NEBRASKA STAR PARTY Report
Nice report!! Would you like to bring the Nebraska party to Spain next year?
:-).
Mario Morales
http://astrosurf.com/mario
David Knisely escribió en el mensaje de noticias
...
Report
My Experience at the 11th Annual
NEBRASKA STAR PARTY
July 17-23rd, 2004
Merritt Reservoir, Nebraska
Once again, the Nebraska Star Party gave me the nice vacation and
observing experience which I look forward to each year. 344 attendees
and
their families from many U.S. states, Canada, and even England were in
attendance for a week's worth of fun. I was off at 8:35 a.m. on Saturday
the
17th from my home in Beatrice for the 6 hour drive up into the high
sparsely-populated Sandhill country, where the skies are legendary for
their
clarity and darkness. The obligatory stop for gas at the "robot" station
near
tiny Mason City was somewhat more financially painful than in previous
years,
but it was no worse than I expected, and was offset by the beautiful
weather
(70 degrees F.) and the views of the tall fixed dunes which make this part
of
Nebraska so scenic. The star party is held each year at Merrit Reservoir,
which is a fish-hook shaped lake about 11 miles long located 28 miles
southwest of Valentine, Nebraska. I arrived at Merritt Resort near the
dam
and checked into our 4-bed cabin, being the first of our little "Cabin 14
party" to show up. After a short nap, I was up making the rounds of the
resort to see who had arrived. I linked up with some friends from Omaha
and
we all had dinner at, "The Water's Edge", the resort's restaurant.
Finally,
two of my cabin mates Eric Balcom (the NSP Coordinator) and Clete Baker
(NSP
publications chairman) arrived and we all headed out along the winding
road to
the observing fields a few miles away above the Snake Campground.
The sky was nice and clear, with many people setting up all over
the
high rolling grass-covered dunes. I like something a bit more accessable,
so
I set up in my usual lower spot near to where the blacktop road splits to
go
down to the campground or over to Dob Row. This year, I had the new
Nexstar
9.25GPS SCT with me, along with an as of yet untested "X-Power" battery
supply, so it would be a little different experience than it had in past
years. I made the rounds on the observing fields to see who the "early
birds" were before sundown. There were at least 40 telescopes already on
the
fields with more being setup both there and down in the campground next to
the
lakeshore. I heard from those who had come up on Friday that there had
been
an Auroral display as well as clear skies on the previous night, making me
wish I had come up a day early. Some of the big Dobs were setting up on
Dob
row, but I wanted the first night for myself, so I headed back to my own
setup
and sat back to watch it get dark.
One of the things which tells you that it is going to be a good
night is
the deepness of the blue twilight sky which lets the Milky Way start to
come
out well before twilight ends. This night was no exception, as the
darkening
sky let the Milky Way take on a spectacular grainy structure as if someone
sprinkled sugar grains all over the heavens. The number of stars visible
rapidly made picking out some of the constellations difficult for those
new to
the star party. We looked at some of the more colorful double stars in
twilight before going "deep". I could barely see the companion to Antares
as
a blue spot on the edge of its rather disturbed diffraction pattern, so
seeing
that far down wasn't quite rock-solid although transparency was excellent
as
usual. M57 was an early target, as it's smoke-ring form was almost
blazing
out in a rich field of stars. I kicked up the power on the NexStar, and
at
very high power, I could occasionally see the very faint central star
winking
in and out. I had the NexStar slewing from object to object in rapid
succession, observing the spiral arms of M51 with ease, and even revealing
the
spiral structure of M101 at 78x. I spent a lot of time crusing through
the
Scutum star cloud manually before settling on a spectacular view of M11.
I
slewed over to M4 to show a fellow from the little town of Benkleman,
Nebraska
the cluster's band of stars which sometimes make this globular look a bit
like
a barred spiral galaxy at low power. I worked all the "usual suspects",
spending a lot of time on M8 and M20. M20 in particular showed an
incredible
amount of faint outer nebulosity which can be tough to see back home. The
three dark lanes were quite obvious even to the few "first timers" who had
showed up to take a peek. I showed a couple of people the dark nebulae
Barnard 86 (the "ink spot") next to the open cluster NGC 6520, and then
slewed
manually into the light and dark lane sections of the large Sagittarius
star
cloud. M24 also showed its rich form in spectacular fashion, with the
large
dark nebulae Barnard 92 and 93 being quite obvious even at 78x. I went to
the
two strings of stars near its center which I like to call "the Christmas
Tree", as they do resemble the outline of one. I punched in M22 and left
some
people gasping at the view of this wonderful globular. Even good old M23
was
a real crowd pleaser. Barnard's Galaxy NGC 6822 was visible with more
contrast than I am used to seeing in the 9.25" SCT, as was the nearby
planetary nebula NGC 6818, "the Little Gem". I took a look at the fine
tilted
spiral NGC 7331 and I couldn't believe how brilliant the core of the
object
looked. I could just begin to note the dark lane and patchy ends of this
galaxy, so the NexStar was definitely working well.
After a few more "sight-seeing" slews, I decided that it was time
to
"get down to business" and look at a few things which I needed the darkest
sky
possible to view. One was the planetary nebula Sh2-71 in Aquila which I
had
glimsed a few weeks earlier from my home. For once, the NexStar's
database
wasn't able to satisfy me, so I dragged out the laptop and hooked it up to
the
telescope to give it control of the instrument. A mouse click later put
me
dead-on the target. This is a rather large faint planetary (mag. 12)
which is
of a very low surface brightness and of an unusual shape. Megastar
plotted it
as elongated east-to-west, but I noted it more elongated north-south, and
Megastar's thumbnail agreed with this. It is a bit over 2' arc by 1' arc
in
size and has what looks like either a faint central star or one
superimposed
on the slightly darker area near the middle of the object. In fact, the
darker region looks almost like a linear inclusion from the south,
although
this detail was quite marginal in my SCT. After a few more slews to
interesting subjects, I decided to call it a night, as I still had a bit
of an
upper-respiratory infection that later spawned a rather bad case of
Laryngitis
which lasted the entire week. I also had to be ready for some star party
"work" on Sunday.
Sunday morning dawned clear and bright, with temperatures rising
into
the 90's. A group of us got up and out to spend the next couple of hours
pounding in metal mounting poles and setting up all the NSP signs around
the
lake and at the resort to guide the attendees. After that, I spent a
little
time taking some pictures around the lake before heading to "Dillon's
Lounge"
in the lower level of the Water's Edge restaurant to help with the first
day
of NSP registration. After a fine serving of prime rib in the restaurant,
it
was back to the cabin to see if our other two cabin mates from Iowa had
arrived. Sure enough, they had just pulled in and were unloading some of
their stuff. It looked to be another clear night for observing, so after
a
brief nap, it was back out to the observing fields.
I decided to do some extended photography of the various observing
setups on the fields and in the campground before sundown. I saw probably
between 50 and 75 telescope setups before it got dark, but I only got
images
of a few of them, as I just ran into too many NSP attendees from previous
years. I had finished a lot of my shooting, so I went back up the hill to
the
main observing fields. Needless to say, I got stuck around the 15 to 20
scopes set up on Dob row, and never did break out my own scope that night!
I
spent most of my time between NSP "founder" Tom Miller with his 20 inch
Obsession + Binoviewer and NSP Beach Party Coordinator Jim Rippey and his
24
inch Obsession. As the sky got darker, it was clear that this night was
going
to be even better than the previous one. One glance towards the head of
Draco confirmed that I was seeing past magnitude 7.5 with the unaided eye,
and
the Milky Way was simply stunning. Things like the Pipe nebula (and its
extensions making up the "rearing horse") were easy targets for the
unaided
eye, and binoculars showed the star clouds and dark nebulosity in a way
seldom
seen elsewhere. Doug Bell's 5 inch Astrophysics APO refractor and the UHC
filter provided a detailed view of the North American and Pelican Nebulae,
as
well as providing a great view of the entire Veil (both arcs and some of
the
stuff in between). Meanwhile, the big Dobs were scouring the region
around
M8 and M20. Tom Miller's binoviewer on his 20 inch was blowing people
away
left and right. We put it on M22 and saw COLOR IN THE STARS! The
overall
cluster looked a bit yellowish-orange, but at higher power, some of the
brighter stars showed clear white, yellow and orange coloration. M20
looked
very much like it was hanging in space with the binoviewer, and the view
of
M51 was simply to die for! I could see some of the small spur-like
details
arcing away from the spiral arms, and the arms themselves were incredibly
easy
to see. Jim Rippey's 24 inch showed the Cat's Eye (NGC 6543) as a
brilliant
lime-green oval with clear arc-like detail in its interior. My Layrngitis
was
getting rapidly worse as I "croaked" out at the spectacular views we were
getting. Hour after hour we scanned the skies for new things to look at.
I
took the helm of the 20 inch to put it on "the Blue Snowball from Hell"
(as
Tom Miller calls NGC 7662), as Tom couldn't quite find it. It showed some
fascinating structure in the binoviewer and was well worth the effort.
Around
3:15 a.m., I was getting just a little tired, and with having to help
present
the Beginner's Field School the next day, I reluctantly called it a night.
Monday dawned partly cloudy and hot, and my voice was nearly gone,
which
was a bad thing considering I am the Beginners Field School Coordinator!
Still, I managed to lug the box of 95 Field School Manuals from my cabin
(as
well as my big "portable library"), and got into the restaurant where we
would
be holding the first class at noon. Fortunately, my fellow Field School
Instructor John Johnson, was able to bail me out by doing a lot of the
talking
as my voice died. Like last year, I was startled to see the number of
people
filing into the restaurant for the first session. I counted nearly 50
people
and of those, a majority indicated that it was only their first of second
star
party. We covered things like star party etiquette, planispheres, star
atlases, guide books, constellations, binoculars, and finding techniques.
I
particularly had fun following the NSP Field School "tradition", giving
out
the first of our door prizes to one rather stunned youngster from
California
who was lucky enough to ask one of the first questions! After I got done
with the Field School, I went downstairs to Dillon's Lounge to get
something
to sooth my throat and to check on how registration was going. The
vendors
were selling their wares on the north side of the restaurant, and I
snapped up
one of the last Orion observing chairs they had. Late that afternoon, our
roomates from Iowa fixed us hamburgers on the grille outside our cabin,
along
with delicious Iowa sweet corn. After this, we all headed back out to
the
Snake campground for the NSP Ice Cream Social, where free ice cream and
pop
was provided along with the first of many doorprizes. I went to my usual
"NSP mentor" location near the split in the road and did manage to help a
small family with their new 4.5 inch Celestron Newtonian, getting it
properly
collimated and set up, but the clouds prevented much serious observing
until
well after midnight. Most of us just gathered in one of the large groups
of
attendees in lawn chairs on Dob row to talk and relax in the cooler night
air.
Tuesday was again partly cloudy and hot, and from the looks of
things,
we would probably be getting severe weather later in the day. The second
day
of our Field School had around 70 people in attendance and went off quite
well
(other than my voice still being rather croaky). We covered telescopes
and
equipment, although like most times, we didnt' have time to cover all that
we
had wanted to. Late in the afternoon, the restaurant opened for one of
the
NSP catered meals, a Hamburger/buffalo burger BBQ. Cumulus towers were
building and large sections of sky were hazed over, so I had little doubt
we
would not be observing that night either. I went over to the observing
fields
to take some shots of the approaching thunderstorm, and most people had
their
scopes under wraps for the night. However, one of the things we emphasize
about the weather conditions is that things can get *really* bad really
fast,
and this night proved that to be true. Wind speeds started to increase
rapidly with lots of lightning, and most of us retreated to our vehicles
just
as the rain started and the wind really began to blow. The storm didn't
last
terribly long, but it did some damage, as the winds knocked a few scopes
over
and ripped a few tents out of the ground. One very nice light-weight
wooden
telescope tube (minus the optics) was inside a tent that came down, and it
was
blown down one of the dunes. Needless to say, it was badly damaged,
although
the rocker box was intact. During the storm, I chased a telescope cover
that
had blown off one of the big truss-tube Dobs and managed to retrieve it,
but
putting it back on in the rain and wind was an impossible task. With
mostly
cloudy skies and only a few "sucker holes" in the area, I headed back to
Merritt Resort and met up with some friends in Dillon's Lounge where we
talked
until nearly midnight.
Wednesday looked a little better, although the threat of
thunderstorms
remained in the forecast. We filled the restaurant for day-3 of the Field
School, with Jim Hopkins of Chicago presenting the section on observing
deep-sky objects. After this, the NSP swap meet began in the restaurant,
with
the place filled to overflowing with telescopes, equipment, and books for
sale
or trade. The vendors were again selling their wares, while many people
got
looks at the sun through several telescopes including Dobson solar scope
and a
Tele Vue 76 with a Coronado H-alpha filter. The NSP Beach Party was in
full
swing along the shores of the lake, with swimming, sand volleyball, races,
and
other activities. I managed to participate in the sand-wedge pitching
contest, but my best shot went *way* over the hole. I took a dip in the
lake
with a few friends and their kids as the monster canoe brought by Brewer's
Canoes and Tubes arrived. This canoe is so big that it could hold perhaps
15
people at a time, although with that many people on-board, it was a bit
difficult to maneuver. The end of the Beach Party was marked by the
hotdog/Bratts BBQ and the awarding of the door prizes including six and
eight
inch Hardin Dobsonian Telescopes. A line of thunderstorms was developing
south of the lake, but it began moving out to clear off much of our sky at
sunset. Again, I spent most of my time with other people rather than
setting
up myself, as I wanted to call it a night early due to the river trip in
the
morning. I noted one gentleman from Kansas with a gigantic 12.5 inch f/10
Newtonian on a German equatorial mount. This thing did indeed look like
the
proverbial "sky cannon", but provided good views of the crescent moon low
in
the west. In the middle of the observing fields is one rather steep-sided
dune which provides an excellent view of the surrounding countryside, but
which can be difficult to get equipment up on its top. This time,
however,
Jim Hopkins had his 14 inch LX-200 and a friend's 12 inch LX-200 both set
up
on this point. We looked at a few objects before I went back down towards
my
"mentor" location near the split in the road. I observed with fellow
Prairie
Astronomy Club member Bob Levitt with his 8 inch Meade SCT as he tried to
get
a few galaxies in the west for his Messier award after moonset. Pete
Smitka
of MAG-1 instruments had arrived with a set of 4 inch binoculars, so we
spent
the next few hours going up and down the Milky Way with them. Dave
Hamilton
of Lincoln, Nebraska had his 12.5 inch Portaball set up next to me, so we
had
some fun looking at the comets C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) and C/2003 K4 (LINEAR).
Both
were fairly easy in the 4 inch binoculars as well as in the Portaball. I
used
the binos mostly to survey the dark nebulae in and around the large
Sagittarius star cloud, as well as to see little Barnard's Galaxy. Dob
row
was busy once again with the big scopes working the heavens, but it wasn't
exclusively the realm of the large Dobsonians, as a number of large SCTs
and a
few refractors were also set up there. I called it a night after 2:30
a.m.,
as we had the river trip the following day.
I awoke Thursday morning to a loud "BOOM", as a lightning bolt hit
south
of the resort. Sure enough, just before dawn, the sky had clouded up and
rain
was falling. Still, we decided to attempt the canoe/tubing trip down the
Niobrara river, and had a lot of fun despite a little cool rain and some
clouds. At around 5:30 p.m., the catered steak dinner was served at the
Water's Edge restaurant, and once again, the sky started to clear. By
sunset,
we had a partly cloudy sky and began working the deep-sky once again.
This
time, I did set up my NexStar to demonstrate its abilities to a friend who
was
asking about it. Seeing was pretty good, with lots of detail visible on
the
fat crescent moon. I observed a number of open and globular clusters
while
waiting for moonset. Once the moon went down, I started going deeper, but
a
narrow band of clouds covered much of the southern sky for a while. I was
about to tear down when up from the northern horizon came the rays of an
Aurora, so we watched that for about an hour or so before heading back to
the
resort for the night.
Friday was the day of the formal presentations at the Valentine High
School. The only "work" I had to do that day was helping judge the
Astrophotography contest, so I had a chance to buy a few things from the
vendors in the lobby, including a "Star Party SURVIVOR" hat and a
sweatshirt.
The swap meet also started up once again, while the formal presentations
began in the luxurious auditorium. Adam Machajewski presented a talk on
"A
Solar Observing Project", which was then followed by lunch in the lobby,
provided at a low cost by Pizza Hut and served by students from the
Valentine
High School. This was followed by Jim Hopkins persentation on Comets,
Harlan
Seyfer's talk on "A History of Double Star Observing", and the final
presentation, "Geologic Lunar Mapping for Apollo", by John Artherton. The
NSP
observing awards and contest winners were announced, and the last
doorprizes
were given out before the formal star party activities ended around 4 p.m.
I
had dinner at "The Pepper Mill" restaurant in Valentine with a few other
NSP
friends before heading back out to the lake for the "after the party"
picnic
for the NSP staff behind the cabins of the resort. The sky remained
mostly
cloudy, so the public star party scheduled for that night at the resort
had to
be canceled for this year. All in all, the 11th annual Nebraska Star
Party
was a success, and I look forward to attending next year's event.
The 12th Annual NEBRASKA STAR PARTY will be held Sunday, July 31st through
Friday, August 5th, 2005 at Merritt Reservoir southwest of Valentine,
Nebraska. For more information, check out our web site at:
http://www.nebraskastarparty.org
Clear skies to you.
--
David W. Knisely
Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/
**********************************************
* Attend the 11th Annual NEBRASKA STAR PARTY *
* July 18-23, 2004, Merritt Reservoir *
* http://www.NebraskaStarParty.org *
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