[ATM] The last public Star Party at Chiefland , Florida

["Russell Jocoy" <russjocoy@hotmail.com>]

    To all on the list,     Went to the Chiefland Star party in north 
Florida last week.  There was about 300 attending, and it was as usual , 
clear skies, happy astronomer's, and as always many questions of some 
ATM'ers that had made there own gear ( not $15,000.00 TAK's or MEADE 
monsters stacked with so much crap that you can't even look through the 
eyepiece since it is now a CCD imaging system that must be viewed on a "red" 
screen,,  Oh and the image you are looking at is at an 8 second delay and 
the sensitivity makes a 14" cass look like a 20" dob..)
         I would rather look through a 20" DOB than a television screen 
imitating what I should see.
  I am sorry, technology is fantastic but when I am in dark skies I have to 
look through an eyepiece.
There were many there with huge "starmasters" and those new "aluminum" Dobs. 
My favorite was James Learch's 16 inch bino DOB with the GO-TO computer 
control. Although the dimension is all in the mind, it can make a galaxy 
have an axis and depth.. James has a great machine for looking at the 
cosmo's.
      The rumor ran around that weekend that this was the last star party 
for the public to attend.
In other words , if you are not a member , you may not attend. The annual 
"star party" in November is no longer... It has just gotten too big for the 
property owners (since this is private land).
     I enjoyed the star party and since I live in Florida I will become a 
member, but I will miss the festival crouds and vendor's...I am sure the 
resident's won't.......

    I had some great viewing time until the temperature dropped below 35 
degrees with so much dew and breeze that these bones could not take it 
anymore... My two DOB's dewed up big time,
Saturday morning they both had frost and ice on them (even with covers...) 
Someone said their thermometer said 28 degrees before sunrise, I don't know 
about that but I froze my butt off in my thick nylon tent...
     I have a question...   Does a primary mirror dew heater wrap around the 
circumference of the mirror, or does it make an array on the back?? Do you 
force warm air across the surface? (this does not sound correct, hot or warm 
air currents distort images)  I can deal with secondaries and eyepiece's but 
I have not heard of primary heaters for newtonian's or DOB's.. Most will say 
that it is not necessary, but sometimes it is, both my DOB's primaries dewed 
up with fabric shield's. This was heavy Dew-Dew.....   Russ Jocoy

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