Post by bsimon615 on Nov 11, 2018 21:58:32 GMT -6
The 36th Annual Deep South Star Gaze is now in the books, so how was it?
No doubt the week to 10 days leading up to the Deep South Star Gaze this year was a time to watch the weather and unfortunately it did keep some people away. Ultimately weather fears were somewhat unwarranted because we did have some good observing periods during the 5 days of the DSSG. How so? Tuesday only gave us an a few hours of observing time, none of it really suited for photography due to high cirrus clouds. Good enough skies to give those there Tuesday a good idea of the potential of White Horse, but not long enough and not quite clear enough. Tuesday was followed by Wednesday and Thursday and those days were bad, with driving rain and heavy winds on Wednesday which dumped a lot of water on the main observing field and damaged some canopies. Fixing the mess was accomplished but left a lot of fire ants swimming for their lives and those ungrateful little devils, when they finally got out of the water and up someone's pants leg - what did they do - they bit!
Thursday was a repeat of Wednesday, more rain, but not as much wind, but still overcast. Intellicast, AccuWeather and other weather services were viewed quite often at the DSSG and we were all pinning hope on whichever service had the most optimistic forecast for any given point in time. Friday forecasts were pretty much in agreement with each other and all were indicating that the clouds would begin clearing out late on Friday afternoon...…….and they did. Some high level clouds were left which impacted the view but the view was good enough to impress most with the advantages of the new site. It was cold however with the temperature falling into the high 30's overnight. The other issue was the wind. It made the already cold weather feel even colder, but we did get some astronomy in.
The big surprise though was Saturday and perhaps many reading this do not know this yet...…..but, it did clear up and the clear up was very nice with darker skies than what we had on Friday and in addition, very light winds. This all happened after the LSU-Arkansas game was over and unfortunately some had left earlier in the day or had turned in for the night. Only 6 of us really spent some time on the field and a few others went outside for a quick peek. Sky Quality Meter readings indicated that we were seeing stars as faint as magnitude 6.6, better than the 6.4 of the previous night. I was able to take some fixed tripod short exposure images with my Canon DSLR and both a 24 mm wide angle lens and a 90 mm telephoto lens. I will post some of those pictures to show you what we had. It was dark, and Saturday night had very little humidity associated with it; it was well worth the effort of tolerating the cold.
So, all in all, the 36th Annual DSSG was certainly not one of the worst weather wise, maybe not one of the best in terms of number of hours and number of days of clear skies, but not bad at all considering the apprehensions of some.
First picture - sky looking north
2nd picture - Cassiopeia and the Double Cluster
3rd picture - Auriga and open clusters
(click on each photo to see it larger)
More photos to follow
Barry Simon
No doubt the week to 10 days leading up to the Deep South Star Gaze this year was a time to watch the weather and unfortunately it did keep some people away. Ultimately weather fears were somewhat unwarranted because we did have some good observing periods during the 5 days of the DSSG. How so? Tuesday only gave us an a few hours of observing time, none of it really suited for photography due to high cirrus clouds. Good enough skies to give those there Tuesday a good idea of the potential of White Horse, but not long enough and not quite clear enough. Tuesday was followed by Wednesday and Thursday and those days were bad, with driving rain and heavy winds on Wednesday which dumped a lot of water on the main observing field and damaged some canopies. Fixing the mess was accomplished but left a lot of fire ants swimming for their lives and those ungrateful little devils, when they finally got out of the water and up someone's pants leg - what did they do - they bit!
Thursday was a repeat of Wednesday, more rain, but not as much wind, but still overcast. Intellicast, AccuWeather and other weather services were viewed quite often at the DSSG and we were all pinning hope on whichever service had the most optimistic forecast for any given point in time. Friday forecasts were pretty much in agreement with each other and all were indicating that the clouds would begin clearing out late on Friday afternoon...…….and they did. Some high level clouds were left which impacted the view but the view was good enough to impress most with the advantages of the new site. It was cold however with the temperature falling into the high 30's overnight. The other issue was the wind. It made the already cold weather feel even colder, but we did get some astronomy in.
The big surprise though was Saturday and perhaps many reading this do not know this yet...…..but, it did clear up and the clear up was very nice with darker skies than what we had on Friday and in addition, very light winds. This all happened after the LSU-Arkansas game was over and unfortunately some had left earlier in the day or had turned in for the night. Only 6 of us really spent some time on the field and a few others went outside for a quick peek. Sky Quality Meter readings indicated that we were seeing stars as faint as magnitude 6.6, better than the 6.4 of the previous night. I was able to take some fixed tripod short exposure images with my Canon DSLR and both a 24 mm wide angle lens and a 90 mm telephoto lens. I will post some of those pictures to show you what we had. It was dark, and Saturday night had very little humidity associated with it; it was well worth the effort of tolerating the cold.
So, all in all, the 36th Annual DSSG was certainly not one of the worst weather wise, maybe not one of the best in terms of number of hours and number of days of clear skies, but not bad at all considering the apprehensions of some.
First picture - sky looking north
2nd picture - Cassiopeia and the Double Cluster
3rd picture - Auriga and open clusters
(click on each photo to see it larger)
More photos to follow
Barry Simon
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