This years Stellafane was a lot more than we expected. Arthur Blake, Dennis Holland and myself took the chance and went up. We knew the weather was going to be iffy on Friday and Saturdays weather was expected to be very good.
Well, everything was just the opposite. Friday night was "off the hook". Milky Way from horizon to horizon. Meteors was steady. If you just looked up, you would see at least 1 every few minutes or so. Sattellites all night. Saw a couple of very nice Iridium Flares. Milky Way was very clear with dust lanes strong. I used my 12 inch Hardin Dob. I got bad coma with this telescope before I purchased a Nagler 2in Visual Parracor and a 13mm Nagler type 6. With this setup installed on my telescope, I elimated ALL my coma. I thought my images were good at home, here they were amazing. I could see individual stars in M13 almost to the core. I saw "Dust Lanes" in M82 as clear as a bell. The "Dumbell" was a complete oval. I flipped. Arthur saw the central star. I could not see it. M31 went off the eyepiece both ends. North American Nebula was naked eye, as was the "Coathanger". I looked at a lot old favorites to compare views in my scope compared to home. Saturday turned out to be just a sit in your chair and enjoy the stars coming in and out. There were 1/3 to 1/2 sky openings all night. Every so often, the sky would close up. Within a half hour it would open up again. I had a lot of enjoyable conversations and saw a lot of familiar faces. WAS club members were represented by Val, Al and Mike. I think there were 1 or 2 more, but I never saw them. Val brought his 2 nephews with him. I am not sure they had a good time. I know Val did. It was nice hanging with him. Missed Jimmy Mac, Lane, Dave and the boys, but will see them all soon at "Black Forest". I took some pictures of the weekend. Saw some very nice telescopes and met some very nice people. Click on PICTURES to take the tour. Thanks Stellafane, for a very nice time. This was my 8th trip to Stellfane. All Photos by: Russell E. King unless stated otherwise. |
