Star Party Reports
Public Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 7/05/2025
After several rainy public star parties, our July star party had clear skies and was well attended! I counted 12-15 telescopes, and approximately 200 people joined us throughout the evening. Since sunset was not until after 8:36 pm, many HAL members focused on the Moon as their first target as we waited for the skies to darken. Some members arrived early enough to observe the Sun in hydrogen-alpha. Other targets include Mars, Caldwell 20 (The North American Nebula), M57 (The Ring Nebula), and other summer-time objects. The observatory, as usual, was packed with people throughout the night. Arjun was present with the solar system display table. The activities tent also included a solar sail activity for families. This public star party featured crew members from MPT (Maryland Public Television), who interviewed several members of HAL about the club and its role in the community.
Thank you to everyone who joined us tonight!
-Krystal
Link to photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Weuq1L9MVsYevuhE6
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 7/04/2025
It was a surprisingly cool night on Friday for the HAL impromptu star
party — several people, including me, wished they had brought a light
jacket as the temperature dropped to about 64 degF by midnight. Winds
were nonexistent and there was more moisture than predicted, but
conditions were not bad at all and dew didn’t stop anyone from
observing. The biggest issues were the nine day old Moon and wildfire
smoke, creating unusually bright skies even for Alpha Ridge Park. As a
testament to the impact of the smoke, the Moon had a yellowish tint all
night. My Sky Quality meter registered 19.32 mag/square-arcsec at about
11:45pm (about an hour after the end of astronomical twilight) with the
Moon low in the southwest, and it dropped to 19.58 mag/square-arcsec by
1:15am, a little before Moonset. After the Moon had set, it reported
19.71 mag/square-arcsec. This is still brighter than usual, and
probably reflects the light pollution scattering from the smoke. While
the transparency was less than optimal, the seeing was really good, and
was steady all night. My stars were unusually small in the images, and
my guiding was as good as I’ve ever experienced.
Six HAL members attended the party, with four doing visual observing and
two doing imaging. Jamie and his wife observed the Moon and other
objects with a small scope on an alta-azimuth mount, and Robert observed
the Moon with a 130mm Newtonian. Ernie observed double stars in Ursa
Major, Canes Venatici, Coma Bernices, and some other areas with his
8-inch Newtonian. Mike imaged the North America Nebula in Cygnus with
his 80mm Svbony refractor, while I added three more hours of LRGB data
on M13 (Hercules Cluster) with my 8-inch RC.
It was nice to see all the members who came out for the night; hopefully
we can get together again soon.
Wayne
Members-Only Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 6/21/2025
Saturday night’s Members-Only Star Party at Alpha Ridge Park was a great
success. Approximately 20 club members, several of them at their first
HAL star party, ventured out with their scopes to enjoy the night sky.
High, and not so thin, clouds were present at sunset and were initially
rather discouraging, but they cleared out by about 11:15pm and the rest
of the night was free of clouds. Temperatures were pleasantly warm, and
the humidity was not too bad. As is typical with hot, hazy, and humid
conditions, the transparency was not great but the seeing was better
than average. Many people were doing visual observations of a wide
variety of objects, with double stars, clusters, and nebulae being the
most common. Scopes ranged from 70mm refractors to an 11-inch SCT.
There was at least one Electronically-Assisted Astronomy (EAA) scope
doing some imaging, and at least three other members imaging with more
traditional rigs. I spent my night imaging the globular cluster M13 in
Hercules, and the attached image shows the result of three hours of
exposure time. Observing continued until about 2:45am.
After closing the park gate at 3:45am, I saw the Moon near a bright
planet that I concluded was Jupiter — it had a yellowish tint and
wasn’t as bright as Venus, which also shows as a brilliant white color.
However, upon arriving home I discovered that the planet was, indeed,
Venus, so the color and the dimness was likely due to the presence of
high-altitude wildfire smoke.
It was nice to see so many new members come out for the night, as well
as the old hands who were there. Hopefully we can get together again soon.
Wayne
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/26/2025
Members-Only Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/24/2025
About 20 HAL members, new and old, were at Alpha Ridge Park for Saturday night’s Members-Only Star Party; an accurate count was not obtained, but it was pleasantly crowded.
The weather was cool with calm winds and moderate humidity. There were some clouds around at sunset which lasted until about 11:00pm, but they were scattered and didn’t stop people from observing. The night was nice after the clouds cleared, with good transparency but below average seeing. My best Sky Quality Meter reading was 18.9 magnitudes/square-arcsec.
We had the usual mix of imaging and visual observing using scopes ranging from Seestar S50 systems to a 14-inch SCT. Visual observers viewed a variety of targets such as double stars, globular clusters, planetary nebulae, and galaxies. The imagers were mostly capturing galaxies — M101, M94, and M60 were among the galaxies targeted.
I closed the park gate at 3:45am after doing some engineering work after more clouds rolled in.
Thanks to all the members who came out; it was nice to see and converse with longtime members and newcomers. Hopefully we can get together again soon.
Wayne
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/19/2025
Seven HAL members enjoyed a very pleasant evening of observing at Alpha Ridge Park on the night of May 19/20.
Temperature was about 70 degrees at sunset and it was still 60 at midnight. It was somewhat breezy, but not too bad. Seeing and transparency both seemed to be below average to poor.
Jason used a 4-inch Meade Maksutov-Cassegrain to observe some double stars while imaging M104 (Sombrero Galaxy) with a Seestar S50. Steve started the evening with some binocular observing and also imaged M104 with his Seestar. Bill was getting first light on his new Celestron 8-inch MCT, but he left before I was able to ask him how that went. Alex observered several deep-sky objects with his 10″ Dob, including M13 (Great Hercules Globular Cluster), M57 (Ring Nebula) and M44 (Beehive open cluster). He imaged the Needle Galaxy (NGC 4565, Caldwell 38) with his Seestar S50. Rich was present for the third consecutive night and got in some testing of his mount. Ken imaged M82 (Cigar Galaxy) with his colossal Meade 14″ and also imaged M104 (a popular target) with a new Carbonstar 6-inch Newtonian. I observered several pretty double stars, globular clusters M13, M92 and M5, and M104 (everyone else was doing it, didn’t want to be left out) with my 8-inch Dob and added two hours to my continuing mosaic of Markarian’s Chain + M87 with my Vaonis Vespera II. Apologies to anyone for whom I may have gotten the details incorrect.
Everything went smoothly, except for some chaos early on arising from an accidental connection to the wrong Seestar. So many Seestars in the area, it was almost bound to happen!
Everyone finished observing by midnight. I locked the park gates at 12:30 AM.
Thanks to all who attended. I’m very happy that the weather forecasting failures of the previous two nights did not continue. Hope to see everyone out there again soon.
Ernie
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/17/2025-5/18/2025
“We went because we had hope, and we left because we got facts”
That is to me, the best way to describe the impromptu star parties from yesterday and tonight.
Unfortunately, the weather report was not very reliable these past few nights, to the point that 2 different apps showed we were under clear skies, while surrounded by thick clouds.
On the bright side, these cloudy nights are the best for conversations, geek out, show off equipment, and more importantly, learn from other members (I am starting to think that’s what they named the website “Cloudy nights” after).
The temperature was gorgeous, the breeze felt amazing, and we got to meet new members and provide them with some guidance. It was nice seeing so many known faces, and so many new ones as well.
It reminded me to my first star parties when I didn’t know anyone and I was there just to see what everyone else was doing. I never imagined I would be honored to host so many parties myself and advance to an intermediate level astrophotographer. I share this as an example that this club is full of amazing people willing to teach and learn, and that even someone who had never touched a telescope up until a few years ago, could learn and keep learning this fascinating hobby because I got the best support at HAL.
I closed the gates of the park around 10 pm both nights, and I will keep an eye for any other potential clear night this week, but we also have the members only star party coming up soon, and the new members party coming by the end of the month, so there will be plenty more opportunities to enjoy the night sky.
I want to close this by inviting anyone who is just getting started and feels shy about meeting at the park because “You don’t want to bother anyone”, to come and join us at the star parties whenever you have the chance. We have all been there and the only way to observe or capture a piece of the universe is to go outside and look up.
I leave you with my very first picture of Orion that I took at a star party 3 or 4 years ago. It was only 5 seconds, single shot exposure I took with a DSLR and an ALT/AZ mount, and it took me approximately one hour to setup and align everything well enough to get it. I have captured way better images of Orion now like the one that follows and yet, none has caused me as much happiness and excitement as the first astro picture I ever took.
Jose Urias
Public Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/03/2025
The foul weather this evening did not deter about 60 astronomy enthusiasts who enjoyed HALO tours by Chris T and Chris M, astro coloring with Krystal, and solar system modeling with Arjun. Eight members of the new astronomy club at Miller’s Grant retirement community in Ellicott City visited and are interested in returning on a clearer night.
We packed up and locked the park gates around 9:30 under fully cloudy and drizzly skies. Better luck next month. Mark your calendars for Saturday 7 June. Phil Whitebloom and David Stein will be hosting, and Ken Everhart will be driving the Illig scope.
Joel Goodman
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 4/23/2025
Good evening HAL,
I hosted an impromptu Star party on Wednesday since the weather report showed we would have clear skies. I arrived at Alpha Ridge Park at 7:30 pm and 12 other members showed up.
Unfortunately the skies were a little cloudy during the first few hours but the weather was nice and most of us just wanted to be out and build our equipment.
The clouds dissipated around 9:30pm so we could enjoy some nice observations and imaging time.
I left the park by 2 am when I was too tired, but Wayne, who is also a key holder, stayed with James until 3:30pm.
I worked on 2 common targets for Galaxy season and even though I only collected around 2 hours and a half of data from each, I obtained great results.
I am leaving my final images of M51 and M81 & M82.
I also wanted to recommend to anyone who is new to pixinsight the book Pixinsight Workflows. A step by step guide to astrophotography image processing. It is available on Amazon.
It helped me understand some of the processes a little better and it was nice to have a book helping me through the process. I did both targets on my regular workflow and with the workflow in the book to compare and the results were much better with the workflow in the book. Highly recommend if you’re new to Pixinsight.
Jose Urias
Public Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 4/05/2025
(The first cloudy one of 2025!) Hello HAL members, Well, as predicted, the clouds were not very cooperative for yesterday’s Public Star party. It was mostly cloudy at the start, becoming totally cloudy by 8:30 PM with a light rain starting a little after 9. No members had set up their personal telescopes. The good news is that the temps were mild and we had approximately 40 people (some scouts, families, etc.) come out to visit and we had two people sign up to be new members on the spot.
Attached is a picture taken during the event, showing that the HALO observatory was indeed open for business. Richard Ren was at the helm – looking mostly at the moon through patchy clouds but also slewing over at Jupiter and Mars when periodic clearings appeared. A little after 9, we closed up HALO and locked up the park at 9:30 PM. Here’s hoping for better weather for our Members-only event on the 26th and next month’s Public event on May 3rd.
Clear skies,
Victor HAL President and April Public Star Party Co-Host
Members-Only Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 3/29/2025
(Dark parking lot, but not the best sky)
Because of the clouds, most of us didn’t bring any equipment, but we enjoyed a tour through the observatory and a history lesson about HAL’s equipment by David.
We also talked about astrophotography gear, some plans for future star parties, and the best topic of the night was discussing how ugly the Tesla cyber truck is after one drove by.
I want to thank all the members who showed up tonight and encourage other new members to join our star parties. Even when there are no observations or imaging, there are definitely great conversations.
Jose Urias
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 3/12/2025
(Clear but not the best seeing)
Hello, Everyone!
March 18’s Member’s Impromptu Starparty was a success with six members attending beneath a cloud-free sky.
Unfortunately, the predicted “Above Average” transparency and “Average” seeing opted not to attend the event. The general consensus has transparency as “Below Average” and seeing as “Poor.”
Temperature ranged from the upper fifties to mid-forties with no due present.
Two members concentrated on visual observing including open clusters in Puppis and Galaxies in Ursa Major. New equipment seems to be a theme for the evening with one member working our kinks in a new auto-focusing system while another worked on an entirely new rig.
It seemed one member left each hour ending with me locking the front gate at 1:48am.
The only issue we noticed was the lack of lighting on the parking lot. Once the park lights were re-illuminated, only five brightened. The majority remaining dark.
Thanks to everyone who attended.
Respectfully Submitted,
Ken Everhart,