FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Lowell Star Party III

[BillFerris@xxxxxxx]

I just got home from LSP III about an hour ago. Saturday  afternoon, the 
weather looked a little iffy with clouds scudding into Arizona  from Mexico. 
But 
the skies cleared by sunset giving us a sweep of the weekend;  three full 
nights of observing.
Highlights from the weekend include M57  and the central star...the Egg 
nebula...NGC 100...Pease 1 in M15...NGC 7538, an  emission nebula Jim Roberts 
calls 
the Ghost...and Mars in good seeing at 3:00  AM. I'll post links to my 
sketches and notes in the next day or so.

Late last night the weirdest thing happened. Three or  four times, my 
ServoCAT drive engaged for short slews without me pushing any of  the hand 
controller 
buttons. Once, it even began moving as though slewing to an  object. This 
morning, I found out the guy who was setup the next spot over has  an 18-inch 
with ServoCAT and a wireless hand paddle. I think his paddle  transmissions 
were 
interfereing with my drive. Doh!

I didn't attend any  of the talks or programs, so will let somebody else 
comment on those. Tonight,  Lowell is open to the public offering free 
observing 
through the 24-inch Clark  refractor; part of their participation in the 2005 
Flagstaff Festival of  Science.

Regards,

Bill in Flagstaff 


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