TED'S ASTROPIX:

THE BLACK FOREST STAR PARTY PAGE

© 2011 Ted Saker, Jr. All rights reserved.

Country of First Publication: The United States of America
These works are for the personal viewing and enjoyment of visitors to this site.
Any and all commercial use of these images is absolutely, strictly and totally prohibited without my consent.
Remember, I sue people professionally. Besides astronomy, it's what I live for.

Black Forest Star Party 2011 (August 25-28, 2011)

August 31, 2011: This year's edition of the Black Forest Star Party was held at the Cherry Springs (PA) State Park near the town of Coudersport, from August 26 to 28. Sponsored by the Central Pennsylvania Observers, the event drew approximately 500 attendees from the northeast, midwest and Canada. Given the competition from Starfest and Almost Heaven Star Parties, I was surprised at how well attended the star party was. I had agreed to serve as lackey to my good friend Joe Golias, and we worked the Astrozap booth Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon, August 24, and set up our imaging rigs. There was no opportunity to uncover the telescope as the clouds gave way to thunderstorms late in the evening. Thursday dawned cloudy again, but by late afternoon, clear skies appeared and the fun began. Transparency was excellent but seeing was no better than average. I spent the bulk of the evening on one target: the Trifid Nebula. Over the years I have been imaging, I have tried on several occasions to obtain a decent tri-color image and failed to achieve satisfactory results. Armed with reasonably current equipment, I set to work at astronomical twilight. At this time of year, the Trifid has nearly transited at that time, and ends up in the trees in about three hours. I used all of the time available to acquire the luminance, blue and green layers. During the run, I used the time to troll the fields looking in various telescopes. I observed Comet Garadd juxtaposed with M 71 and M22 in a 16” Lightbridge, M51 in an Orion XT10, and generally scanned the very nice dark skies with a pair of binoculars. By the time the Trifid hit the trees, I had only obtained one quarter of the number of red layers. In addition, despite the use of dew heating equipment, the amount of moisture in the air caused dew to form on my corrector plate, thereby ending the imaging run rather prematurely. I run my dew fighting equipment off of a battery that is not up to the challenge of a really humid night.

Friday's daylight hours had the group on edge. Overcast skies had moved in again. By afternoon, the skies turned to partly cloudy and solar observing became possible. I noticed a lot of solar activity—numerous flares and a long dark fissure. By dusk, skies had cleared again, but transparency was not nearly as good as the previous evening even if seeing was better. I was able to complete the red layers on the Trifid and this time, I cranked up the power on the dew heaters high enough to prevent dew from forming. Coincidentally, the battery ran out as I finished my run. While taking images, I walked the field again looking through other telescopes. I believe that Comet Garadd made its closest approach to M 71 that evening, and the pair was a striking site. The comet had a short, wedge-shaped tail and a pronounced coma that set nicely against the hard stellar points of the nearby globular cluster. NGC 891 was another excellent sight. It was a snap to find it. The dust lane was very pronounced. The Double Cluster looked beautiful: a double handful of diamond dust scattered against a black velvet background.

Unfortunately, that was all the telescope time I got. Saturday was clouded out. Many of the attendees who live in the east had packed up and left in order to beat Hurricane Irene to their homes. That, at least, allowed me to sample the food vendor's offerings, which were quite good. Sunday morning brought the storm's leading edge surprisingly far west, making packing conditions less than ideal. An ill-timed microburst snapped one of my tent poles (the same one broken at TSP 2010) as I was taking down the tent. The cloud deck did not give way until I was well into Ohio. That was a monster of a storm even if damage was far less than predicted.

I have attended three BFSPs. I like the location, being only a day's drive from Columbus. It's a dedicated dark sky site with Bortle 2 conditions and indoor plumbing (a real plus). The park maintains three domes on site. I never really checked to see what kind of telescopes are in them. The downside is that the site is on the north slope of the Appalachians and observing conditions tend to be very unpredictable. It's not a site that you can go to for a night's observing as you are very likely to be clouded out. The best way to enjoy this site is to plan to spend several days there. This increases the chances of getting at least one good night in, which had been the case for the previous two BFSPs. When the weather cooperates, it is truly “lights out” at Cherry Springs. All in all, it is a fine event and I was very pleased with the Trifid image I obtained.

IMAGES FROM BFSP 2011

IMAGES FROM BFSP 2010

Clear (and Dark) Skies!

Back to Home Page