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

Four HAL members took a gamble that Alpha Ridge Park would stay just out of the range of the massive cloud band to the south, but that bet didn’t pay off.  There were thin, high clouds covering most of the sky right from the start, and they gradually got thicker, especially in the southern sky.  It was a bit colder than I expected as well, getting down to 42 degrees by 9:30.

Shrikant attempted to continue his imaging of comet Lemmon with his Astro-Tech 72 mm refractor, but he was pretty much foiled by the cloud cover.  Mike and Brian also attempted comet imaging with a 122mm Svbony refractor, with similar results.  They moved on to imaging the Iris nebula in Cepheus, as the northern skies were somewhat less hopeless than the southern.

I managed to get in some limited visual observing with my 8″ Celestron Starsense Explorer Dob.  I started with a quick look at comet Lemmon and then moved on to 7 double stars in the region from eastern Ophiuchus to western Capricornus, highlighted by 70 Ophiuchi and 59 Serpentis.  Double star expert Sissy Haas describes both stars in 70 Oph as being bright tangerine orange, and the 59 Ser pair as lucid yellow and royal blue.  I wish I could see that much color in doubles! I did get at least a hint of those colors, especially in the 70 Oph secondary, which seemed very orange.  I then moved on to open cluster M52 and the striking red-blue optical double STTA 254 (aka WZ Cas) in Cassiopeia.  I finished up with the Double Cluster in Perseus, and the very large open cluster Stock 2 (the Muscleman Cluster).  The latter is not in the Starsense Explorer app’s database, but it was easy to locate it starting from the Double Cluster, following the directions in Stephen O’Meara’s book “The Secret Deep.”

I conceded defeat to the clouds and the cold at 9:30, about a half hour after the other attendees had left.  Well, maybe not defeat exactly, as I did see some good stuff.  I’d say I fought the clouds and cold to a draw.  I locked up HALO and the park gate and departed a little after 10:00.

Ernie Morse

We had a very successful Members Mentorship Night last night. About 20 members came out, some seeking help and some offering it. Although it was entirely clouded over, progress was still made with some creative work-arounds such as looking at lights in the distance to check out equipment. After a very satisfying night of fellowship and discussion, everyone finished up and left and I locked the park about 9:00 PM.

Thank you very much to all the mentors who came out to help out their fellow HAL members!

Clear skies,
David Stein

The weather was very cooperative last night. The sky at western horizon turned clear just about 7:15 pm. However, the altitude of Lemmon comet (Comet C/2025 A6) was low. Phil and I scrambled to take some photos before it fell below the tree line around 8:15. It is amazing that almost none of my two dozen photos does not have a satellite trail.

Later Michael joined us for some deep sky imagings.

We wrapped up around 11 pm and locked gate around 11:20.

Good luck to the HAL mentorship night today!

Richard Ren

Five HAL members attended an impromptu star party at Alpha Ridge Park on October 23, 2025.  Skies were clear all night and the weather was fine, although seeing and transparency were both subpar.

Welcome to Bruce and Neil, two new members who were attending their first impromptu event!  Both of them were imaging comet Lemmon with DSLR camera setups.  Shrikant also imaged Lemmon with a DSLR camera and his 72 mm Astro-Tech refractor, and I think he also got in some imaging of comet SWAN.

Sundar was making visual observations with his Celestron 130 mm Newtonian and taking some images with his Pixel 8 in astrophotography mode on a tripod.  He reached a personal milestone in finding the Andromeda galaxy with the telescope and getting an image of it with his phone camera through the eyepiece.  Congratulations!

I observed three double stars (h 5188 in Sagittarius, 15 Aquilae and 94 Aquarii), the Wild Duck cluster (M11) and five Messier globular clusters (M2, M15, M56, M71 and M92).  Comet SWAN was right between M11 and M2, so I should’ve taken a look at that while I was in the area, but it didn’t occur to me because I was locked in globular mode.  These observations were with my Celestron 8″ Starsense Explorer Dob.  I also finished up my multi-night imaging of the Heart Nebula with my Vespera II EAA scope.

I closed up HALO and the park and left at 11:05 PM.

Ernie Morse

What a perfect night for stargazing! Temperatures were comfortable, and the skies started out beautifully clear. A few high clouds drifted through around 10 PM, but by 11 they had moved on, leaving us with crisp, transparent skies once again.

We had a fantastic turnout with about 20 members joining in. The observing field was filled with a great mix of gear — from Dobsonians and refractors for visual observing to astrophotography setups running SeeStars, NINA-controlled Newtonians, and refractors.

Alpha Ridge Park offered excellent conditions for mid-October. Cool, calm air and a gentle breeze made for near-ideal observing weather, with daytime highs in the mid-60s °F and evening temperatures settling into the low 50s.

Popular targets for the night included:

•  SWAN Comet
• Helix Nebula
• Heart Nebula
• Andromeda Galaxy

A big thank-you to everyone who came out and made the evening such a success! We wrapped up around 11:30 PM as folks packed up their gear after a great night under the stars.

Jared Case

I hosted a sparsely attended impromptu star party on Wednesday, October 15 at Alpha Ridge Park. Temperature was in the low 60s to upper 50s, winds were calm and skies were clear until 11:00 PM. Transparency seemed a little better than usual to me, but I forgot to take a measurement with my sky quality meter. Seeing was below average.

David imaged comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN) with his Seestar S50. Eric arrived for some learning and conversation, but David was just about to leave and I hadn’t event started setting up my Dob yet, and nobody else was there, so he’ll return when we have a bigger turnout.

After David and Eric left, I observed NGC 7009 (Saturn Nebula) when it was transiting the meridian at 240X with a nebula filter, hoping to see those little projections (ansae) on the sides that gave the object its name, but I couldn’t detect them. I also viewed two other planetary nebulae, the Blue Snowball (NGC 7662) in Andromeda and the Blinking Planetary (NGC 6826) in Cygnus (which was useful for some practice using averted vision). I then checked out open clusters NGC 752 in Andromeda and NGC 869 & 884 (Double Cluster) in Perseus. I finished the night with some double star observing. I got 56 Andromedae and 16 Cygni for free because they were in the field with other targets, but I sought out additional doubles zeta Aquarii, gamma Delphini, 15 Aquilae and 57 Aquilae

It turns ot that all of the deep sky objects I observed are in the Caldwell catalog (C55, C22, C15, C28 and C14, respectively), although I didn’t really set out to observe Caldwell objects specifically, that was just where the night took me

I added 750 sub exposures to my ongoing mosaic of the Heart nebula with the Vespera EAA scope.

I heard a marching band practicing somewhere nearby from 8:00 to 9:00. It sounded to me like they were working on “Little Deuce Coupe” by the Beach Boys. Working on it quite a bit, actually. After that, I just heard an owl hooting in the woods and a pack of coyotes.

I stopped observing around 10:45 when some clouds started rolling in from the NE, closed up HALO and locked the park gate at 11:30.

Ernie Morse

Ten HAL members showed up for a very pleasant evening of observing and imaging at Alpha Ridge Park on the night of August 30th.  The first-quarter moon was out until a little after 11:00.  The temperature started out in the low 70s and dipped to the high 50s by 1:00 AM.  Seeing and transparency seemed to be above average.

David and Dave were both imaging the North America Nebula in Cygnus with Seestar S50s in equatorial mode.  Todd imaged the Western Veil Nebula with his Redcat 91mm refractor, while Mike D. imaged a 9-tile mosaic of the entire Cygnus Loop with his 122 mm refractor.

Mike P. imaged the Baby Nebula with his 8″ reflector.  I’m not familiar with this object, and a Google search didn’t help.  There is something called the Baby Eagle nebula, but that’s in Taurus and wasn’t visible.  I might have misheard his target.  He later imaged the more well-known Iris Nebula in Cepheus. Shrikant imaged the full-grown Eagle Nebula in Serpens with his 72mm Astro Tech refractor.  Richard imaged some small nebulae near M8, the Lagoon Nebula, with his 130mm refractor.

Lee and Marian got in some visual observations with their Celestron Nexstar 6 SE, but the scope lost its alignment at some point.  Rich was also having some issues with getting a good alignment with his Stellarvue 70 mm refractor.

I observed 7 double stars in Hercules and one in Corona Borealis with my 8″ Celestron Starsense Explorer Dob while waiting for the moon to set.  I then observed globular clusters M13 and M92 in Hercules and planetary nebulae NGC 6572 in Ophiuchus and M27 in Vulpecula.  I was pleased to share the view of M13 with Marian and double star Delta Herculis with Rich when they stopped by at different points in the night.  I added two hours of data to an ongoing mosaic of the Heart and Fish Head nebulae in Cassiopeia with my Vespera II.

I started packing up around midnight and everyone else left over the next half hour.  I locked up HALO and the park gate and left at 1:00.

Ernie Morse

At least 17 HAL members enjoyed a wonderful night under the stars at the HAL members start party at Alpha Ridge Park on the night of August 23/24.  Skies were clear all night, with comfortable temperatures in the low 70s and a 5-10 mph breeze.

Several people were making visual observations.  New member Colin was scanning the skies with his arm-mounted 10 x 70 binoculars.  Phil was using a 5-inch refractor and an image intensifier and also did some imaging with the same scope.  He showed me an impressive view of the Eagle Nebula (M16) with the scope + intensifier. and wowed people with nebula views through the intensifier just on its own, without a telescope.  I used my trusty 8″ Dob to view M6 (Butterfly Cluster), M11 (Wild Duck Cluster), Caldwell 22 (Blue Snowball Nebula) and several double stars.  Jeff observed the globular cluster M10 with his gargantuan 16″ Dob.  Lee and Marian worked with their Nexstar 6 SE but had some difficulty getting it aligned.

EAA scopes were also deployed.  Gary was imaging the Crescent Nebula with his Celestron Origin.  Rich was imaging the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) with his Seestar S50 in equatorial mode for the first time.  Dave was also imaging M101 and the Wizard Nebula with an S50.  There was one other person imaging M31 with an S50, but I have to apologize for not getting his name.  I imaged M27 (Dumbbell Nebula) and the Heart Nebula (NGC 896 and IC 1805) with my Vespera II.

Another group of people were collecting data with traditional imaging setups.  Richard was imaging the Swan Nebula (M17).  Jose was working on the Wizard Nebula with his 8″ Apertura Carbonstar Newtonian.  Mike started out with the Lagoon Nebula (M8) and then was going to try for the most obscure target of the night, HIP 99377, a nebula in Cygnus.  Mike and Brian were imaging the Veil Nebula with a Svbony 122m refractor.

I started packing up around 11:30, but a few people wanted to stay later, so I transferred keyholder responsibility over to Jose and left at 12:30.

Ernie Morse