[AZ-Observing] GCSP Wrap Up Report from Jim O'Connor
- From: Andrew Cooper <acooper@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: AZ-Observing <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, TAAA Forum <taaaforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 19:26:11 -0700
A GCSP night seven and wrapup from Jim...
Andrew
------------------------------------
Night Seven, the final night of our stay for 2006, was the culmination
of full-contact public astronomy. More scopes added to the mix, a bit
less visitor traffic, more time for each cluster of people coming
through. Nice way to end our share of this year's GCSP.
Despite at least three additional telescopes in our area, setup went
better. I placed the dob box out nearer the traffic lane, so there was
no chance of interference with the equipment table.
Down in our little six slot end of the lot were the same 10 scopes from
last night, with the addition of scopes from the Kingman, Arizona
astronomy club including 18" and 20" Obsessions! It's beginning to look
like a truss dob convention. We all fit together very well, but with the
visitors mixing in we all have to be very conscious of our "space". In
the end, it was an awesome collection of instruments of every possible
type of OTA and mount. We do have one casualty from last night. Steve's
C11's tripod broke a weld (repaired after breaking during last year's
GCSP) and one leg was dangling freely as he was carrying it from his car
to the setup spot. Good thing it didn't happen with the scope aboard!
Steve reverted to binocs for the night.
Although various types of cloud were scattered all across the sky as we
were setting up, and the smoke from the ever-present wildfires was now
threatening to impinge on the observing, conditions broke well for us as
the sun set.
The two C11s from Maricopa County have been using the GPS and GOTO to
zero in on Jupiter for us in the daylight prior to sunset. The rest of
us are running over to steal a peek at the Telrads to snap the little
white dot into vision, then try to maintain it in sight as we ease over
to our own instruments. I have visions of tripping and falling over a
half dozen scopes as I back over to mine. Eventually got it nailed down
while the sun was still up but behind the trees. This method seems to
work for Jupiter, but for some reason Saturn is difficult for the C11s
to hit. It takes another half hour or so before Saturn can be acquired.
As with the last two nights, best friend and spouse Susan has been
helping guide visitors over to my scope. The "customers" who are
visiting the Yavapai Observation Station and discovering 50 scopes or
more set up in the lot are curious, but not aware that Yes, We Can Look
Right Now. So Susan is hustling them over; she says she's like a
carnival shill at a side show. The best part of the whole week is that
now she says she wants me to show her how to use the 10" SCT/Atlas-G and
bring that scope next year along with the 18"! WhooHoo! A great high
school science teacher for many years, this is the first time she's
shown any interest in getting out in public with a scope.
Tonight, again, Jupiter is the star of the show for about two hours. No
GRS tonight, but it's still a big bright ball with pronounced stripes.
Folks are loving the view. I tried Saturn for a bit, but it's just too
low in the atmospheric mud for a good view. As the twilight deepened, I
shifted over to Sombrero, but the quality of the image is not as good as
earlier in the week. The folks don't know it, though, and are excited to
see it. During a gap in the crowd I shifted over to NGC4565 (Berenices
Harclip). It's a bit better looking, but not by much. So, after a while,
I moved over to Markharian's Chain (M84, M86, etc.) and it's still
pretty good to show. The rest of the scopes seem to be showing M57, M4,
or M13 so at least the visitors are getting to see some galaxies at my
stop.
It's about 10:30 PM now, and although people are still dribbling
through, I'm beginning to think about packing up; tomorrow will be an
early six or seven hour ride home and although Susan will be driving it
(she leaves the site after sundown every night), I hate to snooze all
the way home. A couple of late arriving small groups wander through. I
put in the 22mm and a UHC filter and we look at the Dumbbell and again
talk about the demise of stars similar to our Sun, and shift on over to
Sagittarius for all the good things to offer there. Lagoon fills the
eyepiece again, so we talk about the star factory compared to the
Dumbbell's place in the stellar evolutionary timeline, and the Swan, and
M22 as well. With some of the small groups we also talk about the Summer
Triangle, Arabic star names, Albireo and other double stars (for dobs
and equatorials, Polaris is a good one at these powers and sky
conditions). They get to learn how to find north if the Big Dipper isn't
handy (from Altair over the top of Deneb to Polaris).
Ok, it's 1230, visitors have disipated, half the folks are packed up,
brain's fried. As a finale, I take a peak at an old favorite, the Saturn
Nebula, NGC7009, low in the southeast. Usually I check this one in fall,
when it's at an easier altitude to study, but even down low it's a
beautiful, bright, tight planetary nebula that does indeed look a bit
like Saturn. I'm surprised that it looks a bit blue; don't remember that
from earlier views.
Clouds are rolling into some parts of the Eastern horizon; below
Casseopea is a dark wall, and the bottom of Sagittarius is coming and
going. Time to pack up and declare victory for Campaign GCSP 2006.
Dean Ketelsen from TAAA and the National Park Service have made this
another awesome experience for the visitors and the observers. So have
the most excellent observers from the many clubs. Just in my little area
we have TAAA from Tucson; East Valley Astronomy Club, Saguaro Astronomy
Club, and the Maricopa County folks from the Phoenix area; the Kingman
gang; Sirius Lookers from Sedona; Marilyn from Prescott; Deborah from
Palmdale California; and many, many others from all parts of the
compass. I'm typing this in the truck on the way home, and I can't think
of anything I'd change. At the beginning I was really disturbed that the
lower observing area was closed off and we'd all be crowded into the top
lot, and I'd need to do a half hour setup and take down every night, but
I had more visitor come through every 20 minutes than I'd have all night
in the Pit. I think I'll stay up top next year.
--------------------
Jim
A Bad Night With A Telescope
Beats A Good Night Doing Anything Else
--
Andrew Cooper
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http://www.siowl.com
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