On 9/18/23 I drove up to Fair Haven State Park near Oswego in order to attempt to see the Aurora activity that night. As the skies looked to be clear I took a chance on the drive, unfortunately when I arrived there were a few too many clouds forming off the lake to really see the Aurora clearly. Still I got the DSLR out to take a time lapse. After a few minutes I noticed a strange phenomenon off to the west that went high over the lake and was not something I had seen before. It was not clouds […]
Observation Report
This weekend I attended the Black Forrest Star Party at Cherry Springs in Pennsylvania. There were over 400 people in attendance. Visitors ranged from fairly new to the hobby, to people with many years of experience and included visual and AP. We had nearly clear skies for both nights of the Star Party. Friday was perfect with not a cloud all night, Saturday wasn’t bad either with only a few high occasional clouds, and the skies stayed clear until about 5:00AM. I was able to look at many targets visually through other people’s Dobsonians, and see details I had never […]
Last night, July 26th, was one of the best transparency nights of the year. Chris, Evan, Rob, Mike F. and I trekked down to DHO for the evening. If I remember correctly, Mike resumed yesterday’s mission to observe the Milky Way, Rob observed Messier objects in the SE sky with his Dob. Evan and Chris imaged the Western Veil, while I slewed around looking for juicy Messier targets. The Milky Way’s dust lanes, Galaxies and nebulae observations and images were much crisper than usual. The Andromeda galaxy and the Comet C/2017 K2 were especially nice tonight. (See below). The cooler […]
Twelve members took time out of their busy schedules to schlep their gear to DHO for a wonderful night on the hill. The temps outside hovered around freezing once the sun set, but the chartroom was heated and lots of home sapiens added to the warmth…both physically and mentally…and with Mike Z’s thoughtfulness, we had a plethora of Vitamin O modalities to explore…bakery-style, gluten free, and classic Oreo’s to keep us going throughout the night. A few of the observers were die-hard astrophotographers, but there were quite a variety of stargeeks on the lawn. Mike F brought his lawn chair […]