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Nine Mile Grade Campground - March 2 - 5, 2000
Kye Ewing
The Highlands Stargazers' annual event was held this year from March 2 - 5
at 9 Mile Grade Campground in Highlands County, Florida. About 120
observers attended, with speakers and swap and vendor tables in the
daylight hours. A door prize drawing was followed by a barbecue dinner
for all on Saturday evening. The weather was very clear all three nights
that I attended (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) The first two nights had
very good seeing conditions, but lots of dew. Not much of a breeze after
dark and almost no mosquitoes. A dry "cold" front went through early on
Saturday evening and was followed by a slight drop in temperatures (lows
in the mid 50's) and hardly any dew!
Many attendees (me for one!) logged targets throughout the night until
after 5 a.m., including plenty of 14th magnitude galaxies in Ursa Major,
Canes Venatici, Coma Bernices and (of course) Virgo. Centaurus A and Omega
Centuri were snagged in the area of the observing field that I was in
around 1 to 1:30 a.m. when they cruised past a dip in the treeline. Plenty
of CCD imaging was going on throughout all three nights.
I got a good chance to enjoy my binoculars early in the evenings. (11x80's)
Milky Way regions around Orion through Canis Major revealed dark and light
nebulae which only a good, dark background can show. The star cluster M47
was easily found naked-eye as well as M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) and the
Beehive Cluster glowed overhead.
We are looking forward to ASPB's event at 9 Mile Grade this March 30 -
April 2, 2000. With a little luck we could have some great weather!
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