The officers of CMAS confess uncertainty about whether there will be a star party this weekend, due to the remnants of a tropical storm about to creep up the East Coast to Maine. Nevertheless, in the grand CMAS tradition of blithely ignoring extended weather forecasts and canceling only at the last minute, if hopeless weather is unquestionably upon us, here are the expanded plans for this Saturday, June 8, 2013.
CMAS WORKDAY AND SOLAR VIEWING AT BROWER OBSERVATORY
Festivities begin at 4:00pm, when Dwight Lanpher will set up his 90mm Coronado solar telescope. This is your chance to see the Sun through a double stack of hydrogen-alpha Etalon filters and a bino viewer. In everyday language, this is as fine, and as large, a solar telescope through which any of us will ever have the opportunity to see our nearby star. Unlike the white light filters used at the club’s gathering for the Transit of Venus last fall, Dwight’s telescope will reveal the Sun’s prominences, the countless filaments of flame rising from its surface. Adjusting the Etalon filters causes the full range of previously invisible detail to snap into focus. 90mm is the largest aperture with the highest resolution available in a commercially made solar telescope, and everything is further enhanced by using both eyes together through the binocular eyepieces. Want to see how a star appears when it is not so distant as to be only a single point of light? Be there!
While awaiting your turn at the eyepiece, celebrate CMAS’s annual Workday! Brower Observatory always needs a annual spring cleaning. Test, clean, and repair telescopes; mow lawns, pound nails, wash the dome… there is an important job to be matched to every interest and ability!
After the Sun sets but before nightfall, it’s a short walk to the lake for a bring-your-own picnic dinner, and to swim or to paddle a canoe if you like. We could also migrate en masse to the hippest eatery in Maine:
Sheepscot General Store is the nearby, greatly expanded farm stand of a certified organic farm. Good sandwiches cost as little as $3.00. Splurge a full $7.00 for home-cured, grass-fed, organic corned beef raised on the fields just outside the cafe’s windows. Great soups, too!
When night at last falls around 9:00pm, we’ll point the telescopes of our newly-cleaned observatory skyward, for the originally planned evening of splitting double stars and hunting deep space objects. If you can’t come for Workday and solar viewing, you are still welcome to attend the night’s star party separately, for a marvelous night with your fellow astronomers. It won’t be half as much fun unless you are there!
All this joy comes our way with one king-sized caveat: This is an all-or-nothing affair. If the afternoon is sufficiently clear as to allow solar viewing, *and* if, on Saturday, the Clear Sky Chart predicts that the night will be clear for viewing, then we will meet. If good weather is not forthcoming for the entire event, then it will be cancelled. (Nah; “postponed.”) Per usual, watch your email for an announcement on Saturday by midday, or call with any questions.
