HAL Star Party Reports and Other News
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2024 Star Party Reports
Members-Only Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 7/06/2024
(The One with almost New Moon but Clouds)
It was a hot day and evening, and 6 HAL members tried to enjoy the night
of almost New Moon for the July Members-Only Star Party at Alpha Ridge
Park. Unfortunately, the skies were cloudy and the hoped-for clearing
never materialized, so we started packing up just after 10pm; I closed
the gate at 10:50pm.
Thanks to the members who came out for the disappointing conditions; I
enjoyed chatting with each of you and hope see you all again on a clear
night soon.
Wayne B.
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 7/02/2024
(The One with More Eagle Nebula Photos)
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We had a surprisingly nice and clear sky until midnight.
7 members attended this party, and I apologize in advance but
I am terrible at remembering everyone's names, but there were
2 members that I met for the first time who brought a 14” and
a 16” dobsonian which was really cool!
My goal for the night was to give the OAG one last chance and
I was finally able to use it properly. My target was the Eagle
Nebula, and I was able to get 22 subs of 3 minutes each so I
got some nice detail of the
Pillars of Creation.
It seems like
I still have to work on the back focus distance which is
making my stars slightly oval.
I am including the final images here for you to see. I am not
great at post processing and I use only the free software but
I think it looks very nice!
I closed the park by midnight when we got hit by fast moving
clouds. We had no inconveniences besides the clouds.
[Update: Added Jose's next day refinement of his image on the right. Click images for larger view.]
Jose Urias
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Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 7/01/2024
(The One with a Clear Skies Cool Weather)
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Last night four of us (Mike, Richard, Ken S. and me) enjoyed the
beautiful clear skies and cool weather. It felt more like
mid-September to me than early July. Ken and I had a couple of
Seestar S50s running, Mike had an 80mm refractor with a new ZWO
camera he was testing and Richard was doing some seriously
amazing naked-eye observing. I took my first picture of a
comet, C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS,
which is predicted to
possibly be a bright naked-eye object in the fall. In honor of
the upcoming Independence Day I also photographed the
Fireworks Galaxy (NGC 6946) and the
Eagle Nebula (M16). The below pictures
are straight out of the Seestar with no further enhancement
(exposure times are given on the bottom watermark bars).
[Update: Ken S. added his image of
M27 from the same night.]
David Stein
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Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 6/21/2024
(The One with a Strawberry Moon and Suboptimal Conditions)
It was a hot day and evening, and seven HAL members and guests enjoyed
the night of the Strawberry Moon for an impromptu star party at Alpha
Ridge Park. The skies were mostly clear but very hazy, resulting in
poor transparency; this is typical for a triple-H -- hot, hazy, and
humid -- summer day in Maryland. Also common with triple-H days is good
seeing, and the atmosphere was steady most of the night. The Full Moon
was low in the southeast at sunset and added greatly to the sky
brightness, so with the poor transparency it was not a night for visual
observations of faint fuzzies.
Richard used his Televue TV-85 APO doublet refractor to tour the sky.
Ernie viewed with a Celestron 8-inch StarSense Newtonian and
concentrated on double stars and open clusters -- he observed the double
stars Epsilon Lyrae, Algieba (Gamma Leonis), Mizar (Zeta Ursae Majoris),
the open cluster Caldwell 37 (NGC 6885) in Vulpecula, and the Coathanger
asterism (Brocchi's Cluster) in Vulpecula.
We had two Loyola students show up looking for a place to look at the
stars, so they camped out in a corner of the parking lot and did their
thing. I told them about HAL and gave them business cards; they sounded
interested in checking us out further.
The remaining three members were imaging. Alvin used an SVBONY 80mm
refractor to image M4 (globular cluster in Scorpius) plus a nearby
reflection nebula, with the primary goal being the reflection nebula.
However, he fell victim to the bright skies and poor transparency and
went to plan B, the North America Nebula in Cygnus, with much greater
success. Anil used his Stellarvue 102P refractor to image the Pelican
Nebula in Cygnus using narrowband (SHO) filters, while I gathered
H-alpha images of M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy) in Canes Venatici with my
8-inch RC in hopes of using it for the June Discord Object of the Month,
and an hour of LRGB of M13 (globular cluster) in Hercules.
Thanks to the members who came out for the somewhat disappointing
conditions; I enjoyed chatting with each of you and hope see you all
again on a clear night soon.
Anil and I locked the gate at 3:50am.
Wayne B.
Public Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 6/15/2024
(The One with Over 250 People!)
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Last night's HAL Public Star Party at Alpha Ridge Park was fantastic. The
skies were perfectly clear until approximately midnight. The Moon was in
it's first quarter phase, which provided great views for the lunar
observers. There were 27 telescopes setup. They ranged from the most basic
starter scopes to very sophisticated setups. There were well over 250 people
in attendance. At one point I counted almost 100 cars in the parking lot and
along the street. Our observatory (HALO) was packed full the entire night.
Our visitors included a large group from the Howard County Social Club.
Everybody had a great experience.
I want to give a special shout out to all the HAL members that supported the
star party. It could not be done without you. Your graciousness, knowledge,
and enthusiasm are qualities that makes HAL what it is. It is always about
the people. The technology is awesome, you are the magic.
Thank you to all our visitors. We look forward to seeing you at future
outings. If you want to learn more about HAL and how to become a member, go
to our website, https://howardastro.org.
Until next time. Clear Skies!
Phil W.
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Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 6/11 & 12/2024
(The One with Two Reports in One)
I am sorry I am doing a dual report but I figured since it was a back to back situation
it would be better to condense it.
Starting with 06/11, we had 5 members coming, some to image and some to do
visual astronomy with their dobsonians.
I was very surprised to see how amazing the star sense push-to scopes works,
making the star hopping process a little bit easier.
We had no eventualities and closed the park around midnight.
Yesterday (6/12) we had 4 members visiting and this time it was a
combination of dobsonian and Seestar scopes. I never thought of how great
and “inexpensive” it can be now to get a big dobsonian with some push to
device to enjoy visual astronomy and have a Seestar running in the
background for doing some imaging of things that look faint on an eye piece.
I closed the park around 11:40 with no eventualities.
I want to thank everyone for being so diligent at closing the gates behind
them when they come to or leave the park. It make us all feel safer and
enjoy the park without worrying about unknown people.
Jose U.
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 6/07/2024
(The One with the Black Eye Galaxy and Hungry Mosquitoes)
Four HAL members (me, Ken, Kurt, and Sundar) showed up at an impromptu star
party last night.
As forecast predicted, the evening cloud gradually dissipated starting at 9
pm. The clear sky continued till 11:30 pm when a huge cluster of clouds
moved in from the south. So we started to wrap up and left Alpha Ridge
around 12:15 am. Ken volunteered to lock the gate behind me.
I managed to process most of the so-so photons collected from Black Eye
Galaxy in a so-so night.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/191436936@N02/53776348907/in/album-721777203151
83401/
I got quite a few mosquito bites last night. For those who will join the
member's only star party tonight, be prepared to have bug spray at hand.
Richard R.
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/31/2024
(The One with a Lengthy Report)
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The last impromptu of the month was a fantastic one as we had 12 members
enjoying the wonderfully dark and clear skies of last night.
The night was a little chilly but we had no clouds almost from the very
beginning.
Some members were observing through their dobsonians, while others where
imaging or aligning their equipment (me included). I was also able to chat
with a few new members who showed up to see how we setup and if they wanted
to join next time, and it was my impression that we will see more members
showing up to the impromptus.
Once everyone was done setting up their equipment, members started walking
around and saying hi. It was nice hearing conversations all over the place.
There was a couple of Seestars around and I was able to test the club’s one
for a more extended time. I will include some objects I imaged with it to
encourage people to sign up to use it. I may not meet it for an entire month
myself but that is how long you can take it with you and use it when your
turn comes.
Finally, I appreciate that everyone was very responsible in closing the gate
behind them when they left. This is for everyone’s safe enjoyment and I was
really happy when I locked the park gates at 2 am and I found them closed.
Some members even emailed me to let me know they closed the gates when they
left. Wayne, who is also a key holder, stayed until 3:30 am and locked the
observatory and the park as well.
Also, just a little but very important thing I want everyone to know is that
the bathrooms in the park lock themselves automatically at around 10 pm and
we don’t have the code to unlock them and our key doesn’t work after they
get locked so we always manually move the deadbolt of the doors before that
happens to avoid the door shutting down. Please leave them like that when
you use the bathroom or we will not be able to open them until they unlock
themselves in the morning. I also don’t know if it would become impossible
to unlock them from inside if someone gets locked inside so let’s not find
out.
That concludes my lengthy report. Thank you for assisting and sharing last night.
Jose Urias
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Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/30/2024
(The One with Sharing of Knowledge and Anecdotes )
Last night was cloudy for most of the night, however, 8 members showed up
and even though conditions were not the best until about 11 pm, everyone
enjoyed the usual nerdy conversations about astronomy and telescopes.
I personally loved how everyone shared some of their knowledge and anecdotes
to help newer members with advice on how to use their current equipment.
There was a fair amount of Seestar S50 scopes last night and I got to try
the club’s one as well. I am attaching an image I took of M27 with the
seestar.
The night was a little chilly but comfortable enough to stay for a long time.
I closed the gates of the park at 12:25pm and thanks to everyone closing the
gates behind them, we didn’t experience any issues involving other vehicles
coming to the park.
Jose Urias
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/24/2024
(The One with the Lone Park Ranger)
I went to the park tonight by 7:45 and waited until it was dark to start
imaging.
For some reason I was not able to plate solve tonight so I was fighting my
scope for a while.
At some point a police officer came to inquire what I was doing alone in the
park so I informed her of what I was doing. A few minutes later it was the
park ranger who came for the same reason despite having called the ranger
office before my arrival.
He advised it was probably not a good idea for me to stay there on my own so
I packed my stuff I headed back home after closing the observatory.
It was a little sad not being able to enjoy a clear night but I think it was
best to leave after that.
The ranger was nice enough to wait for me so he closed the front gates of
the park.
Jose Urias
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/21/2024
(The One with Shallow Sky Observing and M81 Popularity)
Approximately 10 HAL members and guests took advantage of the pleasant
conditions for last night's impromptu star party. There were high,
thin, clouds around all night, but they were thin enough to observe
through. The transparency was not good, but the seeing was pretty good,
so it worked out well for shallow-sky observing. The Moon was quite bright.
It seemed that most people were checking out equipment and working on
issues, while a few people made some serious attempts at observing and
imaging. Ernie brought his 8-inch Newtonian on a Dob mount, and used
his cell phone push-to app to see a variety of clusters and double stars.
Jose and his brother were working to focus the off-axis guide camera on
his Celestron 8-inch SCT scope. Despite being unsuccessful, he used the
scope to capture images of M81 (Bode's Galaxy) and another object or
two. He also used HAL's Seestar to capture images of M81 and M51 -- he
was quite impressed with the performance of the scope. Dave took some
images with his Seestar S50 scope, too. Gary and his guest worked out
some pointing issues he had been having with his new 10-inch Celestron
SCT. Dani imaged M81 with her Redcat 50 scope with a DSLR and a ZWO AM5
mount. Krystal worked with her Dwarf imaging scope. Alvin used his
Svbony refractor to image M81 -- it seems like everyone decided to image
it! He showed me an impressive post-perihelion image of comet
12P/Pons-Brooks that he took from a farm near Westminster. Finally, I
spent the night working with NINA's polar alignment tool to try to find
the best parameters for my equipment. I did manage two short exposures
in the process: 32 minutes of Luminance on galaxy M94 and 60 minutes of
Luminance on M13.
It was great to see so many people on a Tuesday night! I enjoyed
chatting with each of you and hope see you all again on a clear night soon.
I locked the gate at 2:45am.
Wayne B.
Public Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/18/2024
(The One with 2 Hours without Clouds)
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/13/2024
(The One with Two Keyholders and Lots of DSOs)
This evening an impromptu was called. The weather forecast called for
clear skies to turn cloudy between 8-10 pm. One other member said they
would join us but at the last minute was unable to come. The 28% Waxing
Crescent Moon was beautiful in the north-west sky at dusk.
Chris Todd and I met-up at HALO at 7pm and went through the newly
revised/updated protocols to open HALO and start up the Illig Telescope
with no problems. We were able to observe the Moon during early
twilight deep into dusk. The clouds graciously stayed away and we then
turned the Illig Scope to look at and capture images of the
Leo Triplet (M66, M65 and NCG 3628).
We looked at some of the many
Messier Objects in Cancer and Leo including:
the Black Eye Galaxy (M64),
Coma Berenices (M85 and M53) and the
Golden Eye Cluster (M67).
After this we then shut-down the Illig Telescope and closed up HALO and
locked up the park at 11pm.
Cheryl Kerr
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/12/2024
(The One with a Happy First-Time Keyholder)
I hosted my very first Star Party last night at Alpha Ridge Park.
I arrived at the park around 7:45 pm while there was still some sunlight
so I could take my time to get everything ready. Before any other
members arrived a little bit after sunset, a few families started to
come to the park as I left the gate open for HAL members. I had to
politely ask them all to leave and at some point when I was certain no
one else would come I closed the gate.
The members who arrived were Cheryl Kerr, who tried taking some pictures
of Aurora, Dana Porter, and Michael (whose last name I forgot to write
down), and we also welcomed a new member, Ramani, who joined on the spot
thanks to Dana and Cheryl's encouragement.
As for observations, the night was mostly cloudy and chill. We were not
able to spot the Aurora
and I forgot my dew heater ring so my scope was
completely covered in dew, however, the night was very pleasant filled
with geeky conversations about Auroras, astronomy equipment, and space.
I closed the park around 11:45 pm after we decided we would not see
Auroras.
Finally, I want to add that I am really happy to have become a keyholder
as most of you must have seen me asking for someone to open the park
before. I am always eager to go to Alpha Ridge when the weather is nice
enough as I don't have a backyard or a place dark enough to use my
telescope otherwise, so if the conditions are good, expect me to offer
an impromptu.
I will also write this as a reminder whenever I call for an impromptu,
but I will be closing the gates (not locked) from now on after sunset so
no unknown people come there, so you will have to move the chain, open
the gate and close it behind you. This is for everyone's safety so we
can focus on observing or doing our activities rather than wondering who
is accessing the park and what they are doing.
Thank you for your attention and keep looking up!
Jose Urias
Members-Only Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/04/2024
(The One with May the Fourth)
Well... as you can imagine... it wasn't much of a star party tonight as the
skies were overcast and we had precipitation, ranging from light rain to a fine
mist, all evening at Alpha Ridge. Three members came out and socialized for a
while within HALO and we wrapped up shop around 9:30 pm. Let's keep our fingers
crossed for better weather at our upcoming events. Best regards and clear skies,
Victor
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 5/01/2024
(The One with a Cool, Clear Sky)
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Six of us enjoyed some time out under the stars last night at an impromptu at
Alpha Ridge. The weather was cool but not cold and the sky was clear with average
transparency. Three people were working with big SCTs on German equatorial mounts
with varying degrees of success, one had a 5" reflector, one had a pair of
binoculars and I had my 2" Seestar. I saw very nice views of M3, M13 and M81/M82
visually through the other scopes and I took a couple of pictures. It was a
weeknight so no one wanted to stay late and I locked up at 11 PM. A very nice
way to start May!
David Stein
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Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 4/28/2024
(The One with a Very Lovely Evening)
Upon arrival yesterday evening at approx 7:20 pm high thin clouds were present
over the western and north western skies. These clouds began to break up and
thin out just as Polaris became visible at dusk. From then on the skies improved
and became clear. Temps were very lovely all evening.
Five HAL members joined me for a very lovely evening among the stars: Gary
Richardson came specifically to work on a new mount and tighten-up tracking.
Grace Coventry spent time focused on gathering nebulosity in Orion and practising
with her new move-shoot-move updated tracker as she gets ready for an upcoming
trip to Namibia. Alvin Savage spent the evening tracking and gathering data on
NCG 4495, a lovely galaxy. Jose Urias spent the evening tracking and gathering
data on M81-Bodes. Ernie Morse spent the evening visualizing various Messier
objects and the Eskimo Nebula.
My purpose for the evening was to attach a polar scope to the AVX mount and work
on tracking. Gary was a life saver for me and helped me align which enabled me
to track and photograph M61.
We closed up at 11:45 pm and locked the gates at 11:55 PM.
Cheryl Kerr
Public Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 4/13/2024
(The One with a Separate Page of Post-Total Solar Eclipse Excitement)
See Krystal's report with photos submitted by 2 members/officers.
Members-Only Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 4/06/2024
(The One with a Relaxing Evening)
Member star party tonight turned out to be a nice relaxing evening.
We had 5 folks join us, and while the night started off looking pretty clear,
it got cloudy by 8:30 and we left the park around 10pm.
Jared Case
Public Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 3/16/2024
(The One with 2 Separate Pages of Photos)
See Mike's report with 2 pages of photos submitted by 4 members/officers.
Members-Only Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 3/09/2024
(The One with a Thunderstorm)
The rain turned into a thunderstorm when I arrived at Alpha Ridge about 5:50 pm.
Two other members joined me today when I did a dry run of the Illig.
All the gears were running smoothly and are ready for next week's public star party.
I locked the observatory at 6:30.
Richard Ren
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 2/19/2024
(The One with a Bright Moon, Freezing Temperatures, but No Frost)
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The forecasts were pretty much right on the nose, and six HAL members
trekked to Alpha Ridge Park for an impromptu star party last night. The
temperature started close to freezing and dropped to about 27F by the
time I closed up. The wind was calm all night, but the humidity was OK
and the frost stayed off windows for almost the entire night -- optics
also fared well. The only real issue was the very bright Moon very high
in the sky -- deep-sky objects like nebulae and galaxies were very
difficult targets.
Mayurika and her daughter did some viewing with binoculars and saw a few
objects in a fairly short observing session. Alex Grant used his
10-inch Newtonian for a sky tour, with one highlight being splitting the
triple star Castor in the constellation Gemini. Jose spent some time
working with his new Celestron Nexstar Evolution SCT and observed M42
and several other objects; he was very satisfied with the scope and his
time under the sky.
Kurt spent a couple of hours imaging the Orion Nebula with a dual-band
narrowband filter with his Askar V 60mm refractor, stopping early
because of an early start the next morning. I spent the night imaging
the open clusters M37 (in Auriga), M67 (Cancer), and NGC 188 (Cepheus)
and some star fields so that I can hopefully do photometry of the
clusters. I have attached the image of M67 that I collected and made
into a pretty picture.
After a long night of observing, I locked the gate at 2:40am. Thanks to
the HAL members who came out to enjoy the near-perfect conditions!
Wayne B.
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Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 2/03/2024
(The One with 10 HAL Members Enjoying Cold but Clear Skies)
We had a sizable turnout for last night's impromptu star party at Alpha
Ridge Park with 10 HAL members taking advantage of the cold, clear
skies. Temperatures were cold, but not terribly so, and the wind was
calm all night. A handful of clouds blew through at around 9pm but they
didn't interfere with observing. The combination of cold temperatures
and calm winds led to some frost on the cars but it wasn't nearly as bad
as it could have been.
Dana came to check out the library -- she took a couple of books home
with her -- and just to enjoy the evening. Peter brought his 12-inch
Meade SCT on his new Losmandy mount so that he could work out the
process for using the mount with some visual observing; Victor assisted
him with some of the more obscure aspects of controlling the mount.
The remainder of the observers were imaging, and we had a veritable sea
of SeeStar S50 imaging scopes. William (Peter's son) was using a
SeeStar to image some of the scopes best objects of the night, while
David was imaging M33 (Triangulum Galaxy) with his. David started out
with success but then experienced some issues with tracking objects.
Steve and Bob were also using SeeStars and spent some time familiarizing
themselves with their systems.
Benjamin spent the night imaging the Christmas Tree cluster with his
Apertura 75Q refractor with a couple of dual-band narrowband filters to
get a complete Hubble palette set. Victor measured his filter offsets
on his 130mm AstrPhysics refractor using a RST135E harmonic drive
mount. He also used the Illig scope in HALO to image the Horsehead
Nebula in Orion and start learning NINA's advanced sequencing
capability. Finally, I used my 8-inch RC to obtain narrowband images of
the Jellyfish Nebula (IC 443) for the January/February Discord group
Object of the (Two) Month(s) activity.
After a long night of delightful observing, I locked the gate at
2:45am. Thanks to the many HAL members who came out to enjoy the
near-perfect conditions!
Wayne B.
Impromptu Star Party (Alpha Ridge) 1/02/2024
(The One with 7 Cold Deep Sky Imagers to Kick Off 2024)
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The temperature hovered at freezing all night, but seven HAL members
came out to Alpha Ridge Park for our first impromptu star party of the
year on Tuesday, January 2, 2024. Skies were clear, winds were calm,
and the transparency and seeing were about average. It was mostly an
imaging night, with Alex the only visual observer doing a sky tour with
his 10-inch Newtonian. Peter and his son imaged several objects with
their ZWO Seestar S50 imaging scope, and David did likewise with his
Seestar scope. Benjamin imaged the Elephant Trunk Nebula with his
Apertura 75Q refractor and an Askar D2 filter (OIII and SII dual-band
for one-shot-color cameras).
Kurt imaged M33 (Triangulum Galaxy) with
his Askar V APO refractor at 80mm aperture; a quickly-processed version
of his result is attached to this email. I imaged the Orion Nebula
(M42) in both narrowband and RGB images to work on a high-dynamic range
image of the bright object. Clouds began approaching from the southwest
just after 11pm, and everyone was done imaging by midnight. After
packing all my gear I closed the park at 1:15am.
Thanks to all the members who came out and shared their night with
everyone. Hopefully we can do it again soon!
Wayne B.
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