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Mid Florida Star Gaze '03 at Fisheating Creek Campground
February 27 - March 2, 2003
Jim Kimball
The following is an excerpt from an
e-mail letter to the club's executive board:
Many Thanks to all who helped make this years Stargaze a success. Despite
the uncooperative weather, we certainly had a large turn-out. Also, many
thanks to Fred, George and Jay as the Welcoming committee -- George wore
himself out, but did a great job that was appreciated by all.
Chuck Pisa
The following is an excerpt from an
e-mail letter to the club president:
I enjoyed myself thoroughly at the star party despite the weather. I
appreciate all the hard work that must have gone into putting it
together. Please give my thanks to your members for their support
of Wolf Camera and myself.
Alan Chen
The following is an excerpt from an
e-mail letter to the club president:
It was a pleasure meeting you and your fellow club members this past
weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed the time there, even if the skies didn't
fully cooperate. I'm also glad that you were able to spend some time with
Charlie and I during our fleeting attempts at imaging.
Spiral galaxy NGC2683 in Lynx. |
Horsehead Nebula IC434 in Orion the Hunter. |
Charlie Warren
The following is an excerpt from an
e-mail letter to the club president:
It was great meeting you at the Stargaze. Thanks for all your work
setting this up and organizing. Attached is my first image from the
Stargaze (M66). I was able to get some usable stuff between the cloud
bands. I am sure that Alan will turn out some quality images as well.
I have a few more I will process this weekend. Let me know if you want
to use any for a newsletter entry about the stargaze, or other
use.
Barred spiral galaxy NGC3627 (M66) in Leo the Lion. |
Supernova remnant NGC1952 (M1) in Taurus the Bull. |
Russ Jocoy
A Note from a Stargaze Participant:
Just a note to say that I had a great time at your Stargaze party!
Although the sky at times was not what we all were looking for, there
were some great viewing chances if you were patient. I did have a
problem with my corrector plate on my SCT, it seems that nature wanted
to wash it off before I was ready to go to bed. Dew was a problem as
it always is in south or all of Florida for that matter. I do have a
hair dryer but this I did not bring since there was no power. Most
have corrector lens heaters but I have yet to buy one of these. I met
some interesting people, you know who you are, but nobody was more
interesting than Fred and his family who brought everything but the
kitchen sink, I mean everything. I have never gone camping and
brought a refrigerator to set up in the field!!! Hey if I could, I
would, but my big cooler was all the weight I could handle.
I love the Fisheating Creek campground area. I used to camp in the
area when I was a teen 30 years ago. I was brought back to my younger
years of being free and goofing off, oh.. and all of you campers, bring
your bicycles next time (you can get places faster, and see more in a
short time) I was the guy on the blue bike going round & round. Again
thanks to all it was a success to me and my journey to the stars.
I will be in touch...
Jay Albert
Stargaze '03 - A Little Bit of Luck:
Conditions didn't look promising for this year's Mid-Florida Stargaze.
The weekend before the Stargaze, Fred Lehman discovered that the
electrical, water and sewer hook-ups at Fisheating Creek we had been
told were completed were not actually operational. To make matters
worse, we were having an el niño winter (abnormally hot, humid
and wet) and the forecast for the weekend was poor. According to the
weatherman, Friday was supposed to be our worst night with clouds and
rain and Saturday night our best hope. I didn't help matters any by
bringing my new scope (a Celestron NexStar 11 GPS); a certain jinx!
I also forgot to bring my dew shield, a big mistake considering the
high humidity.
On the bright side, we had a great turnout. Of the 90 plus people who
had registered or said they'd come, 65 showed up. This is significantly
more than we had at Venus and the turnout probably would have been
larger had the weather forecast been less gloomy. There was a wide
variety of astronomical and camping equipment. There were plenty of
tents of various sizes. Fred Lehman was probably the best prepared of
anyone. Fred had his 12" Meade LX200 set up in a portable observatory
with a rotating dome. Fred also had a camper and even a refrigerator!
Fred and Willi generously provided snacks and cold beverages for all
the attendees and even provided everyone with pizza one night. Jim
Kimball's site served as "Stargaze Central". Jim had erected a large
canopy next to his trailer and had plenty of comfortable chairs around.
As the days became increasingly hot and humid, Jim's canopy provided
an oasis for ASPB regulars as well as other participants. George
DeBarros did a great job as the welcoming committee and attendance
keeper. It was cooler on the other side of the campground away from
the observing field. I took a hike along Fisheating Creek and saw
plenty of birds and alligators, some quite large. The creek was broad
here and provided beautiful views with lush vegetation as well as peace
and quiet. Some people swam in the clear lake north of the observing
field.
Optical equipment ranged from binoculars to Kye Ewing's 20" dobsonian.
Vic Menard was present again this year, but left his 22" home because
of the discouraging weather forecasts. There were an abundance of
refractors, reflectors and catadioptrics of all sizes. Some of the
mounts, including one costing $10,000, were as impressive as the
telescopes.
Thursday night was not as bad as predicted. Starting at 7:30, I
viewed Saturn, Jupiter (including an annular eclipse of Callisto
by Io and some deep sky objects. By 9:15, my corrector plate had
completely dewed up and the clouds were getting thicker. James
Daggett mentioned that it was raining in Tampa and the rest of the
night was uncertain. I waited a half hour then started shutting
down. When I had almost everything put away, the sky suddenly
cleared. Fortunately, setting up the NexStar 11 is quick and easy.
I got to observe another hour during which I saw a transit of
Ganymede across Jupiter's disk plus a few deep sky objects before
my corrector plate dewed up.
Again contrary to the weather forecast, Friday night turned out to
be the best of our three nights at Fisheating Creek. The winter
Milky Way was bright across the sky and 6th magnitude stars could
be seen without optical aid. In addition to good views of Saturn
and Jupiter (including amazing detail in the South Equatorial Belt
and a 65% occultation of Callisto by Europa), I had some good deep
sky observing. Among the highlights were detail within the M1
supernova remnant at 156x, a beautiful view of M35 that also permitted
resolution of the stars in the faint background open cluster NGC2158,
detail in the core and arms of the galaxy NGC2903 in Leo and NGC2024
(the Flame Nebula) near Zeta Orionis. When I got to the M95 galaxy
group about 10:30, however, I was surprised to find the galaxy
unusually difficult. Looking up, I noticed the sky was starting
to get a bit murky and my corrector plate had again completely
dewed up. I walked around for a while to look at other scopes
and enjoyed some good views before the sky got too ugly. Saturday
night, which the weatherman predicted would be our best night, turned
out to be our worst. This may also have been my fault because I
bought the Kendrick Dew Removal System from Chuck Pisa that day
in order to prevent my scope from dewing up as it did the two
previous nights. We had a brief period of mostly clear skies
from about 9:30 to 10:15 during which I had some decent views
of M42 and the surrounding area before the clouds completely
socked us in again.
While the weather was far from the excellent skies of last year's
Stargaze, the weekend was fun with good companions, a friendly
atmosphere, a nice facility and (with a little bit of luck) even
some good observing. Let's hope next year's Stargaze won't be
during an el niño winter!
Roland Culberson
The Story of a Gorgeous Wooden Dob @
Stargaze '03:
As a member of the gorgeous wood and stainless steel admirers, I found
something to admire while at our recent Stargaze. It seems that Allen
Maroney had some spare time on his hands and found a way to use it.
And he used it very constructively, I might add.
One of the things I enjoy about going to star parties is looking at
scopes that have been painstakingly built by the person who brought
them. I find a lot of really neat ideas have been applied in the
building process. Take the "Mighty T-3" built by our own Jim Mayes
for example. Here is a scope that is the epitome of minimalist in
size and weight, but with absolute portability as the major issue.
He succeeded on all counts. James Daggett also had a success with
"Spot" the 80MM super-lightweight refractor. The success there is
counterbalanced with the smallest commercially available counterweight,
2.5 lb. or so.
Back to Allen. Allen has several cats (another of my "pet" projects,
pun intended) that live with he and Elizabeth, his wife. Elizabeth
works different hours than Allen, and consequently, Allen has some
time in the evenings when she is working that he and the cats seem
to find projects to use up. It is also a consequence that Allen has
named his scopes after some of the cats, which brings us to the
Fritz.
Fritz is a fine looking 8" f/4.7 dobsonian reflector that is fabricated
of oak, with stainless steel and chrome over brass hardware anywhere
where hardware was necessary. Fritz has a hexagonal wooden tube, which
is stained a bit darker than the end rings, and also the strips that
join the pieces that comprise the tube. The really neat stuff is the
way the end caps, also oak, attach to the tube. They have magnets
embedded inside them and are magnetically attracted to the tube. (As
I was also!) The lower cover has a trio of small fans built into it
for those nights when thing just don't seem to come to ambient
temperature in a reasonable amount of time. There is also built in
set of baffles inside the tube which are made from marine
weatherstripping, as well as the inner tube being painted absolute
(no, not the vodka) black to keep out those errant local photons.
The cage built to make the tube rotate-able is also done with the
two-tone stain coloration, and has the ebony star bearing surfaces
to help with the superb ease of motion the scope exhibits. Talking
to Allen on this, he is not fond of stick on weights to achieve
balance, so the rotating tube is also fore and aft adjustable.
(Would there be any doubt?) The mirror cell is a Maroney-built
item too, and is complete with a single, center mounted cooling
fan, and a neat setup for primary collimation. Oh, and for the MOST
important part, Allen also ground the mirror. (Talk about
multi-talented…)
The base is done very nicely too, with finger joints on the ends of
the rocker box. (See the photos on this). With all this said, I
never did get over to get a good look through it. Duh, me. (Say
that repeatedly, and faster each time and you'll get the
idea!)
Talking to Allen, I suggested that he may have just a bit TOO much
free time, but I do have to say that this is the nicest home-built
Dob I have seen recently. If the club had voted on an award to give
for home-built scopes this year, I think this would have to be where
the "EYES" have it!
Side View |
Top View |
Tail View |
"FRITZ", an 8" f/4.7 homemade DOB by Allen Maroney. It features
beautiful oak woodwork and many other exceptional features. |
Charlie Fredrickson
Thanks to all of you for the PROFUSION of photos from Stargaze '03!
Bill Bucklew, James Daggett, and me enjoying a hike along the banks of
Fisheating Creek.
(Photo by John Clifton)
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ASPB President Fred Lehman and his arsenal of telescopic equipment,
in his portable domed observatory.
(Photo by Charlie Fredrickson)
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Roland Culberson's 18" Starmaster, Charlie Warren's wedge mounted
10" LX200GPS, and Alan Chen's Losmandy mounted 12" LX200.
(Photo by Michael Gruber)
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Jay Albert, Todd Parker, Jim Kimball, Alan Chen, and Fred Lehman
discussing the various features and characteristics of Alan's
telescope.
(Photo by John Clifton)
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George DeBarros with his 10" Starmaster.
(Photo by John Clifton)
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Ron D'Oria, Jim Kimball, Roland Culberson, and Bill Bucklew sitting
at a picnic table.
(Photo by John Clifton)
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A beautiful view of a bend in the river.
(Photo by John Clifton)
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John Clifton with his 8" LX90.
(Photo by John Clifton)
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Another beautiful view of Fisheating Creek.
(Photo by Charlie Fredrickson)
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Kye Ewing with her 20" DOB.
(Photo by Bill Bucklew)
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John O'Neill with his 12" Meade SCT on a Losmandy Millenium mount.
(Photo by Bill Bucklew)
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Bill Bucklew showing off his large Meade refractor.
(Photo by Roland Culberson)
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