2010 May « Observing Reports by Knuck

Texas Star Party 2010

May 23, 2010 at 3:03 pm | Posted in Observing Report | 2 Comments

It’s been a long time since I was so exhausted, but having so much fun I didn’t want to stop. This was a star party done large (and what were you expecting?) and right. They take over the whole of the Prude Guest Ranch near Ft. Davis, Texas, in Big Bend country. It is dark and they brook no white light, anywhere, after dusk.

Ft. Davis is 30°N latitude, so 12° more Southern sky is open as compared to my usual observing sites. That opens up a lot of objects in Hydra and Centaurus, including Omega Centauri (largest globular cluster in the Milky Way Galaxy), Centaurus A (known as the Hamburger Galaxy) as well as some things in the tail of Scorpius. An unexpected highlight was an impressive dark Nebula, Barnard 228, in Lupus. Dark Nebula are not usually very interesting to me, except where the partially occlude brighter objects. Barnard 228 is just so darn big. I had to sweep the eyepiece to its margins before I realized what it was.

I enjoyed sketching two examples of galaxies that have or are experiencing collisions, the Ring Tail and Centaurus A. I also sketched the Sombrero Galaxy (M104) and the Swan Nebula (M17). They actually look like their namesakes, to a remarkable degree. And, to a similarly remarkable degree, my sketches look like a Swan, a hat and a hamburger.

And here are Centaurus A and The Ringtail

I traveled with Gary Nielsen, Bernie Poskus and Mike Prochoda. All are good friends that I observe with regularly. I’m on the left. Next to me is Bernie. Next to Bernie is Mike. Gary is in the front.

On the way down from Denver to Southwest Texas, we traveled through Eastern New Mexico. As we did we listened to an audio book: The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid, by Pat F. Garrett, the legendary sheriff of Lincoln County. As we did, we passed through many of the places where the action of the book took place. We made an overnight stop in Roswell, New Mexico and took in the Roswell Museum and Art Center collection on Robert H. Goddard, the father of modern rocketry. Dr. Goddard did much of his research at Roswell. The Museum has a collection of his rockets, tools, shop and other items.

Dr. Goddard’s launch tower and a completed rocket are on the museum grounds.

After the sublime visit to the Goddard exhibit, we went to the riduculous International UFO Museum and Research Center.

We didn’t feel much like lunch after that, so we got back onto the road. We reached Ft. Davis by early evening. We checked in at The Prude Guest Ranch. Checking in a night before the Star Party began gave us a chance to scout the place out before the hordes descended. By the time we got there one car was already in line at the gate for entry the next morning. By the time we got up then next morning the line was very long. We didn’t claim a place ahead of anyone else. We waited until the first few cars were past us and fell in line with the rest. Here’s what the upper field looked like before Noon.

And here’s what it looked like shortly after they started letting the cars through the front gate.

As you can see there were telescopes of every size and description. There were so many toys, some bought, some invented.

Here are some photos of each of us with our scopes.

Bernie looks a bit tired, don’t you think?

At dark the whole place transforms. The differences in the people and the equipment start to blur. It’s mostly quiet, and red:

The Observing Reports pinned at the top are the best record of the nights of observing. The days were spent mostly sleeping. I have to admit there are very few star parties where meals are provided. It was nice to have a dining hall, and the food was pretty good. There are even fewer where you have a motel room practically on the observing filed. Even with all that convenience, staying up from dawn to dusk for so many nights leaves you feeling pretty tired. So tired, Bernie and I fell asleep in the line for lunch.

On Tuesday, disaster threatened. There were very high winds, in the afternoon. Bernie’s scope got blown over. But, he kept his cool. None of the optics were damaged. There was some damage to the mount for his finder scope. We set about checking for damage, righting the scope and making repairs. By evening, Bernie’s scope was in full operation. The two people helping Bernie in the photo below are our new friends Roger and Donna Dillon. Texas’ reputation for friendly folks is well deserved.

We did make some afternoon visits to nearby observatories. One of the radio telescopes that forms part of the Very Long Baseline Array is within a few miles of the Ranch.