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Observing at Second Annual Chiefland Star Party

by Mark Cowan

I went to Billy Dodd's place near Chiefland Sunday morning from 2:30 am to well past dawn. The map published in the September FIRSTLIGHT served well, but for missing the dirt road off of CR 330, the first time by. The next turn has a big sign "Dim lights" so I knew I was at Billy's. Driving a couple hundred feet in the dark by parking lights was exciting. I could see RV's, vans, and campers off to the left, and getting parked was a relief. I could not see a soul stirring; the sky was 60 percent clouded, so I settled on the trunk of the car to look into the patch of clear sky with my binoculars.

Someone's car had a red dome light on, and I had heard a few low voices, but I felt a little shy to go looking for somebody to visit with, because I thought those speaking were probably in their bedrolls! Cassiopeia, Andromeda and a bit of the Milky Way were all that was in the clear. The Pleiades was a glowing blob through the clouds. In 45 minutes there was considerable improvement, with more and more of the cover blowing off to the NE. Red flashlights began to bob and swing through the campsite, their bearers rousing sleepers and gathering equipment. A cry went up at 3:30 "It's clear, it's Clear!" And it was very clear. The humidity was fierce but the seeing was excellent through ‘till dawn.

Ten or twelve people were up, with six fine scopes in action. I met a number of the operators, but I will stick to sights and 'scopes and leave the people out 'till I meet them in daylight. It's not easy to get names, faces, and scopes together in the dark.

I'll tell a little about the scopes and the objects I viewed through them. A 20" Dobsonian was the first. That and its 10" kin were built by the owner, who showed me the Veil nebula. The Veil was out both sides of the field. Jupiter's bands and swirling light areas were easily seen, as was the red spot which frankly looked brown to me, like the central band. We also looked at the Eskimo nebula in Gemini. It revealed three concentric shells to my eye. No, I couldn't see his nose, eye, and mouth like in the photos, but it was a very interesting sight. Orion was clear and most of the scopes were trained on the Great nebula M42 at various times, sometimes with filters which enhanced contrast, thus detail, of the swirling shapes. I could see clearly the fifth and sixth stars in the Trapezium. This 20 incher had two frames held by light pipes triangulated between them, with a non-weight bearing tube between, for its basic structure. The 10 incher had a conventional cardboard tube.

The biggest telescope on site was the 25" Dobsonian. We climbed several steps up a step ladder to look through this one. The Rosette nebula was the best object for me, looking in this one. It was huge in the eyepiece, and I was encouraged to move the tube around to see more of it. (And all the owners welcomed me to refocus the eyepiece without my glasses on. I was so glad.) I did not look through the 25 incher too much. It was in high demand and was going after obscure and dim objects most of the time. Not as interesting to this novice as brighter and bolder sights. The structure of this ‘scope was basically like the 20".

A really remarkable instrument was the 14.5" f/5 Newtonian on an equatorial mount. I could see most of the sky with both feet on the ground, unlike the bigger ones, which required the ladders, because the mount was built so low, and the whole tube rotated easily in its frame. Through this Jupiter looked the clearest. There were two faint stars behind Jupiter's two moons, and the moons were obviously discs when compared to the stars. We also looked at the nice pair of galaxies M81 and M82 in Ursa Major, just barely fitting in the field. The edge-on showed a distinct dust lane cutting through the middle. A good looking little nebula was the ring object in M46 cluster of Puppis.

A Meade 10" Schmidt Casseqrain revealed the glory of color in the Orion nebula. A rich blue surrounded the Trapezium, and a faint rose could just be detected in some other parts. This 'scope was being used to guide a photo of the Pleiades, with an illuminated reticle on the main body. With another eyepiece nebulosity was revealed, though this showed better in the 20 incher.

Back to the 25" we saw the Crab in Taurus, showing a little rose hue and looking very "busy". It is the remnant of the supernova of 1054. One of the last objects was the Owl nebula in Ursa Major. Not much detail to me.

Many of the big telescopes had fine little electrically illuminated viewfinders. They do not magnify at all, but are handy because they project an orange bull’s eye into your view, and you can zero in on an object with both eyes on it. They are called "Telrad" (TM) view finders. A feature on the two big Dobsonians was a device called Lumicon Sky Vector (TM), which functions as setting circles do on equatorials. It is calibrated on horizontal null and two of thirty stars in its memory, then continuously reads out right ascension and declination as you move the tube. Further it has a clock which keeps track of RA and time, thus telling you where it is pointing, even when the scope is just sitting still! This system has two potentiometers (?) at the horizontal and vertical axes to keep track of motion.

I was too excited to be sleepy from 3:30 until dawn. And then we were treated to a truly memorable sunrise with lots of bright colors in the east, and dark bands radiating from the west horizon! As the Sun burned off the dew in the mid morning, those who were not viewing the night before uncovered their scopes to dry and pack them, and I had a great time looking at them all. I am pleased to have made sketches of a simple, sturdy wooden tripod and equatorial mount which I'm eager to build. Next year I will get on the car horn, because perhaps too many of the campers slept through this exceptional night. I'm sure I will never forget the many many pleasures of seeing so much in one long night.

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