Almost Heaven Star Party 2009

I'm finally catching up on observing reports, thanks in part to inspiration from a fellow observer. Robert Nielsen, a friend, fellow observer, and fellow CHAOS member, has started his own observing blog and written about MASP. That means I'm two star parties behind in my reports!

Almost Heaven happens up in the mountains of West Virginia, in the National Radio Quiet Zone. This year it was September 18-22. I drove up the day before and stayed the night in Staunton, VA. I tried to stay up late to get into an observing schedule, and checked out just under the 11am deadline the next day. I grabbed lunch in Harrisonburg, then headed into the mountains. From Harrisonburg, I lost cell phone reception quickly, which I wouldn't regain for days. It was a little over two hours through winding mountain roads to get to the star party. The last few miles were pretty rough terrain for my Fit, especially being so loaded down. We made it fine though.

Upon arriving, it was apparent that there was a ton of open space, although most of it was fairly hilly. I camped in the area where you can drive in to load/unload, but must park elsewhere. As I drove around that area, my car was dragging a bit through the grass. Not the sound you want to hear! I found a relatively flat area and got everything setup.

Attendance seemed to be mostly people from Virginia and West Virginia, with a smaller number of people from elsewhere. There must have been well over a hundred people. My area never got very crowded, but the camper area with cars and tents was packed.

The facilities were adequate. It was nice to have hot meals served, but perhaps not worth $30/day, especially if you sleep in and miss breakfast. I'll probably bring my own food next time.

For observing, I'll cut right to the most exciting part: we saw the Zodiacal Light! It looked like a small, thin band of clouds extending from the great square up toward the zenith, intersecting the Milky Way at perhaps a 40 degree angle. However, it didn't move, and we saw an airplane pass through it without disappearing, so it was almost certainly not a cloud. Through my telescope, that part of the sky looked completely normal.

The evening was fairly clear, despite some early clouds. The humidity got very high, and dew was the worst I've ever experienced. My secondary dewed over despite having its heater on! This was my first outing with an 8x10 canopy, which made a huge difference. I put my table, chair, and associated equipment (eyepieces, books, filters, etc) under the canopy. They stayed completely dry, because dew seems to fall vertically onto surfaces.

And now some selected observations:

M13 and M92 both looked spectacular as you would expect.
NGC 6702/3 is a small galaxy pair that seemed to be hiding among the stars.
M56, a fairly small globular cluster in Lyra looked very nice, while subtle. I resolved about 15-20 stars in the core at 293x.
NGC 7448- moderately bright galaxy with a long elliptical shape.
NGC 7463-5 is a galaxy trio. 5 was clearly the brightest, while the other two were just barely detectable.
NGC 7479- Another long, elliptical galaxy. I could see a bit of swirl on the southern side.
Pegasus 1 Cluster- I could only see 2-3 members, probably because the humidity was getting bad.
M15- spectacular globular cluster, resolving hundreds of stars all the way to the core at 293x.
M2- big, bright globular cluster. Slightly blue, with what seems like a dark lane on the south side.
Andromeda Galaxy- I viewed this primarily with my Canon 15x45 IS binoculars, and it was stunning! It filled nearly the entire field of view, and both companions were plainly visible.
NGC 7814- a galaxy with a bright ball of a nucleus, and a long thin ellipse which is brighter to the south.
M33- beautiful. The spiral arms are very obvious.
Dumbell- bright! the full ellipse is visible. The south end was a bit brighter, while the north end was a bit wider. It looked best at 205x with an OIII filter.
Little Dumbell- small, bright, and its namesake shape was clearly defined.

I went to bed around 2am, because I was just too tired to continue.

The next day, the weather was beautiful. I read, met some neighbors, and ate a couple of times. Sadly, the clouds started rolling in around 6pm. As it got dark, I got in about 20 minutes of star cluster observing before the clouds completely shut us down, but this all happened before astronomical twilight. The clouds would remain for the rest of the star party. I stayed up talking with neighbors a bit, but hit the sack by 11. It was spooky when I got up to use the bathroom around 2:30. The clouds eliminated light from the sky, so it was even darker than usual. Plus, everyone was in bed, which meant there were no lights at all or other activity.

The next morning I packed up and headed home. I wanted to stay to at least go on the Green Bank Radio Telescope tour, but I was concerned that the impending rain might make it difficult for my car to get off the mountain. This is another good reason to bring your own food- if you leave early due to bad weather, you don't have to forfeit $30/day worth of food!

It was a short trip, but a good one. It was only my second star party, and it felt good to just get out there and relax for a bit. The skies were very dark, although I'm not sure they were substantially darker than Pettigrew. Perhaps on a less humid night it would be better.