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Chiefland Star Party

by Don Loftus

What's one of the fastest ways to make an impression on a group of stargazers? Have a big dob? NO!, there were lots of those, including a 36 inch! How about the latest motor drive or a computer controlled CCD camera? Nope, not even close. The best way is to drive up at about 11:00 pm (on a perfectly dark and starry sky) with your high beam headlights on! Boy, does that ever make an impression; of course I didn't say it was a good impression.

Aside from my rude (but explainable) entrance, this was an outstanding night for observing with very friendly folks. Comments from the Sarasota group put seeing conditions for this dark sky sight at about 9.5 on a scale of 10! It was that good.

Dale Niederriter of our club was there and was the one who invited me. Thank you, Dale! There were about 40 people and about 15 to 20 scopes of various size and type. The biggest was a 36 inch diameter Dobsonian. The views from this scope were utterly fantastic! The Trifid nebula was very bright, with very prominent dark lanes that filled the entire eyepiece. The Lagoon nebula showed a lot of detail in the dark material and was very bright. You had to move the scope around to see all the detail it was that large. We looked at M-22 (globular cluster) and the view was amazing. It seemed as though the stars were right in front of you, almost as if you were going to enter the cluster itself. This is an amazing scope.

Another dob I looked through was a 20 incher that also gave incredible views. We looked at the Ring Nebula in Lyra through an Oxygen III filter. The view was very bright, not the wispy view I usually see in my 10 inch SCR. The next item to be scrutinized was the Veil Nebula. I don't know which eyepieces the owners were using because they changed them so often but the view was incredible, both at low power, to see most of the nebula, and at higher power to look at just one part of the Veil. With the 0-III filter it stood out bright and clear. Another favorite, M-27 the Dumbbell Nebula was next. Once again it was bright and clear, brighter in fact than many photographs I've seen, but no hint of color (actually I did not see color in any of the nebula). M-104 the Sombrero Galaxy in Virgo was next. The dust lane was very prominent and bright areas were visible both above and below it. I saw M-104 through a 5" refractor and while it looked good, the view could not compare to a 20 inch mirror. I looked at M-51 through a 13.5 inch dob and the seeing conditions were so good, the spiral structure of the larger galaxy was easily visible. On the 20 inch dob, time was also spent looking for Pluto. It was found and, true to expectations, it was not spectacular.

Due to my location about six miles north of Gainesville, I have plenty of light pollution, especially in the direction of the center of the Milky Way. At this dark sky location on this outstanding night, the Milky Way looked very much like a cloud. The dark rift was easily visible, as were the bright knots along the Milky Way in the area of Scutum and Sagittarius.

All in all it was an awe-inspiring night. My son Ryan and I will try to get back to Chiefland more often (next time early enough to see the scopes in day light and not by car headlight) When you see these sights, through outstanding equipment, you want to come back for more. And after all, isn't this what observational astronomy is all about?!

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