<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Palatino, sans-serif;"><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Palatino, sans-serif;"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Palatino, sans-serif;"><img src="cid:5DC0D7C5-3CD8-4617-82EF-ACEC18DA37E6" type="image/png"></div><div style="text-align: left; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-family: Palatino, sans-serif; white-space: pre;"> </span><font face="Helvetica">Class picture for the 2018 Maine State Star Party</font></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Palatino, sans-serif;"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Palatino, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Since this year's MSSP was concurrent with Stellafane, so it was a little light on astronomer attendee's with only thirteen participating. Another six from Charlie Sawyer's recent spring/summer Pembroke Library astronomy course were also there. But there was a bonus; with a well filled Cobscook Bay State Park by visitors from away that came to see the Persied Meteor shower. An estimated 80 to 90 campers joined us for Friday evening's observing.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Palatino, sans-serif;"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Palatino, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The campground in recent years has promoted the MSSP with fliers at the main gate and Downeast Amateur Astronomers provided a large festival tent for presentations and shade from the sun. I understand that there were some weather cancellations of events to the west but Friday night in Edmunds was spectacular. Skies were completely clear and the humidity was so low that the usual dew from the adjacent bay never formed on anyone's telescope all evening. There were six telescopes set up for viewing and along with the amateur astronomers, there was a steady stream of campers all night. I had several groups that would stay with me for fifteen or twenty minutes and then they would move on and swap with other groups around the other telescopes. Certainly it was a leisurely evening of star gazing and conversation without the craziness of the Acadia Night Sky Festival crowds. The Milky Way was bright and the dark lanes were black. (I've only measured darker skies in the Katahdin area.) There was no sign of air glow that evening that I have observed their in the past and there was no sign of light pollution from Machias twenty miles to the west. I suspect any light dome was obscured by the tree line several hundred yards away.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Palatino, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Palatino, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The Persids were off to a fine start on Friday night. I lost count of the number that I saw but there were regular exclamations from the crowd every couple minutes. All that was necessary was to just look up and another meteor streak was virtually guaranteed in a very short time. This was a vacation for me and I was happy to just take requests from the crowd and offer up some common Messier nebulae and star clusters. I did see an exceptional view of Andromeda from a nearby 8" reflector... was that you Wayne? Mars was mostly buried in the trees to the east but once it did finally clear the branches about eleven o'clock, the view was sharp; but, still without any features obscured by the dust storm. Early views of Venus, and fine views of Jupiter and Saturn filled the evenings repertoire with lots of oohs and ahs from Saturn newbies.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Palatino, sans-serif;"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Palatino, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>On Saturday, we started early with some clouds but by mid morning the sky was open and it was time to setup some solar telescopes. No one bothered with white light filtered scopes because there were no sunspots. Charlie put up his H-Alpha which tipped me off to a little activity. There was a tiny spicule at about 1 o'clock and a filament in the lower middle... enough to warrant setting up another scope. Besides, I was interested in trying my Coronado H-Alpha refractor on an iOptron AZ tripod mount. For any of you that own this mount, you know that it has a clearance problem with the tripod legs interfering with long refractors. I slid the draw tube all the way in to do the initial target alignment and as soon as I had it pointing at the sun, extended for a normal focus. That turned out to be a successful workaround. The advantage of the iOptron mount is that it has the Sun as a target object built-in. The mount tracked the Sun nicely all afternoon.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Palatino, sans-serif;"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Palatino, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Astronomy Jeopardy was put off till next year as we we relaxed and enjoy the nice weather. All things astronomy were discussed under the tent during the afternoon. However, clouds were expected that evening, with even a possibility of rain, so tents were taken down and scopes packed. At seven o'clock we had more visitors from the campground for Jim Cormier's presentation on "Binocular Astronomy." Jim is a lifelong amateur astronomer, expert film and detail astrophotographer and currently lives in Sullivan, Maine.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Palatino, sans-serif;">In recent years he's started traveling to remote dark sky locations, as well as his own dark backyard, to view the Milky Way and expansive dark sky objects. He covered the basics of eye relief, apparent and actual field of view, magnification, exit pupil and contrast. Several binocular examples were shown ranging from handheld Vixen SG 2.1 x 42, 30° binoculars to Orion 100mm large binocular telescopes with the various features and limitations discussed. But mostly he imparted his visceral feeling about the two eye advantage of rich field views under truly dark skies. His presentation was well received and questions from an appreciative audience were answered.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Palatino, sans-serif;"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Palatino, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>At 9:00 pm the presentation was over and the skies were clouded over, as expected for Saturday night. Not a single star was visible. So, with cars already packed, the group headed out and I'm sure that many will be back next year, I certainly will be. A special thanks to Charlie Sawyer for his tireless effort putting this together. I know it's a lot of work and the Maine State Star Party organized look always shows from his efforts.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Palatino, sans-serif;"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Palatino, sans-serif;"><img src="cid:09921EE7-2FC7-4D29-8E77-4E1A739F81B9" type="image/png"></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><font face="Helvetica">Jim Cormier talks about binocular viewing and observing under dark skies. As well as a lifelong love of astronomy, he</font></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><font face="Helvetica">was a </font><font face="Helvetica">Light Pollution Surveyor for Island </font><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Astronomy Institute's copy of the National Park Dark Sky Survey System.</span></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Palatino, sans-serif;"><div><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px;">Thanks, and </span>"a good time was had by all."</div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 14px;">---Dwight Lanpher, club liaison</div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><br></div><font face="Palatino" style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size:12.0px"><br></span></font><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><font face="Verdana,Helvetica,Arial" color="#7f7f7f">-- Celebrating the starlit skies of Maine</font><font face="Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#7f7f7f"> & New England </font><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#7f7f7f">--</font><br><br>Dwight M. Lanpher<font class="Apple-style-span" color="#7f7f7f">, </font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#7f7f7f">Club Liaison</font><br></i>P.O. Box 472, 1 Summit Road<br>Northeast Harbor, ME 04662<br><br></font></span><span style="color: rgb(127, 127, 127); font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial; font-size: 12px;">President: Penobscot Valley Star Gazers</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><font face="Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><font color="#7f7f7f">member: IDA, IES, AAS, ACAC, ASNNE, ATMoB, CMAS, COG, DEAA, GAAC, NHAS, NSAAC, PVSG, SMA</font></font></span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="color: rgb(127, 127, 127); font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial; font-size: 12px;">Telephone: (207) 276-5350, FAX 276-4067</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><div style="color: rgb(127, 127, 127); font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><font face="Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"> </font></span></div><div style="color: rgb(127, 127, 127); font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><font face="Verdana,Helvetica,Arial">"Good friends are like stars. Although you may not see them you know they're always there." -Christy Evans</font></span></div></div></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Palatino, sans-serif;"><br></div></body></html>