Just sent out my registration form. Now I just need to hope for good weather at the end of the month.

We are here, tent and scopes are up, sky is clear, and sunspots observed. I'll post again tomorrow, including pics. We're at a right angle from the nature center and observatory complex, about 50 yards from either. If anybody is interested in a day pass for Saturday, there is room next to our tent to set up a scope.

The drive down here on I-65 was smooth, just over an hour and a half from Hillary's house, but the northbound side had a five mile back-up at a construction zone in the Rensellear area, so getting home might be interesting.

Hey Paulie,
Hope you're able to catch the two fuzzy balls....

that's Comet c/2009 P1 Garradd and M15

Man, with the forecast back home Thursday, I took a chance coming down here. I checked the radar though, and was pretty sure the storms would stay north of here. I could handle being clouded out, but not stormed on. It's been clear all night. Not good transparency, but not a cloud to be seen. The sky is okay, but not as quite as good as Conway.

All those sunspots, M15, and Comet Garradd are already bagged. Everybody else has gone to bed, so I'm pulling out my laptop for some help with Vesta and Neptune. Pics won't be easy, because I have to use my webcam, but I did get a few yesterday. Full report probably tomorrow night if it rains.

I stayed up until ISS passed at 4:30, which is really only 3:30 our time, then went to bed myself. Lucked into finding Neptune, and probably saw Vesta, but wasn't diligent on my starhop. Was shooting for Uranus too, but transparency was so poor that I really didn't have a good starting point for locating it. Vesta, Uranus, and Neptune will be my prime late night targets next clear night. Saw maybe 15 globs, hit up the Milky Way delights above the Teapot. Really wanted globs M55 & 75, but they are low in mucky skies, with sparse star fields to point the way. With a limiting magnitude of 4 or better, I'm getting pretty good at chart reading and starhopping, but with skyglow and long starhops, I start getting lost. With better transparency, I could have pulled in some fainter globs, ones I've seen before, but they weren't showing up. Can't complain. It was clear, although from sunset until I went to bed, there was lightning all around us. Never seen that before in a totally clear sky. It was getting even worse as dawn approached. I know; End Times...

Well, as I write this, I’ve been at the Prairie Grass Observatory at Camp Cullom with Hillary for the Indiana Family Star Party for 24 hours. Here is the Day One report.


We arrived, checked in, and found a good camp site near both the air conditioned Nature Center and the observatory complex. I started to set up my tent and discovered that bringing a hammer would have been a good idea. The ground is quite hard, and driving the stakes was impossible. Fortunately one of our fellow astronomers had a hammer and let me borrow it. Tent went up easily after that, and we had shelter in case of rain.

As of Thursday morning, the forecast was questionable, but was getting better by afternoon. I took a chance and drove down, and was rewarded by clear skies all evening and into the pre-dawn hours.

The camp provided a dinner of sloppy joes, and after eating, it was time to set up telescopes, and wander around. The first night was a freebie night for full weekend pass holders, and attendance was fairly light. I talked to a few of the astronomers camped around us. I walked to the Prairie Grass Observatory complex. It’s a lot different than Conway Observatory, mostly for the better. They have five buildings, four of which house telescopes, and one office/equipment room. Three of the observatories are lightweight roll-off roofs, and the fourth is a dome. Man, that dome is cool. I understand the practicality of a roll-off roof, but nothing says “the secrets of the universe are being studied here” like a dome.






They have a dome!!!


The biggest telescope in the complex is a 28” monster Dobsonian, computer controlled. I saw M17, the Swan Nebula in it later in the night, and the view was too much for words. Awesome. There is also a sister scope of Conway’s 16” LX200, on a nearly identical mount. The smallest building holds a monster Newtonian, not sure the aperture, but easily 10 or 12 inches. In the dome sits a large refractor, donated by a former Wabash Valley Astronomical Society member upon his death. There is also a parallelogram mount for a huge pair of binoculars.






16" Meade LX200, sister telescope of what we have at Conway Observatory.




Control station for the LX200.




Mount for the monster binoculars, and the building for the Newtonian scope.






The Yerkes Refractor (just kidding) in the dome. I did not see it in use last night.




Massive star chart inside the dome.


I like that there are so many telescopes at the observatory, but most of the complex surrounding them is grass. I’ve never liked setting up in the grass, so if this was my home observatory, I would definitely want to use one of the observatory scopes. Really, that’s my only complaint about the complex, which tells me that they’ve got a great place for astronomy.

After touring the observatory, I came back to the campsite for some solar observing and catching up with my social media, mostly here. The time difference is messing with me, since I jumped an hour, with little change in longitude. It didn’t get dark until after 10 o’clock local time. No offense downstate Indiana, but you suck. Get on Chicago time.






Sunspot observing.






Our IDs.




Nature center = air conditioning.






Hillary surfing.







The sky is okay, worth coming down for a big astro-party, but not quite as good as I have at Conway. The Lafayette and Indianapolis light domes were visible all night, and the dark sky overhead never made it all the way down to the horizon. The zenith was lovely, but about what I can find in certain places in Northwest Indiana. Since this is my first camping star party though, it was cool to see so many telescopes and people who use them.

Once Saturn joined the party, the observing was on. The highlights were of course my usual globular clusters in the Scorpion and Teapot, and the Hercules pair. I added M19, M62, and NGC 6284 to my list of Scorpius globs, and M54 between Albireo and the Ring. At 11:33 we had a nice flare from Iridium 94. In addition to my globs, I toured Sagittarius’s Milky Way open clusters. M16, minus pillars, was the jewel of the bunch, not so much because it was the best, but because I’ve only rarely seen it. Up in the darkest part of the sky, M71, M27, open cluster NGC 6800, M15, and Comet Garradd got scope time.

Hillary took a nap, but after I walked to the observatory and saw M31, Andromeda Galaxy, in the monster binos, I dragged her out of bed to see it. While we were there, the Perseus Double Cluster and Jupiter were must sees. I hadn’t realized Suburu was up, or we would have hit it up too.

Waiting for ISS at 4:30, I planned to find Neptune, Uranus, and Vesta through starhops. Neptune was the only success of the bunch, but was worth it. The lack of transparency in the sky was making it hard to find the stars I needed to find, and I was getting tired. I gave up and watched Aldebaran chase the Sisters while I packed dew soaked equipment away. When Station popped out of Earth’s shadow, I woke up Hillary, just to join her for some sleep when it dipped out of sight. The first night of my first campout star party was in the books.

More astronomers have arrived today, but we’re likely to be clouded out until after midnight. If it does clear, tonight I will get the ice giants, the iceball, and the brightest space rock. I’ll do other observing, but I am satisfied with the results of my first night, and can be a little more relaxed and patient while chasing down choice targets.

Gonna start working on the Day Two report in a few minutes.

I would also put a larger scope under the dome here, but it was bequeathed to the observatory in a will, and maybe the donor specified that it be in a dome? I don't know. It looks like a 7" or 8" refractor, so it's probably not bad, but I haven't seen it in action yet.

Bill, I would rate the Milky Way comparable to the Dunes. It was visible, but not spectacular. It's kind of sad what passes as a dark sky these days. I would rate Conway slightly darker, since there is only considerable skyglow to the north, whereas at Prairie Grass Observatory, there is the Lafayette (Purdue) light dome to the northwest, and the Indianapolis light dome to the southeast.

It was definitely a kid friendly event. There was a raffle with several space toys as prizes, and a Sky Trekker observing program with different age and/or skill levels. One girl in the Sky Trekker program made an interesting "discovery," which I will get to later.

Sorry for the delay in getting the rest of the story posted. There is a good reason though. I found out I need a power source. We were charging AAA batteries, phones, and both of our computers off a power inverter running from the cigarette lighter in my car, and thus off the car battery. I was starting the car and letting it idle periodically, but it wasn’t enough to keep the battery charged. Saturday morning the engine wouldn’t turn over, and needed a jump. Computer use was severely restricted after that.








Friday was another hot and humid day, with a little sunshine. By evening it was clouding up, and there was even lightning to the south. We caught a few raindrops in the afternoon, but nothing serious. We spent the evening hours touring the observatory again, and walked around checking out some of the telescopes, and talking with a few of the campers.




My tent. Ants found their way in every morning.








I made sure everybody saw this was a Chicago Astronomer observation.




I loved seeing that dome sticking above the tall grass from our campsite.




One of the vendors was selling this portable dome for around $2,000.




Work station inside the portable dome.


I know there are pictures above, but here is another tour of the observatory complex.






There is a sundial on the northeast side of the observatory. There is no gnomon though. You stand on the current month, and use your own shadow to get the correct time. Is was pretty accurate.




Looking southeast.




I liked the flower beds that were planted under the roll-off rails.




Parallelogram binocular mount.




Chinese military binoculars.




The "Galileo Gallery," where they hold outdoor presentations.




Friday night's Sky Trekker program at the Galileo Gallery.






Somebody camped next to the dome.




Staged shot inside the dome. There's no eyepiece, and I never saw this scope in use all weekend.








Hillary and the 16" Newtonian.








28" Dobsonian. By far the largest scope I've ever seen.








The 28" primary mirror is covered here, but when I saw the Swan Nebula in it Thursday night, I thought the mirror looked filthy.


With an overcast sky Friday, some campers prepped their telescopes for observing, but others left them covered. We walked around and checked out some of the scopes that were out.












We were near Truss Tube Dob Alley.




Homemade Dob. I didn't talk to the owner, but one of his buddies claimed the optics were so good that on steady nights dust lanes can be seen in M31. If we would have had better conditions, I would have had to check that out.






Binocular viewing in comfort.








Lot of big Dobs on site.


By far the coolest telescope of the bunch belonged to Chris. I'd seen it at the southern end of the observing field, but Hillary went to investigate. It looked like a giant homemade Dob from a distance. I didn't feel the need to investigate, but Hillary told me I had to check it out. I'm glad she did.

The light path comes over the 12" secondary mirror, which bounces the light down a tube over the 18" primary mirror. I'd never seen anything like it. Chris said it was the largest scope of it's kind on the planet, with the next largest being a 12".




Hillary checking out Chris's unique telescope.






The light path comes over the secondary mirror.




Counterweights to balance the secondary, which is heavier than most. It was originally a primary mirror. The secondary shoots the light down the tube over the primary to the eyepiece.




Photos of this scope in earlier incarnations, using the same optics.




Chris standing proudly with his telescope.


(Saturday night I saw M27 in this scope, and the view at the eyepiece was as good as Bill's DSLR images of the Dumbbell. Absolute wow.)


Keeping an eye out for any possible sucker holes Friday evening turned into watching an awesome display of lightning to the south. Some locals came out Saturday and said that skies were clear 15 miles north. Oh well. I was exhausted anyway. Went to the nature center and caught the end of the latest Star Trek movie and ate an insane amount of popcorn. Hey, when the guy popping the popcorn tells me to come back for more, there is no way he'll run out, I feel it is my duty to prove him wrong. Off to bed around midnight.





After I got my car jump started Saturday morning, we went out for ice for our coolers. I drove all the way back to I-65 instead of into Mulberry to just to make sure the battery had plenty of of time and RPM to charge off the alternator. (Still can't believe I was stupid enough to kill the battery).

I don't remember doing much of anything until 12:45, when they called everybody to the observatory for the group picture. The 16" LX200 was being outfitted with it's Hydrogen Alpha filter, during the group shots, and I was eager for a look. I had wanted to check out the Sun in Ha when the guys were at Conway Tuesday, but couldn't find the Coronado scope. They were having some problems with the hand controller, though, and asked everybody to come back later for solar observing.




Organizer Rich Kaspar directing the group picture in front of the dome.






Shots from within the group picture.




The LX200 with it's mask and Ha filter.










Solar observing is so cool. I mean hot...


Hillary was much more interested in getting out of the heat than any kind of observing, and made friends with our neighbor Jeff because he had a canopy and fan outside his trailer. She also hung out with Sue and Mark across from us. Sue brought a "sportbrella" for shade.




Hillary found a cool place to hang out was under Jeff's canopy by the fan.


During the day, even scopes are protected from the heat.









I beat the heat by going to the nature center to hear Ball State astronomy professor Robert Berrington, talk about galaxy evolution, particularly concerning the formation of giant elliptical galaxies in galaxy clusters.

I finally got to do some solar observing around 3 PM. I wasn't disappointed, but it was so hot and humid that I couldn't take being out in the open sun for long. I talked Hillary into going out for pizza and ice cream, and by the time we got back, the temperature was becoming slightly more tolerable. We went on a nature walk before sunset, and learned a little about the native plants in the prairie surrounding us.

Event organizer Rich Kaspar is known for his powered parachute flybys in the evening.









Our neighbor Don, and his 16" truss tube Light Bridge below.






Mark's telescope looks vaguely familiar... Very vaguely.








These guys spent cloudy Friday night telling old Navy stories. This Dob made the most interesting observation of the weekend, although I didn't witness it.








I think these guys were the first ones there Thursday, and the last to leave Sunday.






Set up for imaging.




Jeff talking to his imaging neighbor.




Mark getting his refractor ready.


Saturday/Sunday night's observing was good, but dewy once again. The highlights were seeing faint galaxy M33 in a neighbor's 16" truss tube Dob, the Veil Nebula in the 28" observatory Dob, and the Dumbbell in the 18" scope mentioned above. I spent a lot of time tracking down some of the globular clusters of the southern Milky Way that I'd skipped Thursday (and a lot of the ones I'd seen). It was 1:30 AM before I thought about finding the comet. I wanted multiple observations over a few hours to see how it moved against the background stars. My follow-up observation was just before 4 AM, and there was an easily detectable motion past the last of a row of three stars.

After finding Garradd the first time, I hear some guys saying that had found Uranus and Neptune, so I went over for a look at the ice giants. I still wanted to find them myself, and Vesta too, but now the outer planets weren't so much of a priority. I spent at least a half hour trying to chase down Vesta, but with no luck. I thought I was diligent in my search through eastern Capricorn, but I overlooked the rock somehow. I was checking every bright star I could see in the finder scope against my star atlas, hoping to find Vesta through the process of elimination. I was searching the correct region, and had to have seen it, since my finder was catching stars down to at least 6th magnitude. I couldn't confirm it though.

The most serendipitous observation of the weekend was made by a girl about ten years old. The guy with the big truss tube Dob across from us was showing her something when she said she saw an airplane in the eyepiece. The guy said it was probably a satellite whizzing by. The girl said she could still see it, which piqued everybody’s interest. It was slowly drifting against the background stars, while they tracked it for 15 minutes. It was then assumed to be a geostationary satellite. The guy went to turn off the tracking on his scope to see if it stayed in view, but in the process bumped it out of the eyepiece. I didn’t go look, but heard it all as I tracked down DSOs. Pretty cool, and nice catch by the girl.





This was my first campout star party, and although I didn’t see Vesta, one of my three prime objectives, I had a good time. I might have taken the observing too seriously though. Several campers told me Sunday morning that I looked really involved in my observations, and they wished I had come around and talked more. When I did go around to other scopes, it seemed like most of them had showpiece objects. It was cool to see them in big scopes, but I was geared to some new and/or underappreciated objects.

I don’t remember many names, but I remember faces a long time. I had a heavy heart as everybody packed Sunday. I may or may not see some of these campers at future star parties, but I’ll remember them from this one.






One last solar observation before packing.






Saying bye to Mark and Sue. Hillary and I helped Sue put her tent up Friday, and Mark returned the favor Saturday by jump starting the PT Cruiser.




I was so glad that the tent fit back into it's tiny bag. ;D





Two hot, tired astronomers ready to go home.

Great read, Paulie! Looks like you had a great time. I understand about the obsessive viewing. I'm usually the same, sometimes to my own detriment. Thanks for pics and extensive write up!