Northeast Wisconsin Stargazers

The 2009 HMF was held on Saturday October 3^rd from 4 to 9PM.  There was a good turnout despite the heavy cloud cover and occasional drizzling.  The attendance was 675 for 2009; (2008: 1325) & (2007: 850).  All and all the event was a big success and MQHill felt that this year’s attendance was more manageable than last years.  There was more one-on-one interaction with the staff and volunteers.

NewStar members that helped with the Astronomy end of the festival were; Alan, Stan and Terry.  Several members called to see if they were needed. Thank you to everyone who helped this year and in past years.  A summary of the NewStar activities are as follows;

The Douglas Dome was opened for exploring and questions from onlookers,

Several club brochures were handed out to interested parties (approx. one-third of the total attendance typically visits our astronomy displays).

Alan presented “The Moon – Past, Present & Future” at 5 and 7PM,

Photos of Comets, a Lunar Eclipse and NGC 6781/Planetary Nebula in Aquila (color photo taken with the clubs MQHill Douglas Dome C11/G11 - July, 2002: TJorgenson, TEby & TBecker) were displayed,

Two (2) video stands were displayed: 1) The Moon, South Pole near the designated LCROSS/LRO crash site (can you find it? – see www.spaceweather.com Oct. 8, 2009 for the answer),

and 2) Jupiter/Asteroid Impact; TJorgenson & AKroes (dark spot near the North Pole) and Dance of the Jovian Moons (not shown here), and

One (1) homemade Oshkosh apple pie delightfully consumed by the early NewStar helpers, and MQHill chili was provided free to the volunteers along with other treats.

Saturday appears to work well with expanded hours providing lower crowd density at any one time vs. prior Friday night celebrations.

The 2010 event is tentatively scheduled for Saturday September 25, 2010 from 4 to 9PM. The phase of the moon will be waning gibbous.

AND - The Sky Commander Encoder installation was started on Oct. 3^rd and finished on Oct. 8^th.  Reference article here.

The installation was completed on Thursday October 8 2009.  It appears to work well.  We need a clear night to perform a final test.  The Sky Commander will be added as a new part of the Douglas Dome C11/G11 training.  If you are trained on the basic Douglas Dome C11/G11 operation, you may want a refresher course including the Sky Commander operation.  For those of you that have encoders, the Sky Commander operation will be intuitive.  I will offer 2009 training classes until it gets too cold or snows the dome shut, probably through November/early December.  We had three prior training sessions scheduled in September/October with no luck with the weather.  Training is possible any night of the week for those interested; just give me a call a few days in advance.

 
I’d like to thank Don for picking up the Sky Commander, John for advising on the installation, Terry for getting the Sky Commander to me and Stan for helping me on the first day of the installation, Saturday October 3 2009.  If I forgot anyone, please let me know.  I will keep the readout box at my home for now, especially in the winter and bring it to the dome or loan it out to trained club members, as necessary.
 

Here are a few additional notes:

The original C11 cover has been replaced and spare covers are in the dome,

The Sky Commander v3.0 and Losmandy G11 instruction manuals, inc. the readout box, are kept in a snap case along with spare batteries (these manuals are on the web, also),

There is a pair of gloves in the eyepiece box and a small table in the dome,

The following charts were placed in the dome; Messier, Caldwell and the Orion DeepMap 600,

Photos of the Feb. 20 2008 Lunar Eclipse and the NGC 6781 (Planetary Nebula in Aquila; taken July 2002 with the club’s C11/G11) color photos displayed in the dome – every observatory needs some pics,

I have photos of the Sky Commander installation that I will bring to a club meeting this winter, I also have a photo of Steve P’s 6-axis eyepiece control on the MQHill Meade 8” SCT.  This scope was originally refurbished by Joe Celmer.

We need to grease the G11 bearings, level the G11 mount and cleanup the dome next spring. The Sky Commander functionality will be affected by the out-of-level condition, but if we resync on a bright star near the target object FOV, we can get by for now.

To better utilize the C11 several club members who regularly use this scope have suggested that the club purchase a 2” dielectric diagonal and a better eyepiece, even an Orion 2” Stratus eyepiece would improve the scopes functionality.