CMAS enjoyed its return to Galaxy Quest, after a year of repeated cancellations there due to bad weather. The party was small, but otherwise excellent. There were five of us, including one new member.
Weather reports predicted a partly cloudy to clear evening, followed by clouds later at night. Upon arrival during a spectacular sunset, the clouds on the horizon were a bit thicker than we’d hoped, but there were clear views of the skies above. We were collimating the big Dob and learning how to align the 5-inch refractor’s GoTo mount when our new member arrived with his father’s classic Celestron C8 from the 1970s, so we had quite an eclectic evening ahead! We quickly agreed to an optics cleaning party, as now two of us have antique C8s needing cleaning.
As the sky darkened, a view of Venus to test the Dob’s collimation proved three things: the collimation was not yet perfect, Venus was at about three-quarter phase, and blocking just over half of the big scope’s aperture by trying to view Venus through the roof of the observatory had little affect on the quality of the image! Turning the big Dob toward the Eskimo Nebula, we decided its mount needed lubricating, a project for another time. It was simply insufficiently smooth as to be pointed successfully at anything under high magnification, so it jerked past its target at every nudge.
At this point, we ran inside the observatory to get warm in the heated control room. One thing lead to another, resulting in a detailed tour of the automated roll-off roof; the remarkable, fully-computerized, remotely-operable astrograph (truly impressive to watch it slew!); and even the 500 vicious Siamese cats awaiting release from their underground kennels into the observatory above, should anyone trip the elaborate burglar alarm. Most unexpected were subtleties designed to protect the observatory from rain during automated or remote operation, such as the clock on the WiFi that automatically closes the roof five minutes after the Internet connection is lost.
By the time we ran back outside with fresh, hot cocoa, the clouds were obscuring all but the brightest stars. Nevertheless, and to our surprise, we had an astonishingly clear view of rising Mars through the 5-inch refractor, complete with surface details, including the polar cap. The clouds were thick and the time now late, so we decided to pack up. Following the Rule of Cosmic Cause and Effect, by the time everything was stored, the clouds had passed, revealing clear, dark skies!
It can be hard to convey what a wonderful time one can have at a star party, even when the weather won’t cooperate. Everyone was glad to have attended. We saw amazing things in the sky and on the ground; and, with our usual technical wizards unavailable on this date, we improvised our way toward being more self-sufficient in the operation of our biggest scopes. Let’s hope to see more of us next month, when we meet at Galaxy Quest again!
That is absolutly great news about the get together at Galaxy Quest. Looking foward to next month’s meeting there as well.