Howard Astronomical League

A Singular Event

I was the only attendee for an impromptu star party at Alpha Ridge on December 20.  Temperatures were in the mid 30s, winds were calm and the sky was mostly clear, although some clouds moved through in the 7:00 hour.

I set up my Vespera EAA scope to image the Flaming Star and Tadpole Nebulae in Auriga and made some visual observations with my 8″ Celestron Starsense Explorer Dob.  I found a little dipper-shaped asterism of stars in Pisces via a few short star hops from the 4th-magnitude star Iota Piscium in the circlet of Pisces.  This object is number 107 in Stephen O’Meara’s book “Hidden Treasures.”  I then started observing the targets within 10 degrees of Polaris described in the “Suburban Stargazer” column from the November issue of Sky & Telescope.

Unfortunately, my observations were interrupted by an incident just before 8:00.  I was about to put in an O III filter to observe planetary nebula IC 3568 (Hidden Treasure 64), when I saw light spill out from one of the bathroom doors.   This was shocking because I had checked the park for cars and made sure that nobody was in the bathrooms before I locked the gates at 5:35.  I hadn’t propped open the restroom doors because I didn’t intend to stay as late as their automatic locking time, so I knew that they had been closed.  I watched the area for several seconds, wondering if I had really seen the light or just somehow imagined it, but then the light flashed again and I thought I heard one of the doors open.  I quickly grabbed my phone from the Starsense dock, jumped in my car and pulled out into the road in front of the bathrooms.  I stayed there for a minute or two and didn’t see anyone around, but I saw that the motion-triggered light was on in the men’s room.  I called a ranger, who told me that I could just lock up and leave and that one of the rangers might come around later in the night to check on things.  I turned on the park lights and locked up HALO and then packed up my gear while keeping an eye on the restroom area.  I saw a fox running down the road, but no humans.  I had the deadbolt locked on the HALO door while I was observing, so nobody could’ve gotten in there during that time.

I locked up the park gates and left at 8:35 without any further incidents.

Ernie

Three HAL members turned out on a chilly winter night for an impromptu star party at Alpha Ridge Park last night.  The temperature was 26 degrees when I took my sky quality meter readings at 8:35 PM, but there wasn’t any wind to speak of, so it was pretty tolerable.  Skies were clear for the whole evening, with transparency and seeing both seeming a little below average.

Welcome to Evelyn, who attended her first HAL impromptu!  She had intended to image M33 (Triangulum Galaxy) with a Canon DSLR and a 200 mm f/4 lens on a 3D-printed mount, but it was uncomfortably close to the zenith by the time she was ready to start, so she switched over to the North America Nebula (NGC 7000, Caldwell 20) in Cygnus instead.

Mike attended to test out his new mono camera.  He took test images of the Pleiades with the camera and his 122mm Svbony refractor.

I observed objects in Cepheus with my 8″ Celestron Starsense Explorer Dob, including double stars (beta, delta, kappa, xi and omicron Cephei), open clusters (NGCs 6939, 7160, 7380, 7510 and M52) and a challenging planetary nebula, the Bow-Tie Nebula (NGC 40, Caldwell 2).  I imaged the Fireworks Galaxy (NGC 6946) and the cluster NGC 6939 with my Vespera II EAA scope.  The Fireworks Galaxy is so named because it’s had 10 supernovae in the past century (most recently in 2017), which is roughly 10 times the rate in our galaxy.  No supernova last night, though, so no fireworks for me.

I locked up HALO and the park gates and departed at 9:15 PM.

Ernie

One night leads to the next day.

The night was nice and a little cold but the moon set early and 5 members attended the party. 4 of us were imaging and Earnie was doing some visual astronomy and also imaging with his Vespera.

For what I could see, one person was doing the helix nebula, another one the flaming star nebula, and I was doing the Pleiades.

I closed the park at around 11:45 pm as it got really cold and we did not prepare for it.

No incidents to report, however, I tested the red bollards as someone asked me last time and they all look fantastic with the new filters.

I also noticed the gate to the park is vent like of it was hit by a car or a truck. It made it quite difficult to close.

Jose Urias

Part 2

Just to report the second half of this impromptu star party. The first half of the party was hosted by Jose on November 23.

I arrived at Alpha Ridge Park at 3:35 am yesterday and unlocked the gate (the gate was very well locked so good job Jose!). I closed the gate with the bungee rubber band and left it unlocked.

I was the only member who showed up.

The weather was calm and the sky was clear. The temperature was in the mid 30’s.
I was able to capture some images for I3/ATLAS, though the guiding was barely tolerable. I haven’t got time to process the photos yet.

By the time I left Alpha Ridge around 6:15 am, apparently someone had widely opened the gate and parked a school bus at the entrance (inside the park). I left the gate as was.

The take home message is that I feel the eastern horizon of Alpha Ridge Park at the playground is as clear as the Carrs Mill park (though it is not available any more). For the clearest western horizon, no place is better than the Howard County Conservancy.

Richard Ren