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

[Dominic-Luc Webb <dlwebb@canit.se>]

Maybe you could tell us about the Orange Blossom star party as well.
This is where I met Matt Terry and James Lerch, amongst others. Will
that still be public?

Dominic-Luc Webb


On Tue, 28 Nov 2006, Russell Jocoy wrote:

>
>
>     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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