[AZ-Observing] Grand Canyon Star Party - DAY ONE - Cloud Chasing
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- Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 18:05:32 -0400 (EDT)
Grand Canyon Star Party - DAY ONE - Cloud Chasing
Location: Grand Canyon Visitor Center, South Rim of Grand Canyon, AZ, about
340 miles north of home in Tucson, about 7000 ft elevation
Weather: High 70s at Noon, Low 80s at sunset, 55 when we quit near
Midnight. Total overcast during the day, some thinning at sunset, gusts near 30
mph until sunset, gradual and intermittent clearing from about 50% to 85%
cloud by 10 PM.
Seeing and Transparency: OK to mediocre on rapid cycles; I held Saturn in
video at over 620X but focus was very tough at times.
Equipment:
18â f/5 2286mm Teeter Telescope newtonian truss dob, Sky Commander DSCs
(unused due to gusts)
10" Meade SCT on Atlas EQ-G mount
Mallincam Junior PRO video system on the 10", 19" QFX LCD monitor.
This began our fourth year at the Grand Canyon Visitor Center. Setup was
similar to last year, with the telescopes around the perimeter and foot and
astronomer vehicle traffic up the middle. We added a rope isolation zone
for the video, to keep the pedestrians from cutting through and tripping on
cables, and to allow us to stay set up instead of breaking down every
night.
Four of us made the trip this year. Fifteen year old grandson Stephen came
as the dob driver and all-around work horse for night setup of the lighted
cones and traffic control, and 17 year old Karina to assist Ranger setup
for the night traffic as well. Both also helped with the night talk, handing
out star maps to the theater entrants.
After checking into the lodge, Stephen and I dropped off the two
telescopes. The big dob is in the permanent setup location, and the big SCT
with
the imaging capability is set up at the entrance to the site. We returned
Friday night and did dry runs on the theater setup and marking off the
telescope setup areas. The theater is awaiting delivery of repair components
and
is not in use during the day, so they set up for us in the old fashioned
way; a projector at the back of the room fed by VGA video from a laptop, and
if sound is needed, a jury rigged PA speaker using the earphone jack. The
dongle for the slide clicker would not work in Dr. James Rice's MAC laptop
so I would be slide flipper in the back for talk. After the theater
checkout, I set up the 10" and did a polar and stellar alignment; looked ready
to go. It took two and a half hours, because walk through traffic had
visitors playing "ask the astronomer" in the dark. Our lead Interpretive
Ranger, Marker Marshall, walked me back from the theater to my setup with her
flashlight, and immediately started to "service the interrupts" from a family
group of four, who were leaving the next day and wouldn't get to the main
event, so Marker gave them a walk around sky through the holes in the
clouds. Then Marker left, and I finished the setup and started the alignment.
Several groups of pedestrians came walking through, and, since standing was
preferable to contorting myself doing the manual star alignment, I ended up
discussing the night sky with about 16 visitors. Finally finished setup
about 11:30 PM and headed back to the room.
Saturday was the usual running around getting things organized. Stephen
helped me hang the banner at the Visitor Center, and we brought a screen tent
for Ginger Applegarth's information center campsite which we quickly set
up. I later hear that the winds blew it across the camp area, but it
eventually got repositioned and stabilized.
Jack Huerkamp from Mallincam USA was setting up next to me, and it was a
great experience to just yak about things. He had quite a complement of
equipment to dazzle visitors.
I finished set up by 6:30 PM, and we headed into the theater to do a dry
run of the setup. Everything was working, so back out to the 7 PM
astronomer meeting and Otter Pops.
Speaking of GCNP, I can't praise enough about, and be amazed by, the level
of effort and quality of environment provided by our lead interpretive
Ranger Marker Marshall, her assistants Mike Weaver, Rader Lane and Ty
Korlovetz, and the Park Aids who did all of the setup this year, both the
elimination of the light intrusion as well as all of the traffic barrier
setup,
signboard construction, schedule production, and many more activities to make
this all possible. They also had help from Will Golz, a recent high school
grad who, with his parents, has been coming to GCSP as volunteer
astronomers for many years.
The winds were well in excess of forecast for the entire day, as well as
virtually total cloud cover. It was time to head into the theater for the
night talk by Dr. James Rice. We had a special kickoff this year when the
Deputy Superintendent Diane Chalfant did the introduction to GCSP 2014.
Quite an honor!
So was getting Dr. Rice to talk for two nights. NASA astro-geologist
specializing in the exploration of the Solar System, especially the Moon and
Mars. Geology Team Leader for the Mars Exploration Rover Project (Spirit and
Opportunity), he also worked on the Mars Odyssey Orbiter and Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter Projects. In addition he has performed Mars landing
site
selection and certification activities for every NASA Mars Mission since
Mars Pathfinder in 1995. A NASA astronaut finalist, nine time recipient of
the NASA Group Achievement Award, and elected a Fellow of the National
Research Council, his Saturday talk was on Mars Rover results, including data
less
than 24 hours old, while his Sunday talk will be on the Apollo program and
what we accomplished and learned. The Mars talk was fascinating, and the
audience asked many great questions related to the results and direction of
current and future explorations.
Back out at the site, we found about 50% or more of the sky had cleared,
and business was booming. Jack and Mike were working their imaging systems,
and I powered up to join in. We all had equipment issues, but finally
overcame them. After replacing a dead power cable I found my alignment from
the night before was useless. Nearly perfect polar alignment, my star
alignment was at least five degrees off so I couldn't get Hercules Cluster or
The Ring like I wanted. I pulled out all the focal reduction, jumping from
f/3.2 to f/10, and hand slewed to Saturn for the night. At over 620X, it
was dead center and stayed there. By now, with all the issues, it was 10 PM,
time for my constellation tour so I left Stephen with Saturn and started
the tour.
The sky had cleared nicely, so I was able to do my full cultural and
cosmological tour. Great group of about 16 people, easy to work with that
size
crowd. We walked around the sky and pointed out the usual landmarks and I
added the many-culture aspect of what they were observing. Headed back to
the scope, and Saturn was still there! Because of the high power, I
couldn't get the focuser motor onto the knob or would have lost the image, so
focus was not great but now that I have the system configured, I'll put the
motor on and have a great view tonight.
Too windy to use the big dob, we stuck with Saturn until the crowd
evaporated and we shut down. I can't get over how gorgeous Jack's images from
his
Mallincam Extreme of so many objects were that he was showing off. He had
a great alignment, and was able to hop all around Sagittarius eye candy,
and then over to The Sombrero, Bode's Nebula/Cigar Galaxy (M82), and with
the f number less than 2 with the Hyperstar, he had about a 1.5 degree FOV.
Just awesome images in the multiple displays he was demonstrating for the
multitude.
A great talk by Dr. Rice, good recovery with my setup, a very nice
constellation tour that could be a lot more personal with less than the usual
fifty or so, and those jaw dropping views in Jack's multi screen displays has
me
charged up to fix the alignment tonight and show off my own eye candy.
Heading over to the Sunday Pizza Party, charged up for Dr. Rice's Apollo
talk, and ready to rock and roll for night two.
The adventure has begun!
--------------------
Jim
South Rim Coordinator
Grand Canyon Star Party
gcsp[at]tucsonastronomy.org
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