July 3rd 2010 Star Party Highlights




In the wee hours of the morning,
Leonard Holmberg projects and captures on his iphone,
A 26 inch JUPITER on to a 12 foot screen.
_____________________________

The July 10th star party was another great evening under the stars! The hot day turned into a comfortable warm evening of relaxed fun under the dark desert sky. With the beginning of the Monsoon season approaching, there were bands of rain clouds off in the distance with little threat of precipitation. In attendance were about 75 guests from around the world including a scout troop from 29 Palms.                                                                                Photo by Valeree Woodard Not only are there wonders in the sky, but some fascinating ones crawling on the ground too. ________________________ Photo by Valeree Woodard The early birds getting their front row seats ________________                                                 Photo by Valeree Woodard Leonard & Cliff setting up. __________________                                                                                   Photo by Valeree Woodard Our loyal supporters, Walt & Joyce Metcalf _________________ Photo by Valeree Woodard Question & answer period during the early evening night sky talk & tour. _______________ Photo by Valeree Woodard Later that evening, M8 The Lagoon Nebula is shown onto the big screen. Over all the skies were very cooperative. Things finally came to an end when the early morning dawn arrived.

* * * * * * * *

 

July 3rd 2010 Star Party Highlights




Violin Virtuoso Tim Kelley entertains us playing Beethoven's 6th _____________________________

The July 3rd star party was another great evening under the stars! The warm early hours of dusk gave way to cooler dark skies when the Moon rose around midnight. There were 40 to 50 visitors who came and joined in with the star gazing as we swept the Milky Way and later, the Moon. Highlights of the evening included a reading of Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" presented by Robert Ward of Yucca Valley, while accompanied with background music of violin played by Tim Kelly from Joshua Tree. The crowd fell silent as the words Sagan wrote were read. He was, again, reminding us of the special significance we fill in the immenseness of our Universe. Ric Knudsen presented the laser sky tour of the Zodiac and constellations while engaging questions from the audience. Rick Heistand hunted the sky for objects and brought vivid live images to the screen as we moved through the program. Mary Furth announced the availability of her handmade knitted caps she is offering for donations to raise funds for our group and Sam Davidson showed everyone his meteorite as he injected his humor into the unsuspecting crowd as we proceeded into our subject for the evening. As we said, the July 4th celebration was the theme and our presentation was dedicated in honor of our independence as a nation of free people. The keynote talk spoke of liberty and freedom and later we toured the Moon locating sites known to be connected with the reasons for the celebration.

Our focus was dedicated to Benjamin Franklin! It turns out that he is the only man honored with a crater on the Moon named for anyone connected with the history of our country's beginning. Franklin was the key architect behind the scenes when America became an idea in reality. His notions about what freedom and liberty meant were foremost influences in the way everyone at that time began to think about what the United States should be and what it should represent.

Franklin's scientific achievements were, however, the reason he was selected as a person to have the celestial honor of the lunar nomenclature he received in 1935. He was known internationally for his scientific accomplishments and corresponded with most of the great scientists of the time. He was friends with many of them and was highly respected by most. His interests in electricity made him famous and as an inventor he is credited with dozens of discoveries and achievements. He was a printer by trade and writer by choice, though he seldom took credit for the wisdom of his words.

Besides the crater named for him, the associated craters, Franklin C, F, G, H, K and W are in the Franklin complex and are situated Southeast of Crater Cephius and Northwest of Crater Berzelius located in the Northeastern region of the Moon near Lacus Somniorium. Crater Franklin is 56 Kilometers in diameter and has a noted sharp mountainous periphery and central peak.

_________________


Nasa photo
_________________


Mary Firth displays her handmade knit hats, with Friends Honey & Charles.
Chappy from Team X is always ready to supervise.

Mary generously donates the proceeds of her hat sales
to the Joshua Tree Astronomy Arts Theater
_________________





M 108 A Spiral Barred Galaxy
in the constellation of Ursa Major
_________________


M 64 The Black Eyed Galaxy
A collision of two galaxies has left a merged star system with an unusual appearance as well as bizarre internal motions.
_________________



A portion of the North American Nebula
NGC 7000
_________________

M 27 The Dumbbell Nebula
live image and 9 feet wide!
_________________



NGC 4631 The Whale Galaxy
Only 25 million light years away.

_________________

November 21st 2009
Ground Breaking of Our New Permanent Location
at

Joshua Tree Lake

Our ground breaking star show went like we hoped. It was simple and to the point. Despite the chilly evening, all in all, we had a turn out of about 150 people through out the evening & early morning hours. Great astronomy with lucky skies made the event all we could have imagined.

Behind the scenes with Paul Maag setting up



Sometimes 2 hands isn't enough.  Maybe Santa will bring Rick Heistand a head light.


The crowd starts to arrive, bundled up for and evening of star gazing

________________________

 It was a Busy November 2009 for SCDVA

For the August 2009 star party in the park;
The clear sky gods smiled down on us last night despite a day of rain, wind & clouds.


M27
The Dumbbell Nebula
_________

Star Party at Sky's The Limit
March 21, 2009

Disregarding bad news on the clear sky chart, our group set up at the monthly "Sky's the Limit" star party, location in Twentynine Palms. Uncertain if the 20 mph winds would die down, or the ominous cloud cover would appear as predicted, we all set up our scopes, just in case things changed for the better and we would have a way to show off the night sky to potential visitors.

By the time it got dark, the wind had died down slightly, and several patches of clear sky opened. We were able to get some great views in., but it was still too windy to set up the projection system with big screen. Instead, we were able to share our views using 14" monitors and video visors.

Later that evening, the winds calmed down enough to set up the big screen and projector. The cloud cover and transparency fluctuated enough to put on a bit of a show.

It's always a pleasure to meet new people and to see them view the universe like they have never seen it before. I particularly remember Klaus with his wonderful wife and children, originally from Germany, they were here on vacation from Ohio. They showed such enthusiasm, that it is always a nice reward for all our hard work and effort.

Paul using a laser pointer to pinpoint the location of M82 (despite of poor skies) with Vidrikon projector
_________________

Vidrikon projector

________________________________________

Star Party in Joshua Tree National Park 
March 28, 2009

The Andromeda Society's monthly star party at Hidden Valley in Joshua Tree National Park did not disappoint.

The Clear Sky Chat read, that viewing would be excellent, especially between the hours of 8 - 9 pm. And as if that wasn't great news, Earth Hour was globally taking place between 8:30 - 9:30! It doesn't get much better than that.

The crowds began to gather early. The program began at the other end of the site at about 7:30, with comedic but educational stylings of Orv Hunter & Sam Davidson, who are considered the two sages of The Andromeda Society.

By the time they were finished it was dark enough to start the show. I must say, that due to Earth Hour, the skies were noticeably darker between 8:30 - 9:30 and seemed brighter by 10:00.

As it turned out, it was the largest group that SCDVA has had the pleasure of presenting the night skies to.

This weeks equipment choice
_________________

Paul doing the final set up. We were projecting Mallincam images through a Vidikron HD50 CRT projector with Faroudja line doubler.
_________________

Ken & Tom killing time anxiously awaiting the sighting of the first 3 stars of the evening in order to align their scopes.
_______________________________




Tom viewing the moon through his Explore Scientific 127 APO and video visors.

________________________



Darkness has fallen and the crowds have gathered.

__________________________________





Rick, (far right) SCDVA's night sky guru, gives a guided tour of the Universe
__________________________________




The crowd viewing the screen, Valeree seated at mission control with Sue & Tom assisting.
___________________________





Screen Shot- A gaseous cloud of dust is swirling under the pressure of intense ultra violet radiation caused by hot, newly formed stars in the fringes of the Great Orion Nebula, M-42
_____________________________________




Rick, on the left, is doing it old school. With his scope focused on Saturn, the people sneak a peek through the eyepiece.

________________________________________




Photo by Paul Maag



Photo by Paul Maag



Photo by Paul Maag
___________________________________

According to Paul. who took the 3 photos above:

"These are real time images with no touch up or stacking. I used a cheap $80 camera set to 2 seconds to take the pictures of the screen."

Paul also added:

"These events continue to get bigger. I'm not sure of the count, but we had in excess of 200 people. Parking and auto lights became a problem. The crowd even asked to have a description/ lecture about the camera, which Tom was glad to provide."

All in all, the evening was a great success. We are looking forward to doing more of the same in the future with bigger & better results each time.