Hello from Almost Heaven, West Virginia, with apologies to John Denver. My friend Tony Donnangelo and I are currently attending the Green Bank Star Quest II on the grounds of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. (In fact, I'm posting this from a Faraday cage shielded computer room in the visitor's center.) The driving time to Green Bank was about 5.5 hours from Harrisburg but we stopped several times en route so it took us considerably longer to arrive. Speaking of routes, traveling on Route 250 through the Shenandoah Valley was something else. We've never seen so many switchbacks on one stretch of highway.

It was almost clear here on Wednesday night. However, the transparency was poor for the most part, although at times it improved somewhat. There was heavy dew and, later, ground fog. Everything was soaking wet by the morning. Despite the less than ideal conditions, we were able to observe SN 2005cs, the recent type II supernova in M51, with the help of my friend Tony Donnangelo's 14.5" Starmaster Sky Tracker Dob. I also viewed the supernova, albeit it with more difficulty, through a neighbor's 12.5" Starmaster Dob.

We tried for comet 9P/Tempel but below 40 degrees or so of altitude there was little visible but the brighter stars and haze. The same applied to the supernova in Libra, SN 2005cf (see http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/sn2005/sn2005cf.html for further information).

I had looks at Delta Cygni and M92 through a rather unusual 12" f/8 truss-tube Newtonian on an equatorial mount, M13 through the 12.5" Starmaster, and a number of deep-sky objects such as the eastern and western segments of the Veil Nebula and some binary stars that I hadn't seen before through Tony's telescope. I also showed a woman from West Virginia a few objects using her Dob.

Earlier in the evening we observed the transit of Virgo A, known to optical astronomers as M87, with the old 40 foot radio telescope, which is now used for educational purposes. We took a class on using the telescope on Thursday and observed Virgo A again that evening.

Yesterday we attended some good talks throughout the day, including one on telescope optics and designs by Bob Royce, and heard the preliminary results of the 110 meter telescope's observations of 9P/Tempel. Very little H2O was found, which is going to cause some controversy, I daresay.

It rained a good part of Thursday and I was lulled to sleep by the constant pitter-patter of raindrops on the tent on Thursday night.

The 110 meter Robert C. Byrd (AKA the King of Pork) Green Bank Telescope is amazing. We haven't even gotten close to it yet and the GBT dominates the landscape. We plan on taking the guided tour today.

The facilities and folks here are great. There's a nice shower room in the bunk house and there are even washing machines.

The website for the Green Bank Star Quest II can be found at http://www.greenbankstarquest.org/

The Green Bank NRAO site is at http://www.gb.nrao.edu/

The star party ends on Sunday morning. Tony and I plan on taking a different route home and observing from atop Spruce Knob, the highest mountain in the state, on Sunday night if the weather is favorable.

Dave Mitsky

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