HAL Star Party Reports and Other News
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2024 Star Party Reports
Public Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 11/09/2024
(The One with as Many Clouds as Girl Scouts)
Last night marked our final public star party of 2024, and despite the
clouds trying to get in the way, it was an incredible success! Over 250
people joined us, and with 15 telescopes set up—including our observatory's
telescope—there was plenty to see and experience.
A huge thank you to all the HAL volunteers who dedicated their time to make
this event possible. Your expertise, communication skills, and enthusiasm
truly enhanced the experience for our guests. Dale, a special shoutout to
you for creating an interactive, engaging atmosphere inside HALO—it made a
lasting impact!
Our public star parties will return in March 2025, but our monthly meetings
will continue on the third Thursday of each month. If you're not yet a
member and want to learn more about HAL or join us, visit our website at
https://howardastro.org.
Clear Skies!
Phil
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 11/07/2024
(The One with Various Widefield DSLR Imaging)
Five HAL members joined me at Alpha Ridge for an impromptu Thursday
night. We enjoyed mild weather and mostly clear skies. James, Shrikant
and I were doing widefield DSLR imaging of various deep sky objects -- the
comet and double cluster for me, the Veil for Shrikant, and Andromeda &
Pinwheel for James. Gary was imaging the Lagoon Nebula with his
excellent Origin smart scope. Ernie was imaging a series of southern
Messier globulars with his smart scope and doing visual with his DOB.
And Sam did some imaging of the Dumbbell Nebula.
We all shut down by 11 pm and I closed the park at 11:30.
Victor
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 11/05/2024
(The One with a Frustrating Battle with the Clouds)
It was a rather frustrating night of observing for Tuesday night's
impromptu star party. Unfortunately, it appears that the most
pessimistic cloud forecast was also the most accurate, and we fought
bands of clouds moving through from soon after sunset until we closed.
However, eight HAL members came out to give it a try, and between the
clouds some enjoyable observing was accomplished.
Two members, Molly and Dick, were doing binocular observing of the
not-so-dark skies, while Denise and Mike were observing with their
5-inch Newtonian on a Dobsonian mount. Govind used the club's 16-inch
Meade scope (which he donated to us! Thanks!) for some visual
observations. Ernie was doing double duty -- visual observing with his
8-inch Newtonian on a Dob mount while imaging with his Vaonis Vespera
EAA scope. Shrikant and I were both concentrating solely on our
imaging. Observing continued until the early hour of about 9:30pm, when
what appeared to be the fatal batch of clouds arrived, and Ernie and I
called it quits. I locked the gate at 11:05am.
Thanks to everyone who came out. It was nice meeting/seeing you all,
and I hope we can do it again soon, perhaps with better conditions.
Wayne B.
Members-Only Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 11/02/2024
(The One with a Pretty Good Crowd for a Saturday)
To steal a line from Billy Joel: "It was a pretty good crowd for a
Saturday." About 25 HAL members, families, and guests came to Alpha
Ridge Park for the last Members-Only Star Party of 2024. The weather
was good, as was the seeing, but the transparency didn't quite meet the
expectations of the forecasts. Also, there was just the slightest layer
of frost on the roof of the car when I left, so winter is approaching.
It was a good mix of visual observing and imaging among the attendees,
and everyone had a great time. The forecast clouds did arrive a bit
before midnight, and they eventually ended the gathering at about
12:45am when Jose and I called it quits. Attached is my image of
NGC 891
(edge-on spiral galaxy in Andromeda) that I obtained during the evening.
While that was the last scheduled Members-Only Star Party for the year,
we will continue observing through the winter via impromptu star
parties. Be sure you are signed up for the impromptu notices if you
want to participate in them. Also, our final Public Star Party is
coming up on Saturday, November 9, and everyone is encouraged to attend
that, as well.
I locked the gate at 1:55am.
Wayne B.
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 10/27/2024
(The One with the Andromeda Galaxy and the Pleiades)
The night of October 27th was a quiet one a only 6 members showed up but
it was still a fun one.
We had some visual observations of Andromeda galaxy and the Pleiades
through binoculars and push-to telescopes as well as some imaging of the
Veil nebula and the Pleiades.
I closed the park at 1 am when it started to get cloudy. We had no
inconveniences during that time.
I am including the image I took from the Pleiades. It is my first time
doing this target and didn't realize how difficult it would be to get the
nebulosity without blowing the stars at the same time but it was still
pretty fun to work on this. [Click once or twice for a better view.]
Jose
Public Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 10/26/2024
(The One with Girl Scouts, Planets, DSOs and a Comet)
Last night, over 150 guests enjoyed a stellar evening at Alpha Ridge at
our monthly public star party as part of the Maryland STEM Festival. I
kicked off the festivities with a guided Solar System Walk for two Girl
Scout troops and their parents. Around 30 HAL members and a few guests
set up a large variety of observing equipment to show off views of the
night sky. Krystal, Bob, and Arjun entertained a constant stream of
visitors to their activity tables. With no moon interfering, planets and
DSO’s were the stars of the show. Every time I tried to move to another
target from Saturn on the 16” Meade, another group would approach to take
a look. Inside HALO, Victor held court displaying Venus, Saturn, Comet
C/2023 A3 (absolutely breathtaking through the Illig scope), Andromeda,
the Pinwheel Galaxy, and the Veil Nebula with a guest appearance by Hannah
at the controls. Curiosity, excellent questions, and amazement ruled the
night. Seeing improved throughout the evening, and the last guests left a
little before 11pm with another successful star party in the books. The
next and the last public star party of 2024 is just two weeks away on 9
November.
Enjoy these clear skies while they last.
Joel
David Stein added:
I ended up showing comet C/2023 A3 at the public star party Saturday for
about an hour on my Seestar, so I ended up with a lot of pictures in
storage. I thought I'd do something a bit different, so this is a movie
showing the comet moving against the stars from about 7 - 8 PM. (You also
get quite a bit of field rotation from the Seestar). It's pretty amazing
that you can see the comet move against the stars in only an hour at a
distance of millions of miles, it gives a sense of how fast it is zooming
out of the solar system.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Aj9TSkBaGtAegZjt8
This is 13 photos, each made up of 10-second subs covering about 4
minutes. Each set of subs was individually stacked in Siril and then they
were all aligned in PiPP and fed to an online movie maker. Some of the
stacks had quite a bit more subs than others because I was constantly
stopping and starting to show visitors the difference between the live and
stacked view, which is why some of the pictures are much brighter and more
detailed than others.
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 10/22/2024
(The One with College Students Joining HAL Members )
Last night's impromptu at Alpha Ridge Park was enjoyed by five HAL
members and three local college students. Conditions were rather nice
early, with comfortable temperatures and calm winds. Seeing was good at
the end of astronomical twilight but degraded a bit a couple of hours
later. Transparency was good all night although not spectacularly
good. Dew became a bit of an issue very late but it was manageable.
Ernie and Evan were both imaging M33 (Triangulum Galaxy) with their
smart scopes, while also observing visually with their 8-inch Newtonians
on Dob mounts. Evan was doing a sky tour and viewed M57 (Ring Nebula),
and M15 (globular cluster in Pegasus) among other objects. Ernie
observed numerous double stars in Ophiuchus, Lacerta, Corona Borealis,
and other constellations, as well as M30 (globular in Capricornus), and
Saturn and Jupiter. Kurt imaged the Lobster Claw Nebula (Sharpless 157)
in Cassiopeia through a dual-band SII/OIII filter with his Askar V 80mm
refractor, and discussed things with John. I imaged the galaxy cluster
Abell 347 in Andromeda with my 8-inch Ritchey-Chretien scope, adding to
the data I collected earlier in the month. The local college students
were doing visual observations with a 12-inch Newtonian on a Dob mount.
I provided them information about the club and encouraged them to join.
All in all it was a pleasant night under the skies and I enjoyed seeing
(and meeting) all of you. I hope we can all do it again soon.
I locked the gate at 3:35am.
Wayne B.
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 10/18 and 10/20/2024
(The One with a Bonus SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Launch)
This is a combined report for the past 2 Star parties.
Starting with the one on Thursday 10/18, we had a clear sky with a bright
moon. 8 members visited throughout the night, and the majority only stayed for
a few hours.
We also welcomed 2 new members who joined on the spot to stay and watch the
comet.
I would like to suggest we print a QR code that leads to the sign-up page and
another one for information as we have been lucky to have more people
interested in joining on the spot to stay during some of the impromptu events.
I closed the park at 1 am that night with no eventualities.
As for yesterday, we also enjoyed a clear night and the moon was slightly less
bright.
We had 9 members visiting to see the comet and image planets and DSO.
I will be including a picture that I took of the comet with the new Carbonstar
150 I got. It is a single shot of 30 seconds.
Dana got to try the Seestar for the first time and enjoyed a view of the moon
with her binoculars. She also delighted us with some home baked snacks (they
were so good!).
I would say the highlight of the night (at least to me) was seeing what the
Celestron Origin can do. Gary showed us some of the images he was taking with
it and it was by far the most impressive smart telescope I have seen until now.
I closed the park at 2 am as I was very excited starting to image Orion’s
nebula.
The night also went uneventfully except for the moment I felt my soul living
my body when a bunch of coyotes started to howl together out of nowhere at 1
am.
I want to end by welcoming the new members to this wonderful community of
friendly space nerds.
I’ll try to host impromptu parties as much as I can during this fall season.
Jose Urias
David Stein added:
At the impromptu at Alpha Ridge Friday night around 7:30, we were lucky enough
to see a launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida. I didn't get a
picture, but the meteorologist Ava Marie (from WBAL TV) did post a video on
Twitter and Instagram that looked just like what we saw:
https://x.com/AvaWBAL/status/1847427956915781895
https://www.instagram.com/p/DBSNmNnSTpz/
I saw a space shuttle launch from AR many years ago so I knew it was possible
to see a Florida rocket launch there, but it was a totally unexpected bonus to
see this one!
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 10/10/2024
(The One with the Aurora Photos)
Yesterday was a busy night at Alpha Ridge Park.
We had 8 members showing up and also a lot of non-members.
For a lot of us, it was the first time experiencing auroras so you could hear the
excited shouts when they became visible with the naked eye.
Unfortunately, we did have some issues with some people leaving the park and not
closing the gates behind them, resulting in way too many vehicles coming in with high
beams and driving fast by the observatory, making us feel uneasy and spending so much
energy in turning them away.
I also had some people telling me "Their friend" from HAL, told them to go there but
their friend was not with them.
Please correct me if I am wrong but we are only supposed to have a certain amount of
guests at private events and they are under our responsibility, so members have to be
present with their guests.
I would like to ask all members to please don't send family or friends to the park
during impromptu star parties, especially if you're not going to be there because they
are going to be turned away and if it gets out of control, I will end the impromptu
star party if I am hosting it (I was about to do it last night because it got a little
bit out of control and I spent more time stressed about it than enjoying the event).
I understand these are wonderful natural events and they are not very common, but we
also have a responsibility to the park and the other members, and my priority when I
host is to do my best to keep it safe and enjoyable for our members. Keyholders also
want to be able to enjoy their time there rather than wasting energy asking people to
leave or join the club (We actually got at least 2 new members last night who signed up
to stay for the event).
We offer public star parties once a month for the general public to go there if they
want to.
I am including here some of my pictures of the aurora for you to see how it looked.
We closed the park around 1:20 am with no other incidents.
Jose Urias
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 10/08/2024
(The One with Elusive Photons but Clear Skies After Midnight )
We had to work hard for photons for the first part of the night at Alpha
Ridge Park -- clouds kept blowing through every 20 to 30 minutes. But
just after midnight the skies cleared and the second half of the night
was very nice. Nine HAL members came out for the tussle with the
clouds, and two of us enjoyed the clear skies after midnight.
As usual, the observers represented a wide range of techniques and
targets. Dana stopped by to pick up the HAL loaner Seestar S50 smart
scope, and to get some help using it from Steve. Steve was using his
Seestar S50 for imaging while doing some visual observing with his
8-inch Dob-mounted Newtonian. Ernie also used an 8-inch Dob-mounted
Newt while imaging the North American and Pelican Nebulae as a mosaic
and M33 (Triangulum Galaxy) with his Vaonis Vespera smart scope. Gary
also combined techniques by visually observing with his Celestron
9.25-inch SCT and imaging with his new Celestron Origin smart scope.
The rest of us restricted ourselves to a single observing mode. Dave was
imaging with his Seestar S50, and I imaged the galaxy cluster Abell 347
with my 8-inch RC. Victor used the HALO Illig scope to image the Veil
Nebula between the clouds. Benjamin imaged with his Apertura 75Q
refractor. Finally, Alvin imaged M33 with his Svbony 80mm refractor
while experimenting with nightscape photography with a star tracker.
Despite the clouds during the first half of the night, it was a fine
night of observing and conversing. It's always great to see members
helping each other out -- that's one of the reasons being a HAL member
is so rewarding. I look forward to doing it all again soon! I locked the gate at 4:05am.
Wayne B.
Impromptu Star Party (Carrs Mill) 10/06/2024
(The One with Several Early Birds but No Comet)
Well, [10/06 was] just one of those days which the odds are against common
sense, but you still want to give it a try. Because it is fun!
I opened Carrs Mill gate at 4:20 am and in total 4 members showed up. No
complaints about the sky condition (definitely more stars visible than
Alpha Ridge) and the open eastern horizon, albeit the three feet tall
grasses are too wet (I am still drying my shoes on deck). For a while, Jim
was literally hiding in the grass jungle.
When Stellarium told me
C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS)
is at the horizon around 6:20 am, the
eastern horizon was already too bright for objects with magnitude of 1 (my
ZWO exposure time had to be reduced to less than 10 ms per frame to avoid
the saturation). I was able to capture a passing airplane (because it is
black against the sunlight).
We started to wrap up around 6:40 and I left the last around 7:10 am. The
gate was left open.
Best luck to C/2023 A3 to pass the perihelion!
Richard
Members-Only Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 10/05/2024
(The One with TBD )
[TBD - Awaiting report.]
Public Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 9/14/2024
(The One With 300 Stargazers and 23 Scopes)
See Victor's report on a separate page.
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 9/02/2024
(The One with Great Conditions and Naked-Eye Milky Way)
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We had a great time during the last impromptu Star party at Alpha Ridge.
I counted 8 members, including me, who attended it. Some of us stayed until
2:30 am due to the great conditions.
Surprisingly it was so clear that we were able to see the Milky Way with the naked eye as well as
Andromeda, and I personally counted 9 shooting stars.
I am attaching a mosaic photo of Andromeda Galaxy produced with the Vespera. I
am hoping to learn how to do the stacking of the mosaic in PixInsight but in
the meantime, here is what the scope produced itself after 2 hours of 10-second frames.
Jose Urias
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Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 8/24/2024
(The One with a Fire Meteor and Smoke Screen)
The impromptu star party last night was quite busy. Eight HAL members joined the party.
The Park Ranger showed up around 9 pm and kindly unlocked the bathroom for us (and kept it open with a door blocker).
I watched a small fire meteor in the southeast sky around 9:30 pm, the first one in my life.
The meteor lasted at least one second.
The weather was quite cooperative with
no cloud patches interfering. However, the smoke screen became an issue after 11 pm,
especially in the southern sky. We started to wrap up around 11:30 pm.
I locked the bathroom and park gate around 12:10 am.
I managed to capture some photons from the eagle nebula before the smoke screen kicked in:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/191436936@N02/53947440475/in/album-72177720315183401
Richard Ren
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 8/23/2024
(The One with 13 Night Owls)
The night of 08/23 was pretty nice and 13 members showed up to the party, some of them
attending for the first time to an impromptu star party.
The weather was nice, not too cold or hot, and thankfully, there were no mosquitoes
(at least they didn't bother me that night).
I closed the park close to 3 am with 2 other members who stayed that late and we had no inconveniences.
Jose Urias
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 8/11/2024
(The One with a Meteor Shower!)
[On 8/11] we had a phenomenal time at Alpha Ridge park observing the meteor shower.
We had a total of 6 members showing up and 5 of us stayed until the end. Despite the clouds,
we were able to enjoy moments of clarity, nice conversations, a tiny glimpse of Aurora,
and Brownies brought by Dana.
The clouds appeared and disappeared throughout the night but for the most part they stayed
away from the Cassiopeia area where we were able to observe most of the Meteors.
We closed the park around 2:20 am with no inconveniences.
There are 2 things that are worth mentioning though. The bungee cord we have used before to
keep the gates closed disappeared so we used the chain to keep the gate closed, and we don’t
have any more sheets to log the Star parties in the log book in the observatory.
Jose Urias
Public Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 8/10/2024
(The One with Tropical Storm Concerns and a Cub Scout Troop)
See Neville's report with photos submitted by 3 members/officers.
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 7/28/2024
(The One with Imaging Between the Clouds and Smoke)
HAL's July 28 impromptu star party was a marginal success, having high
clouds and possibly wildfire smoke around all evening. It was too
cloudy to do much observing early, but four of us showed up to give it a
try. Ernie was observing visually with his 8-inch Newtonian on a Dob
mount. Unfortunately, he was having issues with his cell phone finder
device and could not find his targets. The problem was probably the sky
conditions interfering with the wide-angle view of the sky and failing
to get a good plate solve solution, and he left by about 11pm.
Late in the evening, around 11:15pm, conditions started getting better,
but they never became good; just good enough to keep imaging
through/between the clouds. Sundar was using a 130mm Newtonian for
visual observing while acquiring images with the HAL loaner Seestar S50
smartscope. After some initial pointing issues with the Seestar, he
managed to obtain a reasonable image of M51 as it was in a relatively
clear region in the northwestern sky.
Benjamin was using a Rokinon telephoto lens with a ZWO color camera
equipped with an Optolong L-Extreme dualband (H-alpha and [OIII]) filter
to image the Rho Ophiuchi area far in the south, and later the Veil
Nebula. The clouds were something of a problem, but he managed to get
some acceptable data. I used my 8-inch RC monochrome camera with
H-alpha and [OIII] filters to image a portion of the western Veil nebula.
At about 1:30am the night-ending round of clouds came in and Benjamin
and I started closing up. I locked the gate at 2:35am. Thanks to
everyone who came out -- it was nice seeing you and chatting. Hopefully
we can all do it again sometime soon!
Wayne B.
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 7/14/2024
(The One with Some Ups and Downs, Improving After Midnight)
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The star party from 7/14 had some ups and downs.
For the first few hours, we had a semi-clear sky that made it difficult to polar
align, and then from 11 pm to 12 am it got cloudy, however, after midnight it got
perfectly clear again and we were able to enjoy the night sky for a little while
after.
Four members (including me) showed up to this party and I closed the park at 1 am.
I took a few images of the Wizard Nebula during the short time of semi-clear sky
before midnight, and then I went back to gather more light of the Eagle Nebula (I'll
include images).
Ernie brought his Dobsonian and was looking at star clusters, while Alvin had some
technical difficulties and left while it was cloudy, and Benjamin decided to go for
the Eagle Nebula as well.
We experienced no other difficulties besides the uninvited clouds.
Jose Urias
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Public Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 7/13/2024
(The One with 20 Scopes and New Kid-Friendly Activity Tent)
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It's 11 PM, and we're closing up Alpha Ridge Park after a successful but mostly cloudy public star party.
Close to 20 scopes were set up and pointed at the moon and an occasional deep sky object when a
sucker hole opened up. None of the 100-150 guests seemed disappointed as Bob Savoy had a solar system
display set up, and Dale Ghent was entertaining folks in HALO with occasional live views supplemented
with some cosmic presentations. The 16” Meade was out, and its views elicited the usual WOW's.
Several SeeStar's were displayed, and folks were fascinated.
The coolest new addition to our star party was Krystal Rolon's pop-up tent with kids activities and
coloring stations inside. The red lights around the tent were a great touch.
Time to lock up the gate. Good night,
Joel Goodman, Mike Kraus, Dale Ghent
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Members-Only Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 7/06/2024
(The One with almost New Moon but Clouds)
It was a hot day and evening, and 6 HAL members tried to enjoy the night
of almost New Moon for the July Members-Only Star Party at Alpha Ridge
Park. Unfortunately, the skies were cloudy and the hoped-for clearing
never materialized, so we started packing up just after 10pm; I closed
the gate at 10:50pm.
Thanks to the members who came out for the disappointing conditions; I
enjoyed chatting with each of you and hope see you all again on a clear
night soon.
Wayne B.
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 7/02/2024
(The One with More Eagle Nebula Photos)
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We had a surprisingly nice and clear sky until midnight.
7 members attended this party, and I apologize in advance but
I am terrible at remembering everyone's names, but there were
2 members that I met for the first time who brought a 14” and
a 16” dobsonian which was really cool!
My goal for the night was to give the OAG one last chance and
I was finally able to use it properly. My target was the Eagle
Nebula, and I was able to get 22 subs of 3 minutes each so I
got some nice detail of the
Pillars of Creation.
It seems like
I still have to work on the back focus distance which is
making my stars slightly oval.
I am including the final images here for you to see. I am not
great at post processing and I use only the free software but
I think it looks very nice!
I closed the park by midnight when we got hit by fast moving
clouds. We had no inconveniences besides the clouds.
[Update: Added Jose's next day refinement of his image on the right. Click images for larger view.]
Jose Urias
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Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 7/01/2024
(The One with a Clear Skies Cool Weather)
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Last night four of us (Mike, Richard, Ken S. and me) enjoyed the
beautiful clear skies and cool weather. It felt more like
mid-September to me than early July. Ken and I had a couple of
Seestar S50s running, Mike had an 80mm refractor with a new ZWO
camera he was testing and Richard was doing some seriously
amazing naked-eye observing. I took my first picture of a
comet, C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS,
which is predicted to
possibly be a bright naked-eye object in the fall. In honor of
the upcoming Independence Day I also photographed the
Fireworks Galaxy (NGC 6946) and the
Eagle Nebula (M16). The below pictures
are straight out of the Seestar with no further enhancement
(exposure times are given on the bottom watermark bars).
[Update: Ken S. added his image of
M27 from the same night.]
David Stein
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Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 6/21/2024
(The One with a Strawberry Moon and Suboptimal Conditions)
It was a hot day and evening, and seven HAL members and guests enjoyed
the night of the Strawberry Moon for an impromptu star party at Alpha
Ridge Park. The skies were mostly clear but very hazy, resulting in
poor transparency; this is typical for a triple-H -- hot, hazy, and
humid -- summer day in Maryland. Also common with triple-H days is good
seeing, and the atmosphere was steady most of the night. The Full Moon
was low in the southeast at sunset and added greatly to the sky
brightness, so with the poor transparency it was not a night for visual
observations of faint fuzzies.
Richard used his Televue TV-85 APO doublet refractor to tour the sky.
Ernie viewed with a Celestron 8-inch StarSense Newtonian and
concentrated on double stars and open clusters -- he observed the double
stars Epsilon Lyrae, Algieba (Gamma Leonis), Mizar (Zeta Ursae Majoris),
the open cluster Caldwell 37 (NGC 6885) in Vulpecula, and the Coathanger
asterism (Brocchi's Cluster) in Vulpecula.
We had two Loyola students show up looking for a place to look at the
stars, so they camped out in a corner of the parking lot and did their
thing. I told them about HAL and gave them business cards; they sounded
interested in checking us out further.
The remaining three members were imaging. Alvin used an SVBONY 80mm
refractor to image M4 (globular cluster in Scorpius) plus a nearby
reflection nebula, with the primary goal being the reflection nebula.
However, he fell victim to the bright skies and poor transparency and
went to plan B, the North America Nebula in Cygnus, with much greater
success. Anil used his Stellarvue 102P refractor to image the Pelican
Nebula in Cygnus using narrowband (SHO) filters, while I gathered
H-alpha images of M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy) in Canes Venatici with my
8-inch RC in hopes of using it for the June Discord Object of the Month,
and an hour of LRGB of M13 (globular cluster) in Hercules.
Thanks to the members who came out for the somewhat disappointing
conditions; I enjoyed chatting with each of you and hope see you all
again on a clear night soon.
Anil and I locked the gate at 3:50am.
Wayne B.
Public Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 6/15/2024
(The One with Over 250 People!)
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Last night's HAL Public Star Party at Alpha Ridge Park was fantastic. The
skies were perfectly clear until approximately midnight. The Moon was in
it's first quarter phase, which provided great views for the lunar
observers. There were 27 telescopes setup. They ranged from the most basic
starter scopes to very sophisticated setups. There were well over 250 people
in attendance. At one point I counted almost 100 cars in the parking lot and
along the street. Our observatory (HALO) was packed full the entire night.
Our visitors included a large group from the Howard County Social Club.
Everybody had a great experience.
I want to give a special shout out to all the HAL members that supported the
star party. It could not be done without you. Your graciousness, knowledge,
and enthusiasm are qualities that makes HAL what it is. It is always about
the people. The technology is awesome, you are the magic.
Thank you to all our visitors. We look forward to seeing you at future
outings. If you want to learn more about HAL and how to become a member, go
to our website, https://howardastro.org.
Until next time. Clear Skies!
Phil W.
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Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 6/11 & 12/2024
(The One with Two Reports in One)
I am sorry I am doing a dual report but I figured since it was a back to back situation
it would be better to condense it.
Starting with 06/11, we had 5 members coming, some to image and some to do
visual astronomy with their dobsonians.
I was very surprised to see how amazing the star sense push-to scopes works,
making the star hopping process a little bit easier.
We had no eventualities and closed the park around midnight.
Yesterday (6/12) we had 4 members visiting and this time it was a
combination of dobsonian and Seestar scopes. I never thought of how great
and “inexpensive” it can be now to get a big dobsonian with some push to
device to enjoy visual astronomy and have a Seestar running in the
background for doing some imaging of things that look faint on an eye piece.
I closed the park around 11:40 with no eventualities.
I want to thank everyone for being so diligent at closing the gates behind
them when they come to or leave the park. It make us all feel safer and
enjoy the park without worrying about unknown people.
Jose U.
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 6/07/2024
(The One with the Black Eye Galaxy and Hungry Mosquitoes)
Four HAL members (me, Ken, Kurt, and Sundar) showed up at an impromptu star
party last night.
As forecast predicted, the evening cloud gradually dissipated starting at 9
pm. The clear sky continued till 11:30 pm when a huge cluster of clouds
moved in from the south. So we started to wrap up and left Alpha Ridge
around 12:15 am. Ken volunteered to lock the gate behind me.
I managed to process most of the so-so photons collected from Black Eye
Galaxy in a so-so night.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/191436936@N02/53776348907/in/album-721777203151
83401/
I got quite a few mosquito bites last night. For those who will join the
member's only star party tonight, be prepared to have bug spray at hand.
Richard R.
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/31/2024
(The One with a Lengthy Report)
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The last impromptu of the month was a fantastic one as we had 12 members
enjoying the wonderfully dark and clear skies of last night.
The night was a little chilly but we had no clouds almost from the very
beginning.
Some members were observing through their dobsonians, while others where
imaging or aligning their equipment (me included). I was also able to chat
with a few new members who showed up to see how we setup and if they wanted
to join next time, and it was my impression that we will see more members
showing up to the impromptus.
Once everyone was done setting up their equipment, members started walking
around and saying hi. It was nice hearing conversations all over the place.
There was a couple of Seestars around and I was able to test the club's one
for a more extended time. I will include some objects I imaged with it to
encourage people to sign up to use it. I may not meet it for an entire month
myself but that is how long you can take it with you and use it when your
turn comes.
Finally, I appreciate that everyone was very responsible in closing the gate
behind them when they left. This is for everyone's safe enjoyment and I was
really happy when I locked the park gates at 2 am and I found them closed.
Some members even emailed me to let me know they closed the gates when they
left. Wayne, who is also a key holder, stayed until 3:30 am and locked the
observatory and the park as well.
Also, just a little but very important thing I want everyone to know is that
the bathrooms in the park lock themselves automatically at around 10 pm and
we don't have the code to unlock them and our key doesn't work after they
get locked so we always manually move the deadbolt of the doors before that
happens to avoid the door shutting down. Please leave them like that when
you use the bathroom or we will not be able to open them until they unlock
themselves in the morning. I also don't know if it would become impossible
to unlock them from inside if someone gets locked inside so let's not find
out.
That concludes my lengthy report. Thank you for assisting and sharing last night.
Jose Urias
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Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/30/2024
(The One with Sharing of Knowledge and Anecdotes )
Last night was cloudy for most of the night, however, 8 members showed up
and even though conditions were not the best until about 11 pm, everyone
enjoyed the usual nerdy conversations about astronomy and telescopes.
I personally loved how everyone shared some of their knowledge and anecdotes
to help newer members with advice on how to use their current equipment.
There was a fair amount of Seestar S50 scopes last night and I got to try
the club's one as well. I am attaching an image I took of M27 with the
seestar.
The night was a little chilly but comfortable enough to stay for a long time.
I closed the gates of the park at 12:25pm and thanks to everyone closing the
gates behind them, we didn't experience any issues involving other vehicles
coming to the park.
Jose Urias
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/24/2024
(The One with the Lone Park Ranger)
I went to the park tonight by 7:45 and waited until it was dark to start
imaging.
For some reason I was not able to plate solve tonight so I was fighting my
scope for a while.
At some point a police officer came to inquire what I was doing alone in the
park so I informed her of what I was doing. A few minutes later it was the
park ranger who came for the same reason despite having called the ranger
office before my arrival.
He advised it was probably not a good idea for me to stay there on my own so
I packed my stuff I headed back home after closing the observatory.
It was a little sad not being able to enjoy a clear night but I think it was
best to leave after that.
The ranger was nice enough to wait for me so he closed the front gates of
the park.
Jose Urias
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/21/2024
(The One with Shallow Sky Observing and M81 Popularity)
Approximately 10 HAL members and guests took advantage of the pleasant
conditions for last night's impromptu star party. There were high,
thin, clouds around all night, but they were thin enough to observe
through. The transparency was not good, but the seeing was pretty good,
so it worked out well for shallow-sky observing. The Moon was quite bright.
It seemed that most people were checking out equipment and working on
issues, while a few people made some serious attempts at observing and
imaging. Ernie brought his 8-inch Newtonian on a Dob mount, and used
his cell phone push-to app to see a variety of clusters and double stars.
Jose and his brother were working to focus the off-axis guide camera on
his Celestron 8-inch SCT scope. Despite being unsuccessful, he used the
scope to capture images of M81 (Bode's Galaxy) and another object or
two. He also used HAL's Seestar to capture images of M81 and M51 -- he
was quite impressed with the performance of the scope. Dave took some
images with his Seestar S50 scope, too. Gary and his guest worked out
some pointing issues he had been having with his new 10-inch Celestron
SCT. Dani imaged M81 with her Redcat 50 scope with a DSLR and a ZWO AM5
mount. Krystal worked with her Dwarf imaging scope. Alvin used his
Svbony refractor to image M81 -- it seems like everyone decided to image
it! He showed me an impressive post-perihelion image of comet
12P/Pons-Brooks that he took from a farm near Westminster. Finally, I
spent the night working with NINA's polar alignment tool to try to find
the best parameters for my equipment. I did manage two short exposures
in the process: 32 minutes of Luminance on galaxy M94 and 60 minutes of
Luminance on M13.
It was great to see so many people on a Tuesday night! I enjoyed
chatting with each of you and hope see you all again on a clear night soon.
I locked the gate at 2:45am.
Wayne B.
Public Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/18/2024
(The One with 2 Hours without Clouds)
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/13/2024
(The One with Two Keyholders and Lots of DSOs)
This evening an impromptu was called. The weather forecast called for
clear skies to turn cloudy between 8-10 pm. One other member said they
would join us but at the last minute was unable to come. The 28% Waxing
Crescent Moon was beautiful in the north-west sky at dusk.
Chris Todd and I met-up at HALO at 7pm and went through the newly
revised/updated protocols to open HALO and start up the Illig Telescope
with no problems. We were able to observe the Moon during early
twilight deep into dusk. The clouds graciously stayed away and we then
turned the Illig Scope to look at and capture images of the
Leo Triplet (M66, M65 and NCG 3628).
We looked at some of the many
Messier Objects in Cancer and Leo including:
the Black Eye Galaxy (M64),
Coma Berenices (M85 and M53) and the
Golden Eye Cluster (M67).
After this we then shut-down the Illig Telescope and closed up HALO and
locked up the park at 11pm.
Cheryl Kerr
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/12/2024
(The One with a Happy First-Time Keyholder)
I hosted my very first Star Party last night at Alpha Ridge Park.
I arrived at the park around 7:45 pm while there was still some sunlight
so I could take my time to get everything ready. Before any other
members arrived a little bit after sunset, a few families started to
come to the park as I left the gate open for HAL members. I had to
politely ask them all to leave and at some point when I was certain no
one else would come I closed the gate.
The members who arrived were Cheryl Kerr, who tried taking some pictures
of Aurora, Dana Porter, and Michael (whose last name I forgot to write
down), and we also welcomed a new member, Ramani, who joined on the spot
thanks to Dana and Cheryl's encouragement.
As for observations, the night was mostly cloudy and chill. We were not
able to spot the Aurora
and I forgot my dew heater ring so my scope was
completely covered in dew, however, the night was very pleasant filled
with geeky conversations about Auroras, astronomy equipment, and space.
I closed the park around 11:45 pm after we decided we would not see
Auroras.
Finally, I want to add that I am really happy to have become a keyholder
as most of you must have seen me asking for someone to open the park
before. I am always eager to go to Alpha Ridge when the weather is nice
enough as I don't have a backyard or a place dark enough to use my
telescope otherwise, so if the conditions are good, expect me to offer
an impromptu.
I will also write this as a reminder whenever I call for an impromptu,
but I will be closing the gates (not locked) from now on after sunset so
no unknown people come there, so you will have to move the chain, open
the gate and close it behind you. This is for everyone's safety so we
can focus on observing or doing our activities rather than wondering who
is accessing the park and what they are doing.
Thank you for your attention and keep looking up!
Jose Urias
Members-Only Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/04/2024
(The One with May the Fourth)
Well... as you can imagine... it wasn't much of a star party tonight as the
skies were overcast and we had precipitation, ranging from light rain to a fine
mist, all evening at Alpha Ridge. Three members came out and socialized for a
while within HALO and we wrapped up shop around 9:30 pm. Let's keep our fingers
crossed for better weather at our upcoming events. Best regards and clear skies,
Victor
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/01/2024
(The One with a Cool, Clear Sky)
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Six of us enjoyed some time out under the stars last night at an impromptu at
Alpha Ridge. The weather was cool but not cold and the sky was clear with average
transparency. Three people were working with big SCTs on German equatorial mounts
with varying degrees of success, one had a 5" reflector, one had a pair of
binoculars and I had my 2" Seestar. I saw very nice views of M3, M13 and M81/M82
visually through the other scopes and I took a couple of pictures. It was a
weeknight so no one wanted to stay late and I locked up at 11 PM. A very nice
way to start May!
David Stein
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Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 4/28/2024
(The One with a Very Lovely Evening)
Upon arrival yesterday evening at approx 7:20 pm high thin clouds were present
over the western and north western skies. These clouds began to break up and
thin out just as Polaris became visible at dusk. From then on the skies improved
and became clear. Temps were very lovely all evening.
Five HAL members joined me for a very lovely evening among the stars: Gary
Richardson came specifically to work on a new mount and tighten-up tracking.
Grace Coventry spent time focused on gathering nebulosity in Orion and practising
with her new move-shoot-move updated tracker as she gets ready for an upcoming
trip to Namibia. Alvin Savage spent the evening tracking and gathering data on
NCG 4495, a lovely galaxy. Jose Urias spent the evening tracking and gathering
data on M81-Bodes. Ernie Morse spent the evening visualizing various Messier
objects and the Eskimo Nebula.
My purpose for the evening was to attach a polar scope to the AVX mount and work
on tracking. Gary was a life saver for me and helped me align which enabled me
to track and photograph M61.
We closed up at 11:45 pm and locked the gates at 11:55 PM.
Cheryl Kerr
Public Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 4/13/2024
(The One with a Separate Page of Post-Total Solar Eclipse Excitement)
See Krystal's report with photos submitted by 2 members/officers.
Members-Only Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 4/06/2024
(The One with a Relaxing Evening)
Member star party tonight turned out to be a nice relaxing evening.
We had 5 folks join us, and while the night started off looking pretty clear,
it got cloudy by 8:30 and we left the park around 10pm.
Jared Case
Public Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 3/16/2024
(The One with 2 Separate Pages of Photos)
See Mike's report with 2 pages of photos submitted by 4 members/officers.
Members-Only Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 3/09/2024
(The One with a Thunderstorm)
The rain turned into a thunderstorm when I arrived at Alpha Ridge about 5:50 pm.
Two other members joined me today when I did a dry run of the Illig.
All the gears were running smoothly and are ready for next week's public star party.
I locked the observatory at 6:30.
Richard Ren
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 2/19/2024
(The One with a Bright Moon, Freezing Temperatures, but No Frost)
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The forecasts were pretty much right on the nose, and six HAL members
trekked to Alpha Ridge Park for an impromptu star party last night. The
temperature started close to freezing and dropped to about 27F by the
time I closed up. The wind was calm all night, but the humidity was OK
and the frost stayed off windows for almost the entire night -- optics
also fared well. The only real issue was the very bright Moon very high
in the sky -- deep-sky objects like nebulae and galaxies were very
difficult targets.
Mayurika and her daughter did some viewing with binoculars and saw a few
objects in a fairly short observing session. Alex Grant used his
10-inch Newtonian for a sky tour, with one highlight being splitting the
triple star Castor in the constellation Gemini. Jose spent some time
working with his new Celestron Nexstar Evolution SCT and observed M42
and several other objects; he was very satisfied with the scope and his
time under the sky.
Kurt spent a couple of hours imaging the Orion Nebula with a dual-band
narrowband filter with his Askar V 60mm refractor, stopping early
because of an early start the next morning. I spent the night imaging
the open clusters M37 (in Auriga), M67 (Cancer), and NGC 188 (Cepheus)
and some star fields so that I can hopefully do photometry of the
clusters. I have attached the image of M67 that I collected and made
into a pretty picture.
After a long night of observing, I locked the gate at 2:40am. Thanks to
the HAL members who came out to enjoy the near-perfect conditions!
Wayne B.
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Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 2/03/2024
(The One with 10 HAL Members Enjoying Cold but Clear Skies)
We had a sizable turnout for last night's impromptu star party at Alpha
Ridge Park with 10 HAL members taking advantage of the cold, clear
skies. Temperatures were cold, but not terribly so, and the wind was
calm all night. A handful of clouds blew through at around 9pm but they
didn't interfere with observing. The combination of cold temperatures
and calm winds led to some frost on the cars but it wasn't nearly as bad
as it could have been.
Dana came to check out the library -- she took a couple of books home
with her -- and just to enjoy the evening. Peter brought his 12-inch
Meade SCT on his new Losmandy mount so that he could work out the
process for using the mount with some visual observing; Victor assisted
him with some of the more obscure aspects of controlling the mount.
The remainder of the observers were imaging, and we had a veritable sea
of SeeStar S50 imaging scopes. William (Peter's son) was using a
SeeStar to image some of the scopes best objects of the night, while
David was imaging M33 (Triangulum Galaxy) with his. David started out
with success but then experienced some issues with tracking objects.
Steve and Bob were also using SeeStars and spent some time familiarizing
themselves with their systems.
Benjamin spent the night imaging the Christmas Tree cluster with his
Apertura 75Q refractor with a couple of dual-band narrowband filters to
get a complete Hubble palette set. Victor measured his filter offsets
on his 130mm AstrPhysics refractor using a RST135E harmonic drive
mount. He also used the Illig scope in HALO to image the Horsehead
Nebula in Orion and start learning NINA's advanced sequencing
capability. Finally, I used my 8-inch RC to obtain narrowband images of
the Jellyfish Nebula (IC 443) for the January/February Discord group
Object of the (Two) Month(s) activity.
After a long night of delightful observing, I locked the gate at
2:45am. Thanks to the many HAL members who came out to enjoy the
near-perfect conditions!
Wayne B.
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 1/02/2024
(The One with 7 Cold Deep Sky Imagers to Kick Off 2024)
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The temperature hovered at freezing all night, but seven HAL members
came out to Alpha Ridge Park for our first impromptu star party of the
year on Tuesday, January 2, 2024. Skies were clear, winds were calm,
and the transparency and seeing were about average. It was mostly an
imaging night, with Alex the only visual observer doing a sky tour with
his 10-inch Newtonian. Peter and his son imaged several objects with
their ZWO Seestar S50 imaging scope, and David did likewise with his
Seestar scope. Benjamin imaged the Elephant Trunk Nebula with his
Apertura 75Q refractor and an Askar D2 filter (OIII and SII dual-band
for one-shot-color cameras).
Kurt imaged M33 (Triangulum Galaxy) with
his Askar V APO refractor at 80mm aperture; a quickly-processed version
of his result is attached to this email. I imaged the Orion Nebula
(M42) in both narrowband and RGB images to work on a high-dynamic range
image of the bright object. Clouds began approaching from the southwest
just after 11pm, and everyone was done imaging by midnight. After
packing all my gear I closed the park at 1:15am.
Thanks to all the members who came out and shared their night with
everyone. Hopefully we can do it again soon!
Wayne B.
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