Turn to the Dark Side, my young apprentice

(a.k.a.) The Laurel Highlands Star Cruise

WE WON, again: Our winnings weren't as big as last year, but our camp did well with respect to door prizes.  Chris O won the Orion case, Dave T won the planisphere, and I won the set of Night Sky Observer's guide.  I can't express how useful this book is to astrophotographers. 


Justin (left) and Rodger Blake with their 20" Obsession.  Outstanding views were had with this instrument!

Best Views:  during my imaging sessions I get to sneak wonderful views from others.  Thanks a bunch to all who shared wonderful views!

1. Pipe nebula:  I don't know that I have ever recorded an observation of this object.  I just could not get over the huge "black" spot on the sky known as the Pipe nebula.  I could see it as though it were in a photograph.  I have seen this in photographs numerous times, but this was so different.  This observation is what led me to seek out dark nebula for the weekend. 
   
2. Ink spot nebula (B86) through Dave Barrett's 24" Tectron and Rodger Blake's 20" Obsession.  The cluster alongside the dark nebula is truly one of my favorite visual objects.   Barnard's E nebula looked great in Larry's TV102.  I took out the Fuji 7 X 50's on Friday night and just used chart #22 in Tirion's atlas to peruse the numerous dark clouds in the Milky Way.  Too numerous to number, but what fun.
3. M51:  Holy cow.  I can't believe how this looked in 20" and 24" scopes.  It looked very similar to my raw CCD images.  I will never forget the visual structure of this galaxy on these two nights.
4. Comet Ikeya-Zhang.  I never even thought of trying to see this comet after the beautiful spring viewing.  A gentleman devoted to comet hunting had a gorgeous Fuji 25x150 binos on hand.  I was very impressed with the views of M81 and M82 with this instrument.  A pleasure to view through.  The comet was large and diffuse with a confirmed tail pointing westward I believe.  Always nice to view a beautiful comet in an instrument ideally suited for such an occasion.
5. I3 eyepiece on a 50mm lens.  Dave Barrett and Larry Peoples had an I3 eyepiece we used to scan the Milky Way.  The dark nebula literally jumped out at you.  Of course, our night vision was shot in the eye that we used to view through the night vision eyepiece.  Very cool.
6. Star Cloud M24.  If you ever have access to a big dob, just point it to the star cloud and scan.  It was a spectacular sight with numerous stars, open clusters, and dark clouds.  This is what the Milky Way is all about.
7. We looked at some beautiful emission nebula and globular clusters as well, but for me this was the weekend for turning to the "dark side" to explore the dark dust clouds of the Milky Way
   
   
   Marla, Dave, and Evan Tolley with the TV101 ready for some prime focus photography
    

Pine Hill is located about 10 minutes off of I-68 which runs just below the Mason-Dixon line. The elevation at the site is around 2,200 feet. It is a beautiful forested area with Morgantown the nearest city of consequence about 30 miles to the west.

Limiting Magnitude- Sky background flux of 70:  Now that I have begun imaging with CCD,   I can utilize technology in quantifying our sky conditions at Laurel Highlands.  I took background measurements on Saturday night.  Friday night was a little more transparent, but turbulent conditions prohibited imaging with CCD.  Here is a link to the mathematical calculations and theory behind the technique.  A special thanks to Stan Moore for making the webpage available!

http://home.earthlink.net/~stanleymm/StandardBackground.html

The numbers according to my camera (ST10e) have a background flux of 70.  That seems to compare very favorably with some of the darker imaging sites in the California mountain ranges. 

Light domes: There is one noticeable light dome to the north-northwest that is from the Uniontown area.  It rises no more than 15 degrees above the horizon and was not significant in any way.  75% of the sky is excellent.  The southern sky is gorgeous.

 
Chris and Larry Oyster with the TV102.  Larry observed some very dim objects courtesy of the outstanding skies at Laurel Highlands

Laurel Highlands Star Cruise: The Event

The field: The observing field is quite large and has plenty of room for more participants. It provides excellent horizons. There is no electricity on the field, however.  The bathhouses are located in the main camping area, which is about .3 miles away. It is a nice walk or a short drive. The bathhouses are comfortable and convenient. The field can accommodate large RV’s. The organizers sectioned off the entire field with observing spaces that were quite large. This really added structure to the field and provided defined areas for foot and vehicular traffic. The heavy rains on Thursday really created a mud-bog on Friday.  The hot Sun and gentle wind dried the field much quicker than I ever would have expected.  I feared that the ground moisture was going to lead to ground fog on Friday night.  The sky could not have been clearer on Friday night.  We were very relieved.


Click here for a full mosaic of the field (660K!) ( with a gap here and there<g>)  I should have taken this in the morning-oh well

Chris Oyster presents his 4" reflector to the group touring unique telescopes.  This is a reflector of unknown make that has been refurbished and painted and gave some pretty nice views.