Postponed star party turned out to be the best night of the year
by Dave Huestis & Jim Hendrickson
We haven’t had many clear Saturday nights for our pubic open observing up at Seagrave this year. And we’ve had to cancel many of the star parties that we schedule with a variety of civic and social groups.
Such was the case for the Metcalf School of Exeter under the guidance of teacher and Skyscraper member Donna Gaumond. Donna is passionate about astronomy and through the years she has shared that passion with her students. In fact, several parents have told me that their children have excelled in class due to Donna’s influence.
Every year Donna has extended an invitation to her students and others to participate in the Seagrave Observatory experience. Due to a very poor weather forecast the previous week, Metcalf was eventually rescheduled to be held on Friday, June 3. (Donna holds the dubious record of rescheduling a star party five or six times!) That date was open because our monthly meeting had been rescheduled for June 10 to accommodate our speaker, Dr. Bryan Penprase, who was visiting from California.
At the same time, we had been contacted by a gentleman from Virginia who wanted to visit the observatory. His name was John Shoemaker, and he is a relative of Maribelle Cormack, a Skyscraper incorporator back in 1936, and also the force behind the building of the planetarium, which now bears her name, in the Roger Williams Park Museum.
He and his family were making their first trip to Rhode Island and had done some research on the web. That’s how he found our web site and an image of the letter Frank Seagrave had sent to Maribelle and Skyscrapers. He wanted to get a tour of our facilities with his family (wife and three young children).
They arrived early on Friday evening. I first mistook them for early arrivers from Donna’s group. Once he introduced himself we proceeded to give him a tour with the appropriate historical tidbits related to Seagrave, the Clark refractor and a very brief history of Skyscrapers and Maribelle’s involvement.
I had been conducting another Clark training session when they had arrived, so I put a couple of the trainees on the spot to finish opening the dome and acquiring Saturn. The kids loved the view of Saturn, especially the oldest daughter. As usual, despite the instability of the atmosphere earlier in the day, the image of Saturn through the Clark was quite good early on, but as the night progressed the image “softened” a bit. But at least it was clear. We haven’t been able to say that very much this year.
They also received a tour of the three scopes in the back roll-of observatories. John was constantly thanking all the members there for their hospitality.
He planned on visiting the Cormack Planetarium at the Roger Williams Park Museum the next day. As of this writing I have not heard back from him. However, we did arrange to keep in touch.
As the night progressed it became apparent that no one from Donna’s group was arriving. Some usually arrive even before the sun sets. By now it was 8:45 pm or so and I began to worry. After 9:00 pm I called Donna and asked where she was. Home she said.
Due to a variety of factors she thought the event was for Saturday night. We informed our volunteers out back on the scopes of the situation so they could go home if they wished, since some would be returning the next night. We closed up the Clark dome and departed around 10:35 pm. Jim Hendrickson stayed for a few hours more to conduct an imaging session using one of his own telescopes which he had brought to share with our guests.
A scheduling snafu had several members come to Seagrave Observatory for a Friday night star party. This was also the first Friday of the month, but our normally scheduled meeting wasn't scheduled until the following Friday.
While the star party was immediately rescheduled for the following evening, the Friday night wouldn't go to waste. The transparency was about as good as it ever gets for Seagrave Observatory, and a Moon just 2 days past new allowed for ideal observing conditions. Earlier this week, we also saw the first clear Tuesday observing at Ladd Observatory in ten weeks.
I learned of Supernova 2011dh in M51 just a few hours earlier and quickly spread the word, including to Scott MacNeil and Francine Jackson so that they may observe it at Frosty Drew Observatory.
The mosquitoes are out now, but the temperature quickly dropped into the low 60's, quieting their feasting activity; a lone frog could be heard chirping a few dozen yards north of Peeptoad Pond. Saturn is about as close as it is going to get to Porrima, making for a spectactular sight using anything from unaided eyes, to binoculars, to medium power in a telescope.
I set up my 80mm refractor on my Losmandy G11 mount in the back yard, with the intention of staying late and doing some DSLR astrophotography. Dave Huestis opened the Clark
I spotted the first firefly of the season just 3 meters to the northwest of the Clark observatory entrance while roaming around waiting for a series of exposures of M51 to complete.
This was my first chance to try out some astrophotography with a 35mm prime lens I had, so I set up my tripod a couple of meters north of Roger's Rock and started snapping away at the Heart of our Milky Way Galaxy, which was now well-placed just before the meridian.
Finally, I wanted to take a photo by request of astronaut Woody Spring, who had emailed me earlier in the day requesting any phtotos that we may have in our archive showing a silhouette of Seagrave Observatory with a sunset or Milky Way backdrop. I took a few shots from the north, looking south-southeast over the dome, but due to the treeline did not have an ideal silhousette to show, so I took another photo from the south, looking north-northwest as the Big Dipper was nicely framed between the observatory and the trees to the west.
