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Mid Florida Star Gaze 2001
Nine Mile Grade Campground - March 22 - 25, 2001
Roland Culberson
I arrived at the 9 Mile Grade site on Thursday, early in the afternoon to
find that Kye, Al, and Carl Ewing were already there and set up, along
with Jim Kimball and Kye's sister Kris. Being the greedy guy that I am,
I quickly secured my favorite spot, complete with Palm Tree. While
setting up the already present members of the group came over to
supervise (and they did pretty good in that capacity, but more on that
later). While talking to them, they told me about a fellow camped over
on the other side of the road, nearer to the river, who had come down
from Jacksonville, Illinois just to observe with us.
Harvey Mack had a very nice setup contained by one of those Kendrick tent
observatories. Very nice setup, with a G-11 mount, Celestron 11" SCT
equipped with a Van Slyke focuser and a Tuthill 80MM Finder. Harvey
spent most of Thursday night over in his portable observatory ... observing!
He did come and join the group later in the evening for that grand old glob
viewing of my personal favorite object (that we have access to in this
location), Omega Centauri. While Harvey was over, we also took in the
Centaurus A galaxy, and Kye showed us some other rather nice faint fuzzy
objects in the area. I did not last through the entire night, but was up
until around 2:30. I did keep hearing through my light sleep mode that
Jim Kimball and Fred Lehman were grinding coffee, er, "M"ing on through
until dawn (or pretty close to it). They made it through the GOTO Messier
Marathon with the exception of maybe one item from the list. Charlie came
in late Thursday evening with the club scope, and stayed for a bit, then
headed back to his normal duties. (Don'cha hate when work interferes with
your pleasure?) Also present by nightfall were James Daggett, George and
Micheline DeBarros.
On Friday, Ron D'oria came up from Ft.Lauderdale and joined us with his
18" StarMaster with GOTO and tracking. I would say that yes, I am a
little envious. One day maybe I can send the 18 I have back for a
musical retrofit! Cal Waters came in on Friday, and was marathoning to
a degree too. We also were joined by Richard Lindblom, Chris Stephan,
Erica Redmond, and Thaliah Escobedo from the Highlands group. Erica and
Thaliah are students in the school at which Chris is a teacher, and are
two young ladies that show great interest in things astronomical. Erica
was awarded a nice 80MM Refractor by the Highlands group at thier event
back in January. She and Thaliah were going back and forth on it for the
evening. Friday evening was every bit as good seeing wise as was Thursday
night.
Saturday came with the addition of Brian Matthews of Bradenton, and Bill
Jones from Sarasota of the Local Group. They did their own marathon down
by the river near the boat ramp. one of the two scopes they used was a
12.5" f/6 Techtron Tube Dob, and I think the other was a 10" Techtron
Truss. (I forgot to ask...) For our group, Art Ahrens and Dan Boyar came
up for the evening, Art bringing a Nexstar 4, and Dan with his latest
acquisition, a 62MM f/12 Mayflower refractor. This was a good performer,
though Dan had put a bit of reconstructive effort into it already. Old
standby Jim Mayes came in on Saturday as well, and set up in the same
area where I was. Saturday also saw Harvey move his setup (scope and
such) over to the same area we were in. All these guys with SCT's were
just having a great time!!
The newest toy out there though was a homemade 80MM f/15 Jeagers
refractor built by James Daggett. James is quite proud of this
scope, and rightfully so he should be. It delivers! Excellent
job, and the design followed his thought prior to building it. He
wanted light, and has achieved that goal to an extreme. This scope
counterbalances on an Equatorial mount with only 2.5 lbs., and that
only has to be part way down the shaft! The focuser is similar to the
ones used by Celestron on their refractors, pretty smooth, and the
tube is one intended to be a model rocket. Along with the optics and
cell, this thing doesn't weigh what it appears to. Excellent job
James!
Fred Lehmen AKA "the Fish Killer" also had a neat toy out there. A green
laser usable for aiming (and accidentally killing his friend's tropical
fish by overstimulation of its optic nervous system) which is really a
neat deal. I could see it through the finderscope on the Tak, and was
able to locate several other things he was lighting up. Maybe he'll show
it off at the next meeting.
Well, I think I have covered most stuff, so I'll see ya!
Jim Mayes
Central viewing field looking West.
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Central viewing field looking East.
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Central viewing field looking North-East, just starting to fill with scopes. |
George DeBarros with his 8" Celestron.
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James Daggett with his homemade refractor.
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Roland Culberson with his 18" Starmaster and 10" DOB and his scope trailer in the background.
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Cal Waters with his 12" LX200.
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Socialization in progress. Pictured are: Fred Lehman, Ron D'Oria, Jim Kimball, and Kris Whitten.
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James Daggett showing off his homemade refractor.
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Main entrance to the campgrounds with "Lights Out" warning sign.
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Ron D'Oria with his 18" Starmaster GOTO.
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Fred Lehman with his 12" LX200 set up for daytime solar viewing.
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A couple of visitors from the North.
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Unknown person and scope.
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Central viewing field looking East.
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Central viewing field looking North-East.
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Central viewing field looking North-West.
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Kris Whitten with her 8" Celestron.
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Jim Kimball with his 10" LX200.
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James Daggett waiting for the sun to set.
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Kye Ewing with her 10" DOB.
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Central viewing field looking East.
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George DeBarros, Kye Ewing, and James Daggett with the club's 15" Juno.
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Central viewing field looking North-East.
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North-West corner of viewing field looking North-West.
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Central viewing field looking West.
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Jim Kimball and Kris Whitten going over the evening's star charts.
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Overflow area with a couple of late-comers.
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