[AZ-Observing] Observing_Report_GCSP_2011_Day_2_Calm_and_Cold.txt
- From: Skylook123@xxxxxxx
- To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2011 12:42:18 -0400 (EDT)
Grand Canyon Star Party - DAY TWO - Calm and Cold
Location: Grand Canyon Visitor Center, South Rim of Grand Canyon, AZ,
about 340 miles north of home in Tucson, about 7000 ft elevation
Weather: 70s at Noon, 60s at sunset, low 40s when we quit at 11 PM. Clear
skies for afternoon and evening, high wind warnings until sunset,
virtually dead calm after sunset.
Seeing and Transparency: Both much better tonight. Still some residue of
the moisture, but the surface calm seems to extend upward. The cool
temperatures at sunset reduces the initial upper turbulance; focus at my
maximum
non-barlowed powers easily achieved.
Equipment:
18â?? 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 MOUN5
Tonight's session started with promise, and did not disapoint. The cool
temperatures are sill with us, and with decline in the wind, we were back to
our only limitations being the capability of our equipment.
I went over to the site around 6 PM and set up the Lunt. The sun was
quite an exciting attraction in a 9mm Nagler, filling the FOV, with feathery
prominences around the limb, and huge streamers around the lower right
quadrant. One main and two small sunspot clusters pulled our eyes over to
faculae, with the solar disk nicely textured all over the surface. I can't
believe how well we got the setup of the mount. Last night I used an
inclinometer to set the latitude in the mount head, and a compass to set the
azimuth.
We used chalk to mark the tripod position, and we recovered it today dead
on. An hour and a half with the sun filling the eyepiece and we never
once touched the pointing. Perfect tracking the entire time. Since it was
pre-dark, most of the visitors were other astronomers, and we all had Oh Wow
moments with every look. Around eight or more earth diameter length on the
main prominence group is very striking, and even my wife Susan, who
suffers from vision difficulties with an eyepiece, easily sees the spectacle
going on.
Rich Russin arrived, and Jessica and I swapped OTAs for the night show.
Around 7:30 PM I headed over to the theater for the night talk. Tonight
John Anderson's daughter Audra and my granddaughter Karina did the sky map
handouts to the visitors. Tomorrow they are going off together on a four hour
hike; both of them like hiking, and from her home in Colorado Springs,
Karina hikes Pike Peak in about 10 hours. I did my "What's Up There"
introduction to what types of eye candy is available at night, and it went
very
well. Back to the scopes. Just based on good polar alignment Rich and my
granddaughter Jessica were having a good old time with the SCT and the public.
I lost track of all the objects they visited as they hopped around the
sky.
It is supremely gratifying to see how Jessica has taken to the astronomy.
Some of you reading this know how John Anderson and I rebuilt a 10" Meade
Starfinder for Jessica and Karina, and their four brothers, in Colorado
Springs. Jessica has a gift for knowing where objects are in the sky and star
hopping or using the SynScan hand controller to get them. She and Rich
took turns jumping to targets for the visitors. When Rich left to take his
wife back to their hotel to escape the biting cold and get ready for the
early morning departure, Jessica took over the scope and did a great job
servicing the public. Her excitement is very infectious with her visitors.
Meanwhile, as soon as I got to the scopes I finally unshrouded the 18" and
got it ready to rock and roll. I never had to use the cooling fans; the
cold temps were constant, so I just collimated, aligned, and started cutting
visitors from the herd wandering through. I pretty much stayed with The
Ring and The Dumbbell, awesome at this altitude and the calm seeing. I
finished the last thirty minutes or so doing short sky tours with a great
group
of visitors. The last half hour or so reminded me why I love doing this;
the feedback is such a validation that we need to do this.
Still early on for this year, two huge surprises have settled in on me.
First is Jessica, and her taking to this as though born to it. She is such
a tremendous aid, learning quickly and jumping in to help in all the
little, essential tasks in setting up and maintaining our little corner of the
site. She works so well with the visitors, and she has picked up the setup
and takedown of both instruments. She actually was the one who assembled
the 18", giving the rest of us a whole lot of chuckles when she was done and I
pointed out the the focuser on the secondary cage was pointed at the
ground. She and Karina corrected it right away. Quite a pair of 17 and 14
year olds.
The second surprise has been the huge visitor turnout for the night talks.
There was some fear that since we are no longer on the rim as in prior
years, we would not have the sunset picture takers as our audience. But we
are at Standing Room Only at 10 minutes prior to show time. We have to
consider the safety implications with keeping the doors open for more and more
visitors. Wow.
The moon made its early arrival, the cold was cutting like a knife, the
visitors were pretty much gone at 11 PM, so the whole astronomer gaggle did
the pack up early. Jessica did the disassembly preps, I did the heavy
lifting, and we were out of there. I am SO excited about how Monday, with the
promise of higher temperatures, will evolve.
Jim O'Connor
South Rim Coordinator
Grand Canyon Star Party
_gcsp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:gcsp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
Jim O'Connor
South Rim Coordinator
Grand Canyon Star Party
Grand Canyon Cell Phone: 520-405-6551
gcsp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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