Howard Astronomical League

In what was possibly the coldest star party ever run by HAL — the
temperature started the night at about 23 degrees Fahrenheit (-5C) and
ended at about 5 degrees (-15C); see the attached plot of temperature
(red line) from a data logging device I use — seven intrepid HAL
members came to Alpha Ridge Park for last night’s impromptu star party.
There were some clouds early on, after a beautifully clear day.  I
suspect that the clouds were mostly airplane contrails blown in by the
jet stream, but I cannot be certain of that.  They cleared out by about
8:30pm, though, and the rest of the night was clear.  Transparency was
about average after the clouds left, and the seeing was not very good.

Everyone was imaging tonight; there were no visual observers except a
family of apparently former HAL members who dropped by for a few minutes
to see the nonexistent auroras.  They unsuccessfully tried to capture
the auroras with a cell phone and were thus imaging, too.  Bill used his
ZWO Seestar S50 to image the Orion Nebula (M42) and the Pleiades (M45),
but the clouds thwarted his efforts to a large degree.  Ruth and her
husband, Eric, used a ZWO Seestar S30 to image the Pleiades, also.  Todd
imaged the Orion Nebula with his William Optics 91mm refractor, and Jose
imaged Bode’s Galaxy (M81) and the Cigar Galaxy (M82) with an Apertura
8-inch Carbonstar RC telescope.  I spent the entire night imaging the
Crab Nebula (M1) with my 8-inch RC scope; I have attached the Pixinsight
Livestack image of the R-filter after cropping and applying a separate
stretch to the data.  Gary left as I was talking to everyone and I
didn’t find out what he was doing, but it was good to see him.

I finished my imaging at about 2:00am, then collected by flats and
packed up.  I locked the park gate at 3:35am.

It was nice to see all the members who came out for the night; hopefully
we can get together again soon, hopefully under warmer conditions.

Wayne B.

First of the Year

Six HAL members attended the first impromptu star party of 2026 on the balmy (for January) evening of January 7th.  The temperature was in the low 50s at sunset and down to 40 by 9:30 PM.  Winds were calm and the sky was clear except for a large band of clouds that moved through quickly around 8:00.  Seeing and transparency were both about average.  Zenith sky quality measurement with my Unihedron SQM-L was 19.18 mag/as^2 at 9:30.

Welcome to Sam, who attended his first impromptu star party!  He was trying out a new Apertura 8″ Dob reflector with a custom-built tracking platform and an electronic focuser.  He got in some visual observations of Saturn and Jupiter.

Evelyn was also trying out new equipment, a Skywatcher Esprit 80mm refractor and mount.  She was taking some test images of the Pleiades, and the setup was working really well.

Todd was using a Williams Optics refractor to image the Orion Nebula.  He initially had some problems with auto focusing, but he was able to diagnose and correct the issue and ended up getting impressive results.

Paul was struggling with a stubborn Celestron 6″ catadioptric and I don’t know if he was ever able to get it working.  He didn’t leave early, so I hope he was able to overcome the issues and get in some observing.

Bill was running not one, but two EAA scopes!  He had a Seestar imaging the Crab Nebula (M1) and a Celestron Origin imaging the Flaming Star Nebula (IC 405, Caldwell 31) in Auriga.

I did visual observing with my 8″ Celestron Starsense Explorer Dob.  I started with the double star 3 Pegasi, which makes a nice double-double with STT 443 in the field (7′ north preceding) and I also observed the showpiece double Acamar in Eridanus when it transited at 8:00 at an altitude of just 10 degrees.  The Starsense Explorer app was able to find it in the extreme southern sky glow, although the 3rd and 4th magnitude white stars (separated by 8.6″) looked about 2 magnitudes fainter and it was difficult to keep them in focus.  I also observed Jupiter as the great red spot transited the meridian and the outstanding open cluster M37 in Auriga, which Stephen O’Meara describes as “a 9th-magnitude topaz jewel surrounded by a pear-shaped cluster of scintillating diamonds.”  I also continued a mosaic of the Flaming Star Nebula and the Tadpole Nebula (IC 410) with my Vaonis Vespera II EAA telescope, capturing 577 ten-second exposures before having to stop at 8:30 when Auriga got too high in the sky.

My only new equipment was a red 20-oz. Yeti insulated travel mug that my parents got me for Christmas.  I filled it with 12 oz. of hot chocolate from Starbucks on the way to Alpha Ridge, and it did a fine job of keeping it hot as I sipped it between observations.  However, it wasn’t a great test night, as it was so balmy.  Looking forward to trying it when it’s down in the 20s!

I locked up HALO and the park gates just after 10:00 PM and had a very pretty view of the rising moon as I drove east on I-70.

Appendix A:  my recent sky quality measurements:
11/13 Sky Meadows State Park in Virginia:  20.41
11/23 Alpha Ridge:  19.20
12/12  Alpha Ridge:  19.06
12/23 parents’ backyard in Michigan:  20.26 (bad night, I usually get around 20.7 here)
1/7  Alpha Ridge: 19.18

Ernie

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