GASP at Unicoi state park GA report 10/15/03 hosted by Atlanta Astronomy Club

We had a very nice night at the Unicoi State Park Astronomy Night. The
Atlanta Astronomy club hosted the GASP (Georgia Astronomy in State
Parks) GPTV was there filming. We had a really good turnout with lots
of scopes and lots of campers bringing their kids to learn something
about astronomy.

http://gastateparks.org/event.asp?c=2816&siteid=5

We got a lot of WOWs from the campers (especially the kids) showing
them M15, M2, M31, and M57 with my 18" f/4.2 Starmaster. That was
very rewarding.

We spotted comet Enke! That was so cool. The coma almost filled the
field with the 24mm pan. There was a slight tail visible. I think
the easily visible part of the coma was a little over 1/2 degree.
Coma was pretty dim. Some people couldn't see the coma out but could
see the head.

Got my first look at NGC7662 - WOW! Really pretty bright blue with
some structure in the center.

Sky was dark enough for M31's dust lanes to be easily visible. This
one got a lot of WOWs from the guests.

Pleiades with the 35mm pan was really nice - structure in nebulosity
obvious.

There was a lot of activity all around with people getting looks at
Mars, Saturn, and various clusters and nebulae.

Right before we started to pack it up, M42 finally climed above the
trees. It blew my socks off. LOVE THIS SCOPE!!! Bright nebulosity
all the way across Orion's entire scabbard. I've never seen the
intense green before. An extra star in the trapezium kept popping in
and out.

It was quite a lot of fun.

(did I say WOW?)

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email me at [email protected] (without spaces, X's, or dashes)

Hi Brad,

Sounds like a good time was had by all! How is this group organized? I
live in Florida, and there seem to be many decent dark-sky sites in
State Parks; I'd like to see if there's any way we could use your model...

The weblink says the even was from 7-10 p.m. Did any of the club members
camp overnight, or were you all asked to leave afterward? The state park
our club uses is about an hour from my house; I always think it would be
more convenient if I just camped! How far did you have to travel to get
to the Park?

I'm just trying to get a better feel for how far people travel to
observe, and how long the general public is there, and so on.

Best,

Ben Kolstad

Brad Isley wrote:

We had a very nice night at the Unicoi State Park Astronomy Night. The
Atlanta Astronomy club hosted the GASP (Georgia Astronomy in State
Parks) GPTV was there filming. We had a really good turnout with lots
of scopes and lots of campers bringing their kids to learn something
about astronomy.

http://gastateparks.org/event.asp?c=2816&siteid=5

We got a lot of WOWs from the campers (especially the kids) showing
them M15, M2, M31, and M57 with my 18" f/4.2 Starmaster. That was
very rewarding.

We spotted comet Enke! That was so cool. The coma almost filled the
field with the 24mm pan. There was a slight tail visible. I think
the easily visible part of the coma was a little over 1/2 degree.
Coma was pretty dim. Some people couldn't see the coma out but could
see the head.

Got my first look at NGC7662 - WOW! Really pretty bright blue with
some structure in the center.

Sky was dark enough for M31's dust lanes to be easily visible. This
one got a lot of WOWs from the guests.

Pleiades with the 35mm pan was really nice - structure in nebulosity
obvious.

There was a lot of activity all around with people getting looks at
Mars, Saturn, and various clusters and nebulae.

Right before we started to pack it up, M42 finally climed above the
trees. It blew my socks off. LOVE THIS SCOPE!!! Bright nebulosity
all the way across Orion's entire scabbard. I've never seen the
intense green before. An extra star in the trapezium kept popping in
and out.

It was quite a lot of fun.

(did I say WOW?)

remove 'et' from email address to reply
email me at [email protected] (without spaces, X's, or dashes)

Hi, Ben

I'm a new club member, so I'm going to guess: The GASP is a club
special interest group. I'm not sure how the arrangements are made
between the club and the parks. However, I do know that these have
been going on regularly for some time. I'll ask around and see. I
would imagine that someone in the club made contact with the parks
administrators years ago to get it started. Here are the main links:

http://www.atlantaastronomy.org

GASP page

http://www.atlantaastronomy.org/GASP/default.htm

On Sun, 16 Nov 2003 19:32:58 GMT, Ben Kolstad
wrote:

Hi Brad,

Sounds like a good time was had by all! How is this group organized? I
live in Florida, and there seem to be many decent dark-sky sites in
State Parks; I'd like to see if there's any way we could use your model...

The weblink says the even was from 7-10 p.m. Did any of the club members
camp overnight, or were you all asked to leave afterward? The state park
our club uses is about an hour from my house; I always think it would be
more convenient if I just camped! How far did you have to travel to get
to the Park?

I'm just trying to get a better feel for how far people travel to
observe, and how long the general public is there, and so on.

Best,

Ben Kolstad


email me at [email protected] (without spaces, X's, or dashes)

Thanks Brad!

Brad Isley wrote:
Hi, Ben

I'm a new club member, so I'm going to guess: The GASP is a club
special interest group. I'm not sure how the arrangements are made
between the club and the parks. However, I do know that these have
been going on regularly for some time. I'll ask around and see. I
would imagine that someone in the club made contact with the parks
administrators years ago to get it started. Here are the main links:

http://www.atlantaastronomy.org

GASP page

http://www.atlantaastronomy.org/GASP/default.htm

On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 23:36:55 GMT, Ben Kolstad
wrote:

Ben,

The folks in Atlanta just called the park rangers to setup the
presentations. The rangers loved it and called the GASP people back
every year. Just that simple.

Good luck!

Thanks Brad!

Brad Isley wrote:
Hi, Ben

I'm a new club member, so I'm going to guess: The GASP is a club
special interest group. I'm not sure how the arrangements are made
between the club and the parks. However, I do know that these have
been going on regularly for some time. I'll ask around and see. I
would imagine that someone in the club made contact with the parks
administrators years ago to get it started. Here are the main links:

http://www.atlantaastronomy.org

GASP page

http://www.atlantaastronomy.org/GASP/default.htm