Home from the Black Forest Star Party

[Dave Mitsky]

I returned from Cherry Springs State Park not too long ago. In brief, the 2004 Black Forest Star Party was another very successful event. The skies were clear during the star party and remained clear for two additional nights. Four nights of clear skies near new moon is unheard of in these parts this year!

There were numerous vendors, some fine speakers and plenty of impressive telescopes including many big Dobsonians up to 32 inches in aperture. The views of the Sun through two binoviewer equipped Astro-Physics Starfires and Solar Spectrum 0.2 Angstrom H-alpha filters were incredible.

On the down side was the extremely heavy dew that drenched eyepieces and objectives each night and the fact that one well-known CSSP regular was struck in the eye with a green laser pointer despite the fact that these tools of the devil are banned at the park. He left earlier than he had planned to have an eye exam.

Needless to say I got very little sleep and must sign off for now.

Dave Mitsky

[Bee in the hive]

Yep I know what you mean about lack of sleep dave. I went around 30hrs 1st day/night at the UK star party. Though we had our share of night cloud, the days were clear. I have never seen so many scopes with H-alpha set ups. These more than made up from the lack of night observing, with the best view being through one of the smallest scopes.A Tak sky 90.
I,ve allready booked my pitch for the spring event.
Nigel.

[Dave Mitsky]

The Sun was extremely active last weekend as was evidenced by the numerous H-alpha rigs present on the observing field, many of them being Coronado instruments such as the PST that I brought.

Some of the personal highlights of the 2004 BFSP included witnessing Mercury and an extremely thin old Moon along with Venus and Saturn early Monday morning, logging SN2004dj with my 101mm Tele Vue refractor (the smallest aperture through which I've ever detected a supernova), cruising past numerous Milky Way dark nebulae with my 12.5" Starsplitter Dob, and seeing the newly discovered comet C/2004 Q2 (Machholz) for the first time through my friend Tony Donnangelo's 14.5" Starmaster Sky Tracker Dob. When it came to the big guns, observing objects like NGC 6992 (the eastern segment of the Veil Nebula) through John Vogt's 32" ATM Dob and M33 through Tom Whiting's 30" ATM Dob wasn't exactly chopped liver.

Greg Granville, a member of the Central Pennsylvania Observers, got some great shots of the BFSP via a rather unusual method. You can see them at http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/g/a/gag1...g1/bfsp2004.htm (http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/g/a/gag1/bfsp2004.htm)

Dave Mitsky