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[atomant]

Don't fret if you can't make it to Astrofest, there's one more big star party this year around Chicago....Prairie Skies.

Thursday Sept 29th to Sunday Oct 2nd

Preregister by Sept 3rd!!

Check out here for more details:
www.prairieskies.org

Not too far from Chicago.

Come to learn, come to share, heck just come to watch the sci fi movie fest.

[Kalvis]

Astrofest conflicts with some prior commitments of mine, but I hope those of you attending enjoy yourselves. I do plan on attending Prairie Skies both Friday (9/30) and Saturday (10/1) evenings. Intend to pitch my tent on the main observing field. If I get it completed by then I'll bring along my parallelogram mount and tripod (constructed of five crutches) onto which my 10x50 bino's will be attached. Regardless of that, I'll have my Hardin Optical Star Hoc 80-6 along to catch the dark sky sights. Look forward to seeing some of you there.

Kalvis

[Al Degutis]

Anyone attend Prairie Skies this past weekend? I considered going Saturday and paying the walk-up fee but with poor seeing forecasted I opted not to.

[Kalvis]

Prairie Skies was my first ever participation in a large scale public star party. It was nice to experience the friendly and inviting mood of the event. I pulled in at 7 p.m. on Friday evening and stayed until 7 a.m. Sunday morning. Those who had come early enough to participate on Thursday night said that the sky conditions were great but temperatures in the 30's made it rather brutal.

Friday evening I managed to set-up my equipment in the final period of useful twilight and decided to try out my two newest accessories: a Celestron 2" mirror star diagonal (a steal for $40 at astronomics.com) and my first ever 2" eyepiece, a Burgess SWA 32mm, 70 degree. The clean wide angle views were very pleasing, but the extra weight and bulk will take some getting used to. I didn't fiddle around too long before setting out to walk the field and meet other scopes and their owners.

I only met one other beginner who seemed to be at approximately the same level of experience as me. Most other participants appeared to be seasoned veterans. Here are some of the scopes that left a lasting impression on me:

• Meade 152mm APO reflector -- this impressively mounted planetary scope and its gracious owner gave my my first every view of Uranus
  
• Criterion 12" open (a.k.a. "classic") Cassegrain -- this flood damaged but beautifully restored 40+ year old scope and mount was showcasing astounding views of the Double Cluster surrounded by a deep black backdrop.
  
• Konus Sky 200 -- a beginner's newly purchased dual axis drive 200 mm (7.8") newtonian reflector and mount for only $500!
  
• Orion SkyQuest XT8 Intelliscope -- this model has intrigued me for long, so getting to spend about an hour with an owner who put it through it's paces was fun
  
• Discovery 12.5" f/5 dobsonian -- my friendly neighbor allowed me to peek through his scope at about a dozen different objects as he went through his list of favorites
  
• 20 inch homebuilt dobsonian -- an admirable work of craftsmanship with IMHO the best of the evening view of M42 Orion Nebula.
  
• Coronado MaxScope 40 -- this solar telescope with the hydrogen alpha filter was something I had only read about, so getting to view the Sun through it was captivating
  

Saturday morning had a lecture in the dining hall on planets given by Art Maurer of Joliet Community College. I didn't learn much of anything new, but it was an enjoyable way to savor my free coffee and donut. Afterward I stopped by the Lodge next door to view and vote for the photo contest entries and pick up lots of nice brochures, catalogs and free magazines. Art Maurer had invited me to come and see planets in the daytime with his scope. When I stopped by his camper Art looked up the coordinates of Venus and easily aimed his scope at it. I was impressed. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to spot Jupiter nor Mercury, but he said that it normally could be done without much difficulty.

By noon the sun was getting plenty hot, so I drove over to Bourbonnais to get ice and other essentials. Then at 2 p.m. I participated in the amateur telescope maker (ATM) walkabout. It was supposed to be a 5 minutes-per-stop type of tour. Unfortunately the first guy whose scope we stopped at could not stop talking for about 15 minutes while the group patiently waited in the hot sun. I decided that this was not for me and quietly slipped away to grab one of my cold beverages. Soon enough it came time for the 4:30 p.m. award announcements and door prize drawing in the Dining Hall. Although I was not fortunate to win anything I was a little unimpressed that it took a whopping 50 minutes to do these things that effective speakers and facilitators could have pulled off in half the time. The BBQ pulled-pork dinner was surprisingly good as was my hot shower afterward.

Saturday evening I decided not to set-up my gear but instead just to roam around and enjoy the company, insight and views of fellow enthusiasts. See my comments under the Multiple Star Gazing post under Observation Sessions to see how I spent the first part of the evening. This is because a thin but almost universal cloud cover dampened gazing at DSO's until about 10:30. At that time half the sky became quite free of clouds. View of Mars around 11 p.m. were very nice in a number of scopes. Before turning in to bed at midnight I stopped by a few other spots and saw some rather obscure NGC objects. All in all a great way to spend an early fall weekend!

Kalvis

[Al Degutis]

Kalvis,

Thanks for that very detailed report! I wish I attended.

My neighbor Dave who attended both AstroFest and Prairie Skies this year said he's only going to attend Prairie Skies next year.