2014 Convention Reports

Bob Prokop wrote this report for his club, the Howard Astronomical League, and shared it with us:

Just got back from my second Stellafane in a row, and I have to admit I am now an addict! Vermont is a wonderful state to visit, even without a star party to go to. And the skies are the darkest I've seen outside of the far West. To give you an idea of how dark they were, the North American Nebula in Cygnus was naked eye visible! The Milky Way was bright and detailed right down to the tree line. The only downside to enjoying such beautifully dark skies is how awful our own here in Maryland look after you get home.

All by itself, the first night (Thursday) would have been worth the trip. Crystal clear skies, zero clouds, and I could see 13.5 magnitude stars in my 90mm refractor. (For comparison, 11 is about my limit in Howard County.) And stars is pretty much what I looked at that first night. I was determined to see and positively identify objects I never get a chance to see from home. Quit about 12:30 PM, figuring there were still two more nights, and I wanted to pace myself.

 All day long on Friday, the excitement built for a second great night. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the winds and temps were ideal. The observing field was jammed full of scopes as the sun set and everyone waited for the stars to come out... but (other than the very brightest) they never did! It was mystifying - no clouds, no light pollution, low humidity - where were the stars? I quit in disgust (and confusion) about 11 PM, remarking that it looked like somebody had smeared mud all over the sky. That comment turned out to be weirdly accurate. Wasn't until Saturday morning that I (and everyone else) learned that smoke from a forest fire in faraway Ontario Canada had drifted overhead, blocking the stars just as effectively as any normal cloud.

So night number two was a bust, and I was beginning to regret turning in early on Thursday, because ALL the forecasts were calling for 100% cloudcover with periods of rain for our final evening (Saturday). And as predicted, there were wall to wall clouds overhead as the sun set. Many people had already packed up and left for home earlier in the afternoon, so the scopes were fairly sparse on the field that evening. But about an hour after sunset, a miracle occurred. In the space of 10 minutes the sky cleared from horizon to horizon, and Saturday turned out to be the best night of the three! I finally quit around 2-2:30 AM.

I spent most of the last night just looking at Old Warhorses - all the nebulae and star clusters in the Milky way, and checking out objects I never get to see from Maryland, like M101 in Ursa Major. (I can never see anything there, even from Carrs Mill, but in Vermont it practically leaped out of my eyepiece saying "Look at Me!") Absolutely wonderful!!!

And I discovered a new favorite thing to look at - dark nebulae! You can't see them from suburban Maryland (actually, you can't see them from anywhere, being "dark"), but you can certainly see where they are from a dark sky by noting where all the surrounding stars abruptly stop. Trouble is, all those surrounding stars are too faint to see from home, so you'd need to travel to indulge in looking for dark nebulae. I first observed B111 next to the Wild Duck, and when I realized how cool they were, I started tracking down others. Definitely going on my "must see" list the next time I find myself under a dark sky.

Stellafane is moving back to August next year, and I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't ever gone. It's a 10 hour drive from Maryland each way, but well worth the trip.

This year's Stellafane convention turned out to be a very good one. The observing on Thursday night, which was a bit cold and rather dewy, and, to everyone's surprise, on Saturday night was excellent. Unfortunately, Friday night was degraded by smoke from forest fires taking place in western Canada.

On Thursday night, I had some fine views of deep-sky objects such as M8, M15, M17, M51, NGC 40, and NGC 6960 through John Vogt's 32" ATM Dob, and M11, M13, NGC 7008, and NGC 7293 through 14.5" Starmaster and 20" Obsession Dobs near the Bunkhouse. I also saw Saturn and M17 through the 13" Schupmann medial refractor and NGC 6543 through a 28" StarStructure Dob. I observed many Barnard, IC, Messier, and NGC objects with my Celestron 8x42s throughout the night and witnessed two fine Iridium flares and several meteors.

On Friday afternoon, I had some excellent solar views through a Lunt H-alpha refractor.

Even though the smoke reduced the transparency quite a bit it was still possible to do some observing on Friday night. A fellow CAS member and I walked up Breezy Hill and had some peeks through a few of the competition telescopes. A 10" f/5 Newtonian binocular telescope produced some interesting views of the Double Cluster, Stock 2, NGC 457, and M31, M32, and M110.

While on top of Breezy Hill on Saturday, I saw sunspots projected on the spinning disk inside the Porter Turret Telescope.
The Saturday night talks included a tribute to John Dobson and a very interesting keynote address on the European Extremely Large Telescope by Dr. Christina Dunn.

The weather on Saturday night was far better than anyone expected. The temperatures were mild, the seeing and transparency were quite good, and there was little dew. Unfortunately, many of the telescopes that had been present on the field had been packed away due to the less than promising forecasts.

However, I did see Pluto and a number of deep-sky objects through a 12.5" Telescope World Newtonian on an equatorial mount and then walked up the hill towards the McGregor Observatory.

There was a 25" Obsession club telescope to the right of the small dome. M4, M8, M20, NGC 6992, and a number of other DSOs were presented quite nicely. I made a few target suggestions including B86 (the Ink Spot).

A nearby 12.5" ATM Dob was producing some fine views. At one point, I put the open clusters Stock 2, NGC 457, and finally NGC 7889 into the field of view.

It turned out that the 10" binocular telescope had been moved to that area. M27 looked simply incredible when viewed using both eyes.

Eventually, I walked farther up the hill and came across a fellow DVAA member and his antique 4" f/12 Brashear refractor. I had a look at celestial objects like M13, IC 4665, and Alpha Herculis through the venerable telescope.

I ended the night with another trip to the 13" Schupmann. M57 was the object in the eyepiece.

Dave Mitsky (ASH, CAS, DVAA)