The Winter Star Party (WSP):  2800 miles of adventure

My observing partner Tom Kennedy and I loaded my 24" f/4 "Brutus", his Williams Optics 80mm refractor, and a bunch of ancillary equipment into my Honda Odyssey minivan and headed south on a 2800 mile/seven day voyage.

WSP was scheduled to open at noon on Monday, and we understood that the line of vehicles began to form outside the gates on Sunday for those who wanted to get a prime observing site. We therefore left at 0600 on Saturday and drove 800 miles that day, stopping just north of Orlando to stay with my brother Ed and sister-in-law Connie, whom I hadn't seen in nearly ten years.

   Connie, me, and my brother Ed at their house in Sorrento (near Daytona).

On Saturday we drove the remaining ~6 hours down to the WSP, which was being held at a Girl Scout camp on West Summerland Key.  This is between Marathon and Big Pine Key, about 45 miles short of Key West and a half dozen miles south of the "Seven Mile Bridge" featured (and blown up) in the movie True Lies. 

  We parked by the side of the road.  Arriving some 18 hours prior to the gate opening for WSP, we found that there were already three dozen vehicles in line ahead of us!

By coincidence we found ourselves a half dozen vehicles behind two of the other NOVAC club members attending, and sat and chilled for a while together.

"NOVAC South" by day

  ... and by night (photo courtesy of Tom Kennedy)

   "My" lagoon

I planned to sleep sitting in my observing lounge chair on the beach near the waves of this little lagoon near my van.  Much to my chagrin, though, I quickly found that those who said there were no mosquitoes in the Florida Keys in the winter were wrong!  Maybe there weren't 'skeeters in a typical winter, and perhaps Hurricane Katrina left enough standing puddles and ponds that they hung on, but there were definitely enough of these pests out in the lagoon to make sleeping under the stars in shorts not viable.  I had explicitly left my "Bug Suit" (http://www.bugshirt.com/) behind-- since mosquitoes were NOT an option, but fortunately I had thrown in a one man bivouac shelter that I was able to erect and sleep in.  This was the only time mosquitoes put in a significant appearance during WSP.

Around 1000 Monday-- two hours earlier than the nominal opening time-- the organizers began to let Recreational Vehicles in (which would be parked to form a light perimeter against encroaching headlights from US route 1--  this is really not a dark site!).  By 1100 we were in!  We made a beeline for the beach, securing prime front row locations on the lagoon, with an unobstructed line of sight clear down to the southern horizon.

         My setup:                                                                 

Tom with our gear set up.  (The van had to be moved shortly thereafter.)

While I put the finishing touches on my scope, Tom headed over to check in to our "Chickee" hut-- think of something out of Gilligan's Island!  Our hut was supposed to hold 6 people, but the organizers decided that the top bunks in our hut were rickety, and downgraded its occupancy to 3.  The third individual-- another NOVAC member-- was a "no show", so Tom and I ended up with private lodgings!  90% or more of the attendees who stay on site (some stay off-site in hotels) tent camp on the beach, which I suspect is brutally hot during the day (when you are trying to sleep).

Outside view of a Chickee                                                   Inside our Chickee

We were blessed with a heat wave for the duration of WSP, with daytime temperatures in the 80s and nighttime temperatures in the upper 50's, as best I can remember.  (Certainly it was never even windbreaker weather at night, and the WSP organizers had a "fire sale" on jackets that they couldn't sell because of the weather!)  Veteran attendees said that it was the best observing weather since at least 1989--both in terms of temperatures and clear nights! (I understand it is not unusual to have clouds/rain more often than not.)

I was surprised at the paucity of large scopes.  There was the "yard scope"-- a 36" f/5, a pair of 28" "Star Structures", a pair of Obsession 25"ers-- and then the pair of 24" scopes brought by me and fellow NOVAC member Pete Johnson.  I didn't expect to have the 6th largest aperture instrument at a premier star party like this.

I know there were lots of scheduled daytime activities at WSP, but I didn't attend a single one.  On this, my first trip to the Florida Keys, I opted to sightsee (Sightseeing at WSP)-- when I wasn't observing (Stargazing at WSP)  or catch a few hours of sleep instead.

The 36 inch diameter "yard scope"-- the largest instrument I have viewed through