another. A large gathering of amateur astronomers in
the in the sun near Key West, Florida is better. The temperature was
in the mid 80’s all week and the sun was out. If nothing else, a
week of that in West Summerland Key, Florida beats a week of work in
cold and dreary Raleigh, NC.
This
being my first WSP, I didn’t have an agenda other then to have a
great time, view some of the southern DSOs that I can’t see from
Raleigh and hopefully meet all the big names in amateur astronomy. I
may not have met them all but I sure met some of them. Roland
Christen of Astro-Physics, Markus Ludes of APM Telescopes, Rick
Singmaster of Starmaster Telescopes, and Al Nagler of TeleVue. I also
heard that Dave Kriege of Obession Telescopes was there, but I never
saw him. I did meet Sue French who is a contributing editor to Sky
& Telescope.
Also, I met Tony Hallas - one of the finest astro imagers in the
world, and of course Mr. Winter Star Party - Tippy D’Auria.
The
Winter Star Party was everything I expected it would be except for
the viewing. I was warned that the skies were not all that dark but I
did expect a little better. Depending on which direction you looked,
the visual magnitude ranged anywhere from 5.0 to 6.5. But aside from
that, the actual party part was great. There is nothing like viewing
in February wearing blue jeans and sweatshirt. If you wanted to you
could get away with wearing shorts but I didn’t. The dew was heavy,
but seeing the southern objects down to the horizon made it
worthwhile.
WSP’03
held many talks and workshops everyday. This year’s talks seemed to
be mostly on imaging. There were workshops just about everyday on how
to process your image from the previous night. Others were on how to
convert your film to CCD. A talk by Yuri Petrunin was given on how to
design your own Maksutov telescope. Dr. Caroline Simpson spoke on “A
day in the life of a Radio Astronomer (What Jodie Foster never told
you)”. There also were activities everyday for children. As always
there was a swap meet on Friday morning where you could buy or sell
junk (I mean unneeded astro gear). Gary H., did you buy that memory
stick?
The
Club was well represented at WSP’03. RAC members Scott Carpenter &
son, Gary Held, Paul Rust, Al Hamrick, Bob Wolk, Pierre Faucher, Joe
Mack, John Nigro, Mike Batalia, Jerry Watson, Jerry Zerbock, Jim
Pressley Mike Brooks with some of his family, Mark & Kim
Summerville, Bob Schriber and I were all there. The RAC sign also
made it to WSP’03 thanks to Bob Schriber. The sign did cause a
minor problem when it was placed at the main entrance causing some to
think that RAC was welcoming you to the star party. It was quickly
moved to a less conspicuous place.
As
always for me, one of the attractions of star parties is viewing
through someone else’s telescope. The views of the moon and Saturn
thru John Nigro’s 12” f/8 were awesome. I got the finest view I
ever had of the sun thru a 7” AstroPhysics using a H-Alpha filter
and a TeleVue binoviewer. I could see amazing detail on the surface
along with the solar prominences. One of the strangest scopes I saw
was an 8” truss tube refractor. It sort of looked like an 8”
truss tube Dob, only the eyepiece was at the bottom. Some of my
observing notes contain many of my favorite deep space objects and
many new objects. In no certain order they are Abell 12, NGC2359
Thor’s Helmet, NGC2392 Eskimo Nebula, NGC2372 pn/Gemini, NGC4361
pn/Corvus, NGC2452 pn/Puppis, NGC2818 pn/Pxyis, NGC4038 Ringtail
Galaxy, M104, NGC3384 galaxy/Leo, NGC3398 galaxy/Usra Major, NGC3115
Spindle Galaxy/Sexten, M96, M65, M66, NGC3628 galaxy/Leo, M53, M3,
M68, NGC5139 Omega Centauri, Abell 7 (not visible), NGC1832
galaxy/Lepus, Comet C/2001 RX14 Linear in Usra Major, NGC2261
Hubble’s Variable, NGC1851 gc/Columba, Horsehead, NGC4945
galaxy/Centaurus, NGC5102 oc/Camelopardalis, NGC3918 pn/Centaurus,
NGC4755 Jewel Box/Crux, NGC5286 gc/Centaurus, M83, NGC3382 Keyhole
Nebula/Carina. I also had a great naked eye view of Venus. As it rose
in the southern sky, it made a very bright blue white light across
the water from the horizon to the shore. That was a real treat. I
somehow missed looking for the Eight-Burst Nebula in Vela. Oh well,
maybe next year.
The
only real down side of WSP’03 was Jim Pressely getting sick. He
turned a nice shade of green after he arrived. It was touch and go
for the first day and a half but Jim pulled through like a real
trooper.
A
film crew from CBS’ The Osgood Files showed up. They wanted to do a
positive piece on space to help counter act the Space Shuttle
Columbia disaster. The first night they were there was cloudy so they
came back. Several of our club members were caught on film. The piece
aired March 2nd.
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