Almost Heaven Star Party (AHSP) 2007
Summary
The Third annual “Almost Heaven Star Party” (9-12 August) was once again hosted by NOVAC http://www.novac.com and VOLT http://www.volt.org/at The Mountain Institute (TMI) http://www.mountain.org/index.cfm, located near Spruce Knob, West Virginia. Spruce Knob is reputed to be one of – if not THE—darkest observing site east of the Mississippi, as well as a prime spot for hiking, caving, birding, and a host of outdoor actitivies. Look at one of those “night face of North America” enhanced satellite images such as you can find on the IDA web site, and see the dark “hole” west of Washington/Baltimore. That’s the area that contains Spruce Knob and Green Bank, WVA (home to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.)
The star party opened on Thursday, and attendees arrived under generally hazy or overcast skies. As night fell, the clouds began to thicken, and thunder could be heard in the distance. As the rain clouds approached our location, many participants sat on the deck outside the TMI yurt and enjoyed the celestial sound and light show featuring significant cloud-to-cloud lightning strikes. The two rain storms we had precluded any observing on Thursday evening, but washed the skies clean for Friday. Although Friday was clear during the day—and I spent much of it hosting solar observing—the clouds returned around sunset. In fact, it was ~90% overcast until midnight, which made chasing views through ‘sucker holes’ a challenge. The skies did clear a couple of times during the night, including from 0430-0500.
The meals provided by the TMI staff were excellent, as usual. My personal favorite was the burrito bar. The programs were well-attended. Having already done the Green Bank National Radio Astronomy Observatory tour, I tried the caving outing instead, and had a blast. It was not technically challenging (a little climbing over rocks, and only one optional ‘wriggle through this tunnel on your belly” spot), but instead involved walking a mile through an underground stream. TMI offers this to Eighth Grade students, so it should not be beyond the limits of virtually any AHSP attendee who doesn’t mind getting wet and muddy. (Heck, at the 2005 AHSP –held during a hurricane—that pretty much described the physical condition of all attendees!)
I understand there were ~200 attendees and 100+ scopes present. I was struck by the number of families with children (in part because I was set up next to a three generation family), in contrast to the overwhelmingly middle-aged crowd I have seen at other star parties.
There was good vendor participation at the event. I was especially impressed by the folks from Astrogizmos, who not only provided free satellite-based wireless internet access for all, but who also showcased two homegrown products—a binocular viewing chair and a portable observing dome—that I think may be ‘best in class’ designs. A number of vendors provided door prizes and silent auction items, which attendees walking away with items as substantial as an 8” Meade reflector or an 80mm Celestron ED refractor.
Scopes of all varieties were represented on the three viewing fields. I was impressed by the number of large Dobsonians—three 25” and three 24” scopes present. This is comparable to the amount of ‘big glass’ typically found at the Winter Star Party in Florida, an event which is triple the size of AHSP!
Saturday night was an almost pristine evening. My Sky Quality Meter gave readings of 21.65 – approximately Limiting Magnitude 6.5/Bortle 3 conditions—and the sky was dark enough that the few clouds that slid through during the first half of the night were black silhouettes rather than the light masses that many of us are accustomed to seeing under our light-polluted suburban skies.
I had planned to work through a number of Scotty Houston’s “challenge objects” and some of the fainter Herschel 400 objects, but my location near the entrance to one of the two main observing fields meant that I spent a lot of time showing the “usual suspects” (brighter Messiers) to a stream of passersby curious to see through a 24” scope under these dark skies. In between visitors I did knock off a view objects on my list such as NGC 188 (the oldest globular cluster, and one usually pretty tough to see from suburban skies), and NGC 7006 (the most distant globular cluster). The central star of the Ring Nebula was a direct vision object through my scope. The highlight of my viewing evening was when the owner of the adjacent 24 incher showed me one of the more distant quasars through his StarMaster, and then we star hopped to it in my scope. This 16th magnitude quasar (1603+377) was a direct vision object in both scopes! I also had a great time touring the richer areas of the Milky Way (especially Sagittarius) with my modified 120mm refractor, which gives a 4+ degree FOV at 19X.
The skies rapidly clouded over at about 0300 Sunday morning, which I took as a sign to stop observing and get a few hours of sleep, since we had to be off the site by 1000 the next morning because of another incoming group scheduled to use TMI. However, the skies cleared again, and some of the more daring observers (or those willing to face long drives on no sleep!) continued to take advantage of these outstanding conditions.
I have attended all three Almost Heaven Star Parties. Each has been well-organized (superlative work by the staff of volunteers!), featured a rich menu of both food and events, but due to Mother Nature had been somewhat deficient in a key element—viewable skies—until this final night of the 2007 AHSP. In my mind, that night balanced the books for all three events! So let’s see you next year under the stars at AHSP —or take advantage of one of the NOVAC weekends at TMI before then! You may be rewarded with the best viewing conditions you’ll find in the Eastern United States.