[Friends_of_SSASTROS] Notes From The Field: It Was a Successful Outing

[Mike McCabe]

Greetings Members and Friends of the SSAStros,
Somewhere on the order of about fifteen club members descended on the western edge of the parking lot at the Granite Links golf club last night, and a splendid time was had by all. We did indeed get to see comet 12/P Pons-Brooks in our eyepieces, along with many other objects as well. The sky cooperated by remaining perfectly clear throughout the evening, and with the wind having died down to practically nothing the temperatures weren't bad either.

Myself, Ed Leahy and Alden Wells were there pretty early, and things got started right away. This locale is also extremely popular with sunset watchers, so there was no shortage of company. In the photo above is a sweet group of Irish kids that had come up for the sunset but got a lucky bonus for their efforts - some great looks at the planet Jupiter! Even in the bright twilight sky the planet was sharp and clear, with two or three of the Galilean's hovering nearby. Those kids were blown away!

After a round of low power views, I tried pushing the magnification up a little to see what would happen. That planet really came alive at 140x, showing off many bands on the surface and also bringing out the Galilean moons even more vividly. It was an interesting experience. The seeing was steady, but it wasn't. The image being put up by the scope was sharp, but it also jittered to and fro in the eyepiece, something that one of the guest girls picked up on and mentioned as she was getting up from the scope.

As twilight wore on, more and more folks arrived to set up. Eventually we had, in a row from south to north, Alden Wells with his 4" Televue refractor, myself with a 10" Newt/Dob, Jim Rutledge with his 80mmED refractor, Ed Leahy with his Redcat/ZWO combo, Nick Fontaine with his 8"SCT/DSLR combo, Louis with his 18" Newt/Dob, Bob Sorenson with his mounted 20x80's, and Bob Koditek with his Edge 8" SCT. If I missed somebody I apologize, and please do shout out if I did!

By 7pm things were in full swing along 'scope row'. Additional club members continued to drop in, many with binos strapped around their necks, and folks just bopped from scope to scope comparing views of the comet and many other objects. Visitors continued to pop on over from the parking lot where not an empty slot was observed, it being stuffed to the gills with patrons of the golf club restaurant which was obviously a very popular draw for folks from all around the area. Many got to see the comet, M31, Jupiter, and a host of other objects as they toured the 'SSAS Scope Walk at Granite Links'. All enjoyed their views and were very appreciative of the lucky surprise opportunity to have a look through the scopes.
In many ways the event was an unremitting success. We had a good sky, we had a good turnout, and we got to see what we came for. But the light pollution factor definitely weighed negatively on the experience and was the source of some frustrations over the course of the evening. The larger reflector scopes seemed to be particularly vulnerable to sucking in extraneous light, rendering the contrast to a severely muted level. This was a bit of a disappointment as we were hoping that the light buckets would pull out some definitive tail on the comet. Alas, such is the unfortunate balancing act when you're trying to host a group of observers and at the same time you need a low western horizon to see the object of your desires. Low western horizon sites with dark skies don't exactly abound around our parts, so the old saying you have to take the bad with the good applies aptly in these cases.
Speaking of the comet's tail, several observers said they were experiencing at least fleeting glimpses of it, even in the abysmal light pollution situation. Folks were trying all kinds of things - low power wide field, high power for sky background darkening, averted vision, filtering, and whatever else they could think of to eke out every last photon from the view. When the comet finally got too low you could look around and see the optical instruments pointed in all directions - from as close as the buildings in Boston, all the way out to the Andromeda Galaxy. As I said earlier, it was a splendid evening and I don't think anyone left there disappointed. We were together, at our eyepieces and cameras. It's a place we all enjoy being in, so it was a good night.
Keep Looking Up!
Sincerely,
Mike McCabe







-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ssastros.org/pipermail/friends_of_ssastros_ssastros.org/attachments/20240309/5a2c57d5/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 1710005471666blob.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 3886251 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://ssastros.org/pipermail/friends_of_ssastros_ssastros.org/attachments/20240309/5a2c57d5/attachment.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 1710005750530blob.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 4978481 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://ssastros.org/pipermail/friends_of_ssastros_ssastros.org/attachments/20240309/5a2c57d5/attachment-0001.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 1710006192981blob.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 3941397 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://ssastros.org/pipermail/friends_of_ssastros_ssastros.org/attachments/20240309/5a2c57d5/attachment-0002.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 1710008546381blob.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 3900927 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://ssastros.org/pipermail/friends_of_ssastros_ssastros.org/attachments/20240309/5a2c57d5/attachment-0003.jpg>