Post by bsimon615 on Apr 15, 2018 10:56:03 GMT -6
The 2018 Deep South Spring Scrimmage is now history. I am taking this opportunity to recap events and to invite discussion about future Spring Scrimmage events as well as the larger Deep South Star Gaze held in the fall.
Looking at our attendance numbers this was our largest Spring Scrimmage to date. Over the course of the Spring Scrimmage a total of 32 people attended, beating the old record of 25 significantly. Some did not come until others had left but by Thursday afternoon the observing field really had the feel of a fall Deep South Star Gaze.
As many know and some may not know we did have issues with our old Deep South Star Gaze Yahoo Group. In short - it was compromised. I was removed as a co-moderator, but the moderator was not. The member count fell to approximately 1/5th of the pre-booby trapped member count. I, nor anyone else that could get on to the "Home Page" was able to see anything - Conversations, Photos, Files, etc. What was left for all to see who could get to the home page was a group description, that was suggestive in the worst way and apparently had one word that was purposely misspelled to a same sounding word with a bad meaning. I did leave messages to the moderator's land line telephone answering machine and to a cell phone message recorder, but without response for two days. In my messages I described what we were seeing and I asked the moderator to take the Yahoo Group down without response. Only after a subsequent e-mail was the Yahoo Group finally taken down. Draw your own conclusions. Did this issue affect attendance at the Spring Scrimmage? There is no way to know. The whole issue made it difficult to get information out in the 10 days leading up to the Scrimmage. It resulted in extra work for Len Philpot and me in finding alternative solutions. I greatly appreciate the effort that Len made in finding the hosting site that is the home for this group, and I believe without it we would not have done as well as we have. Thanks again Len! Anyway, enough said about this issue, we move on.
As our dates for the Spring Scrimmage (Thursday April 12th to Sunday April 15th) approached, it became evident that our best weather would be on Thursday with it looking like Friday and Saturday could be completely bad in respect to clear skies at night. As Wednesday was looking good and as the Feliciana Retreat Center was ready to host the 12 people who wanted to come early, we were able to add Wednesday to the schedule. Both Wednesday and Thursday did turn out to be good nights so the 12 people that attended on Wednesday and the 27 we had on Thursday night were able to get in some good observing.
On Wednesday we found at dusk that there was a miscommunication between the Feliciana Retreat Center and the utility company (DEMCO). The power to the outside light poles was not turned off. Instead the power to Barton Hall (meeting room near the field with bathroom facilities) had it's power cut. Additionally the flood light by the office adjacent to the Lodge, and a flood light in the parking area just past the Lodge were still on. These last two were not a major issue to observers on the field but the first one described was an issue for some and we could also see the ground beneath this light being illuminated. The whole issue frustrated me because I had reminded the Feliciana Retreat Center on 2 occasions that these lights had to be dealt with and I was assured that they would be. A representative from DEMCO, Vince, did come out on Thursday morning and the lights were disabled, so no issue on Thursday night.
Both nights were relatively dry (by our standards) with temperatures to the low 50's on Wednesday night and low 60's on Thursday night. We did have more of breeze on Thursday so light jackets were needed. I got limiting naked eye magnitude readings with my Sky Quality Meter pointed to the zenith indicating 6.45 magnitude. This is pretty good for the Feliciana Retreat Center. (Bortle 4 skies) Several of us were able to do some astrophotography with good results.
We had some other issues with lights including one person driving off the field (lights mostly off), some white lights seen, car doors opened without lights disabled, and red lights which were far too bright. Everyone was reminded of the rules and this improved by Thursday night. Note - parking rules (set up on the field) is more relaxed for the Spring Scrimmage compared to the Deep South but the same "Light Rules" are in effect for both.
Moving on to other issues that need to be fixed prior to our next event, the 2018 Deep South Star Gaze in November have to do with our concerns about the Feliciana Retreat Center itself -
It is very easy to see that they are having staffing and financial issues. While we did not have many people left due to the weather on Friday and Saturday, we only had the maintenance man there on Saturday morning to prepare breakfast. Brenda, the operational manager, was never there during the entire run of the Scrimmage, and Mel was the only one there to prepare the Thursday supper. While I asked and was assured several times that the internet was up and running, it was not. No one was able to get on the internet to either check weather, clear out emails or to conduct some business obligations that they had. Several ventured down to Clinton to find internet. This is all clearly unacceptable. If they tell us that the internet is up and running that is a promise that we expect should be kept. There may be some that hearing that the internet will be available are able to attend and if it is down, that creates a problem. My personal feeling is that from what we have seen the past few years and our experience over the past few days is that while the current group of employees is well meaning and they will promise a lot, we have seen that they cannot always deliver what they promise and that does create problems. Have the problems reached a point where most would rather go to a different site? I do not know, that is for everyone to comment on.
Note - 15 months ago when we were told by Ida, the previous operational manager, about the FRC financial issues, it had us looking for a new site, which we found in the form of the Judson Baptist Retreat Center. We even signed a contract to go there. That site did have some pluses - it had better housing, and at least equivalent food at better prices. It also had a management team that had been in place for over 30 years and was fiercely proud of the job that they did. Management and maintenance was better. We found skies to be equivalent to the Feliciana Retreat Center, still Bortle 4. There was some downside though, the main observing field would not be able to support as many people as we can get on our field at FRC, but there were other areas to set up too, including a separate area for those with rv's and campers. Logistically though I believe many of us would not be happy with the field layout and the fact that some would have to be in other areas. In spite of these issues we did put down a deposit, but after some concessions from FRC and promises about viability we decided to stay with FRC.
So what do we do moving forward? I still have to settle up our remaining balance with FRC for the past few days. Many that came on Wednesday left by Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. I am going to argue for those people not paying for an extra night based upon the fact that we had the light issue that we should not have had, we had no internet which we were promised and we had no one to prepare and serve meals on Saturday morning and perhaps Saturday night and Sunday morning. I may be able to win some concessions for some who came later, I will see what I can do, but no promises.
For the upcoming Deep South I will see if I can get a good answer about the internet. I want to get their promise and assurance that it will be up and running. I may go so far as to let them know that not having internet may be a deal killer. Whether or not I do that will depend upon the feedback I get from all that are reading this so let me know.
What happens if we ultimately cannot host the DSSG at the Feliciana Retreat Center, maybe not this year, but maybe the next year or the year after that? Not really sure, I have reservations about the Judson Baptist Retreat Center and previous and continuing searching has not turned up anything viable with skies at least as good as what we have now. If we cannot continue at FRC and we cannot find an alternate site with skies at least as good with everything we need within a reasonable drive we will not be able to continue to do a Deep South Star Gaze. I hope it does not come to that.
Attendance facts - 23 from the Pontchartrain Astronomy Society, 2 from the Baton Rouge Astronomical Society, 2 from the Mobile Astronomical Society, and 5 not club affiliated. Among the attendees were 3 women and 2 children.
Barry Simon
Looking at our attendance numbers this was our largest Spring Scrimmage to date. Over the course of the Spring Scrimmage a total of 32 people attended, beating the old record of 25 significantly. Some did not come until others had left but by Thursday afternoon the observing field really had the feel of a fall Deep South Star Gaze.
As many know and some may not know we did have issues with our old Deep South Star Gaze Yahoo Group. In short - it was compromised. I was removed as a co-moderator, but the moderator was not. The member count fell to approximately 1/5th of the pre-booby trapped member count. I, nor anyone else that could get on to the "Home Page" was able to see anything - Conversations, Photos, Files, etc. What was left for all to see who could get to the home page was a group description, that was suggestive in the worst way and apparently had one word that was purposely misspelled to a same sounding word with a bad meaning. I did leave messages to the moderator's land line telephone answering machine and to a cell phone message recorder, but without response for two days. In my messages I described what we were seeing and I asked the moderator to take the Yahoo Group down without response. Only after a subsequent e-mail was the Yahoo Group finally taken down. Draw your own conclusions. Did this issue affect attendance at the Spring Scrimmage? There is no way to know. The whole issue made it difficult to get information out in the 10 days leading up to the Scrimmage. It resulted in extra work for Len Philpot and me in finding alternative solutions. I greatly appreciate the effort that Len made in finding the hosting site that is the home for this group, and I believe without it we would not have done as well as we have. Thanks again Len! Anyway, enough said about this issue, we move on.
As our dates for the Spring Scrimmage (Thursday April 12th to Sunday April 15th) approached, it became evident that our best weather would be on Thursday with it looking like Friday and Saturday could be completely bad in respect to clear skies at night. As Wednesday was looking good and as the Feliciana Retreat Center was ready to host the 12 people who wanted to come early, we were able to add Wednesday to the schedule. Both Wednesday and Thursday did turn out to be good nights so the 12 people that attended on Wednesday and the 27 we had on Thursday night were able to get in some good observing.
On Wednesday we found at dusk that there was a miscommunication between the Feliciana Retreat Center and the utility company (DEMCO). The power to the outside light poles was not turned off. Instead the power to Barton Hall (meeting room near the field with bathroom facilities) had it's power cut. Additionally the flood light by the office adjacent to the Lodge, and a flood light in the parking area just past the Lodge were still on. These last two were not a major issue to observers on the field but the first one described was an issue for some and we could also see the ground beneath this light being illuminated. The whole issue frustrated me because I had reminded the Feliciana Retreat Center on 2 occasions that these lights had to be dealt with and I was assured that they would be. A representative from DEMCO, Vince, did come out on Thursday morning and the lights were disabled, so no issue on Thursday night.
Both nights were relatively dry (by our standards) with temperatures to the low 50's on Wednesday night and low 60's on Thursday night. We did have more of breeze on Thursday so light jackets were needed. I got limiting naked eye magnitude readings with my Sky Quality Meter pointed to the zenith indicating 6.45 magnitude. This is pretty good for the Feliciana Retreat Center. (Bortle 4 skies) Several of us were able to do some astrophotography with good results.
We had some other issues with lights including one person driving off the field (lights mostly off), some white lights seen, car doors opened without lights disabled, and red lights which were far too bright. Everyone was reminded of the rules and this improved by Thursday night. Note - parking rules (set up on the field) is more relaxed for the Spring Scrimmage compared to the Deep South but the same "Light Rules" are in effect for both.
Moving on to other issues that need to be fixed prior to our next event, the 2018 Deep South Star Gaze in November have to do with our concerns about the Feliciana Retreat Center itself -
It is very easy to see that they are having staffing and financial issues. While we did not have many people left due to the weather on Friday and Saturday, we only had the maintenance man there on Saturday morning to prepare breakfast. Brenda, the operational manager, was never there during the entire run of the Scrimmage, and Mel was the only one there to prepare the Thursday supper. While I asked and was assured several times that the internet was up and running, it was not. No one was able to get on the internet to either check weather, clear out emails or to conduct some business obligations that they had. Several ventured down to Clinton to find internet. This is all clearly unacceptable. If they tell us that the internet is up and running that is a promise that we expect should be kept. There may be some that hearing that the internet will be available are able to attend and if it is down, that creates a problem. My personal feeling is that from what we have seen the past few years and our experience over the past few days is that while the current group of employees is well meaning and they will promise a lot, we have seen that they cannot always deliver what they promise and that does create problems. Have the problems reached a point where most would rather go to a different site? I do not know, that is for everyone to comment on.
Note - 15 months ago when we were told by Ida, the previous operational manager, about the FRC financial issues, it had us looking for a new site, which we found in the form of the Judson Baptist Retreat Center. We even signed a contract to go there. That site did have some pluses - it had better housing, and at least equivalent food at better prices. It also had a management team that had been in place for over 30 years and was fiercely proud of the job that they did. Management and maintenance was better. We found skies to be equivalent to the Feliciana Retreat Center, still Bortle 4. There was some downside though, the main observing field would not be able to support as many people as we can get on our field at FRC, but there were other areas to set up too, including a separate area for those with rv's and campers. Logistically though I believe many of us would not be happy with the field layout and the fact that some would have to be in other areas. In spite of these issues we did put down a deposit, but after some concessions from FRC and promises about viability we decided to stay with FRC.
So what do we do moving forward? I still have to settle up our remaining balance with FRC for the past few days. Many that came on Wednesday left by Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. I am going to argue for those people not paying for an extra night based upon the fact that we had the light issue that we should not have had, we had no internet which we were promised and we had no one to prepare and serve meals on Saturday morning and perhaps Saturday night and Sunday morning. I may be able to win some concessions for some who came later, I will see what I can do, but no promises.
For the upcoming Deep South I will see if I can get a good answer about the internet. I want to get their promise and assurance that it will be up and running. I may go so far as to let them know that not having internet may be a deal killer. Whether or not I do that will depend upon the feedback I get from all that are reading this so let me know.
What happens if we ultimately cannot host the DSSG at the Feliciana Retreat Center, maybe not this year, but maybe the next year or the year after that? Not really sure, I have reservations about the Judson Baptist Retreat Center and previous and continuing searching has not turned up anything viable with skies at least as good as what we have now. If we cannot continue at FRC and we cannot find an alternate site with skies at least as good with everything we need within a reasonable drive we will not be able to continue to do a Deep South Star Gaze. I hope it does not come to that.
Attendance facts - 23 from the Pontchartrain Astronomy Society, 2 from the Baton Rouge Astronomical Society, 2 from the Mobile Astronomical Society, and 5 not club affiliated. Among the attendees were 3 women and 2 children.
Barry Simon