[AZ-Observing] Re: Grand Canyon Star Party - DAY SEVEN - The Good Time s Continue
- From: "Wayne (aka Mr. Galaxy)" <mrgalaxy@xxxxxxxx>
- To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2011 01:21:55 GMT
15480 Empire Rd.
Benson, AZ 85602
hm ph: 520-586-2244
Great daily reporting on the GCSP event on the South Rim, Jim. What happened on
the North Rim? It's been all quiet on the northern front for that part of the
event.
All of you would probably like to stay up in the moderate weather for another
week. It's been hotter than Heeter in and around the Old Pueblo area and only
promises to get worse according to the forecast...
The nights here have been pleasant: mild and clear with some good seeing.
Despite the presence of some smoke from the local fires, the SN in M51 stood
out wonderfully in my 25-inch last night, easily the brightest of the 3 (or 4,
depending on your aperture!) stars in a line across the face of the main
galaxy.
Clear skies,
Wayne (aka Mr. Galaxy)
---------- Original Message ----------
From: Skylook123@xxxxxxx
To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Grand Canyon Star Party - DAY SEVEN - The Good Times
Continue
Date: Sat, 25 Jun 2011 20:25:50 -0400 (EDT)
Grand Canyon Star Party - DAY SEVEN - The Good Times Continue
Location: Grand Canyon Visitor Center, South Rim of Grand Canyon, AZ, about
340 miles north of home in Tucson, about 7000 ft elevation
Weather: Mid 80s in the afternoon, Low 50s when we quit at Midnight. Clear
skies for afternoon and evening, with local gusts to 40 and high wind
warnings.
Seeing and Transparency: Not perfect, but great for our purposes.
Equipment:
18” f/5 2286mm Teeter Telescope newtonian truss dob, Sky Commander DSCs
10" Meade SCT on Atlas EQ-G mount
60mm Lunt LS60THa/B600 on Atlas EQ-G Mount
Same old warm days, chill nights.
No solar today; trying to get away from the sun before the night show.
Went to dinner and made a salad. Disaster! No tomatoes, no black olives.
How will I get through the night!
Set up is so easy with Karina and Jessica. Jessica did the whole 10" this
time, even the OTA lift. The winds seemed to have died down, so I let
Karina unwrap and collimate the 18". While they were doing the hard work, I
walked around doing some picture taking and other checking in. I talked
with Dr. Mary Turner, who will be doing a talk tonight on constellation lore,
and we were good to go with the presentation.
The astronomers are doing quite well at arranging for a path up the middle
for visitors. I just wish the wind were more cooperative this year.
Dr. Turner's talk on several constellations and the associated lore raises
an interesting thought. She had a half dozen different myths about Bootes,
and I know two more. Any web search on a topic of astronomical importance
gives the same results, from double star data to the meanings of star
names, rarely gives a single description. One has to recall that the
nomenclature and meanings develop and mature over time and across many
cultures.
There often is not "the" story, but "a" story, and when Native American lore,
the stories of the sky are quite diverse.
Back at the scopes it is clear that the wind will be gusting too high for
the 18" to be used. Karina is trying to show The Ring again, but this late
in the month it is a two step ladder climb for her to re-center, and the
gusts are pulling the scope and her 100 pound frame off the ladder. Time for
the ScopeCoat. My wife Susan and Karina left for the night while Jessica
and I stuck around for the 10".
There was a break in the clouds, so I was able to show how to do the full
polar alignment as well as a stellar alignment. For the first time this
week we are able to GOTO objects directly. Among others, we hopped to M13,
M51 with the supernova, several others. Then we had a cluster of visitors
come up so we showed crisp Mizar, which, for some reason, visitors like to
use to compare naked eye versus what a telescope does.
With the night talks and initial visitor arrival coincident, there is not
much of a visitor presence when I get back to the scopes. But the
astronomer community is doing a tremendous job with the visitors, leaving 1,000
people every night with their wonderment threshold seriously elevated.
With my scope operator staff busy with her Albireo lecture, I now have time
to do a mini-myths and legends tour, mixed with real science, for the
lines at scopes in my area. The keystones are The Summer Triangle, with Lyra
as either The Eye Of God or the source of creation, depending on the
culture; Bootes herding the bears so that the sun can be in Virgo for a good
harvest; Scorpius with his claws (Zubeneschamali and Zeubenelgenubi, Claw
North
and Claw South) clipped to make Libra; and The Milky Way, River of Life, or
Tree of Life depending on your cultural persuasion. Sometimes a little
Polaris and precession thrown in; some folks say they are waiting the 12,000
years for Vega to be the pole star. I suppose if I can't get my hands on
the scopes, this'll do.
Just before packup, Dr. Alan Delman offered me a view of The Butterfly
cluster in his Celestron 11" SCT. What an absolutely gorgeous sight! Perfect
butterfly definition, with the added benefit that with our great observing
conditions, the fainter members of the cluster make it look more like a
dragonfly. I will have to add it to my school outreach list of tasty morsels.
Today we had the traditional pot luck, this time in the campground. A
great group of people makes for a great event. We had a hoot of a little skit
by Dennis Young, Kevin LeGore, and George Barber where Dennis is aided by
Kevin to do a Dorf on Golf version of a 10 year old Dennis getting a
FirstScope as a birthday gift from daddy George Barber. Luckily, most of the
food
had been consumed. Really, though, a screamer.
We finished up with a general thanks to everyone for the quality of effort,
and cooperation this year, and we talked over some things next year we
could do better. Then Marker brought up the annular eclipse on May 20, 2012,
and the Venus transit in June. We might do some quick planning for a major
outreach in the Park for one or both of those events.
This week is ending far too soon.
Jim O'Connor
South Rim Coordinator
Grand Canyon Star Party
Grand Canyon Cell Phone: 520-405-6551
gcsp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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