An Impromptu Skywatch at the Scout Camp

Tim Streagle very kindly offered an open invitation to the RAS membership to attend a skywatch at the Heart of Virginia Scout Reservation Saturday night. Tim was hosting a number of scout groups and astronomy was on the agenda of many of them.

We set up on the observing field around dark and a large group of scouts and parents and leaders made their way up the hill to have a look through their telescopes. We had a combination of my Newt, some Dobs and a Schmidt-Cassegrain open for viewing. I also had a short slide show of astrophotos running as a continuous loop on a digital picture frame to entertain folks while they were waiting.

I’m not sure what everyone else was looking at while the scouts were at our scopes, but I focused on Saturn, which was nicely placed in the sky for moderately high magnification viewing and the atmosphere was steady enough to see some detail. As often happens, many of the kids had a “wow” moment when they saw Saturn for the first time. We had lots of interested people and lots of good questions.

The astronomers stayed late to do some observing after the scouts left and we were treated to an extremely pleasant evening. There was a warm breeze which kept the bugs and the dew at bay. Some early clouds dissipated as the night passed. We saw several objects we had not seen before and I was able to take a couple of images, although the wind limited the steadiness of my scope mount. The hold-outs ran out of steam after about 4:00 AM as the Milky Way and Scorpius were moving to high spots in the sky.

Thanks again to Tim for the invitation. It was a great night at the Scout Camp.

Regards,
Jim Browder
Richmond Astronomical Society

The Virginia Solar Lunar Convention and Imaging Conference - WOW!

Wow!

Many, many thanks to John Raymond and Tim Streagle for putting together a great star party.

The Virginia Solar Lunar Convention and Imaging Conference was well organized, the facilities were outstanding, the Heart of Virginia Scout Reservation was a wonderful host, the speakers were interesting, lots of door prizes were given and, best of all, the company was outstanding.

Someone was also kind enough to order beautiful weather. Not sure who handled that part of the event, but they did a good job.

John arranged for a number of speakers who included:
- Jim Browder / to kick things off
- Greg Redfern / NASA's 2-for-1 Return to the Moon
- Stu Beaber/ CCD imaging
- Jerry Hailey / Focus methods and Photoshop
- Dr. David Dunham / Lunar and Asteroid Occultations
- Peter S. Gural / Video Transient Detection
- Stephen Hamilton / Imaging

Tim arranged for the event to be held at the Heart of Virginia Scout Reservation, which is a great facility. It’s located well west of the lights from Richmond and has plenty of space to spread out and deploy telescopes (with AC power and rest rooms nearby). The large meeting hall / dining facility was perfect for presentations and meals to keep us energized.

A number of astronomers deployed solar scopes during the day – and one radio telescope. We were treated to views of solar prominences, even with the unusually quiet sun of recent months.

As night fell, more telescopes came out, Dobs, equatorial reflectors, refractors and at least one Schmidt Cassegrain. Using the club’s Stellacam video camera, we had some nice views of the moon, Saturn and its moons, the Orion Nebula in great detail and several star clusters. I took a few images of M13 after midnight and started to run out of steam about 2:00 AM. About that time, I checked with some other astronomers nearby, thinking they might be finishing up for the evening, but they were still going strong and treated me to even more stellar views. So I had to stay up a bit longer and hope for a second wind.

I just can’t say enough good about the event. John and Tim simply did a great job. Katie was a real trooper helping with the registration and Karen was good enough to put up with all of us. Thanks also to John and Prashant for the help with the RAS display; thanks to the RAS for supplying coffee, tea and snacks; and thanks to everyone who attended. I am really looking forward to the next event.

Please be sure to join us next time. We will be viewing some images of the event at the next RAS meeting on Tuesday, April 14 at the Science Museum. I have posted a short slide show on my web site at:

http://portableastronomy.com/vslc_2009.htm .

Regards,
Jim Browder
Richmond Astronomical Society