Roland Culberson

Astronomy Day Picnic / Observing Dilemma

As the morning turned to afternoon, I continued to prepare for the picnic at JD State Park, but also continued to monitor some relative cloud build-up coming off the ocean. As I was washing the bugs off the Blazer from last week's trip to and from Chiefland, I started to wonder if we would be able to get any observing in on this day. Being the somewhat eternal optimist that I am not, I decided to go for it and take the trailer and toys anyway.

As we neared the park, I noticed the ominous clouds seemed to be moving inland a bit and saw some holes in the clouds. Could this be?

On arrival, I found the lot to have more cars in it than at our usual observing sessions. Though Mr. Kimball's trailer was AWOL, his Exploder was there, Mr. Wickles presence was noted as Rudolph the red-doored Ranger was in it's normal spot, and Mr. (and Mrs.) Clifton's Excursion Valdez was also in its normal position. Then there was the newly named Droopy. It seems that Fred decided to enter a demolition derby the night before, and the poor old Chrysler convertible now seems to have a slight hang in the rear. Glad he and Roxi are OK. I noted many other not as familiar vehicles that I would hope to see both them and their owners at some of the future observing sessions, though the normal sessions don't have quite the culinary offerings that this days' event would soon be known to provide. On to the food portion of the program!

Food was the idea for this event mostly, and I noticed that there was the most food I had seen recently on several picnic tables as soon as I got close to the pavilion. I immediately began my self appointed task of PCI - Potato Chip Inspector. I found the usual wavy ones, some normal thin and crispy ones, those cheese doodle things, and then the obligatory sour cream and chives models. They all passed muster with no exception. I then looked for other munchable objects and found a nice three-bite size dill pickle. Very crunchy indeed, and very Dill-like in taste. Other noted objects were some dried strawberries, and with my noted love of dried fruit, these were an instant hit. On to the meat portion of the program. World-renowned Prez-Chef Frederic of Davie was manning the grille, and the hamburgers were coming off fast and furious. Saying cheese here was not in preparation for a photo op. I ordered a custom made fast focal length burger (that would be rare) and received the same, but without the dreaded waiting list and years of anticipation known to exist in most orders of this type, when applied to this hobby. Thank heaven food is not like optics! Well, to sum it up, the food was great, the company even greater, and it seems that a good time was had by all. I ended up stuffed, and if you didn't you certainly can't say it is because the choices were too limited!

Jerry Nitsch had a solar projection set-up going for the most part of the day, and it seemed to show some spots on the solar globe. I would have liked to (and had planned on) set up my scope with a white light filter for some solar observing, but I was unsure of the cloud situation, and what those stinkers might have contained. I can't quite pick my scope up and run with it. I AM a weakling! And the fact that it weighs what it does and a bit more bulky also had a little to do with that.

Charlie led a birding walk for w bit after everyone had finished eating. I saw a Mockingbird and a Red Bellied Woodpecker. Red bellied seems a bit odd, as most of the red was on his head. He was quite pretty though.

As the afternoon progressed into evening, the clouds receded a bit, and the chance to observe become a reality. Several of us headed off to the lot and began to set up for the evening.

Planets were the fare early on, and as soon as we could hit Venus, we started the Jupiter search. We found the moon to be quite nice prior to either of those two, but moved on quickly when the planets became available for easy location (or maybe it wasn't so easy, I did have help.) As the evening progressed, we had a group of Girl Scouts and their leaders come through. They were quite impressed based on the "oohs" and "Ahhhs" I heard coming from the other side of me. John and Jim were taking the brunt of the group first.

I tore down around 10:00 PM, as I was beginning to get tired. It was a long day. After I tore down, Clouds started to build quickly, and the remainder of the group followed suit. After packing, we were headed out of the park and hit rain less than a mile from the observing site. The comment heard at IHOP was that "that was too close for comfort!"

We had a bite there, and departed for home.

Another Astronomy Day recorded for posterity!