Virgo Venture for tonight Saturday: ON

[jjones7777]

Greetings all,

Everything looks good for the Virgo Venture tonight! Not only are the Canadians and the Americans agreeing on the forecast, but the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has downgraded the CGO area to 'Good'. There may still be quite a bit of haze on the atmosphere, which will make it more challenging to nab faint fuzzies. Please consider the following:

1. If you are in any way sensitive to pollution in the air, please consider your health before coming out to CGO.
2. NOAA is predicting temps in the low 40's with little to no wind. Remember to dress accordingly
3. If you are competing in the Virgo Venture, please remember to download your charts and the form. Rob will have some available at the site.
4. There will be prizes for 1st and 2nd place, determined by how many Virgo objects you find. Please hand your completed forms into Rob at the end of the evening. If you are unable to do so, email them to me at jjones7777@aol.com

Happy Hunting!!

[rzylka]

Well I got a couple pictures last night of the crew that took a chance and came down to CGO but cannot reason out how to upload the pics. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Anyway we had a Great turnout and the smoke cleared so the sky's were better than expected. So Thanks to everyone and look forward to many more late night's this summer. Rob

[merle]

Rob,

You probably already tried this, but I'll explain anyway.

To upload picture
- Select "Upload attachment" tab
- "Choose file"
- Select the photo (.jpg) from you computer. There is a limit on the file size and photo size, so be careful of that.
- Select "Add the file"

At this point you can add a "file comment" or choose to "Place inline". Placing inline lets you see where the image is placed within the message.

If you're doing everything mentioned above, my guess would be to check the image size and file size.

Merle

[jjones7777]

Congrats to all who made last night's Virgo venture a success! Please post some comments!

[setnes]

The smoke eventually cleared last night. Seeing the Virgo objects was a bit of a struggle with my 6" reflector though. The sky rippled as if someone had tossed a rock into a pond. I was able to mark off 16 objects, but most of them took heavy verification against images of the surrounding stars. I kept coming back to Markarian's chain and M87 to orient myself and then push the scope in the direction of the rest of the objects. I think I am spoiled by the amazing sky we had a month ago.

My ongoing messier total is now up to 89. I'm not good at writing descriptions though. I'm really focusing on the time, date, and location. If anybody has any advice on what kind of pen to use on cold nights, I'd much appreciate it. The standard Bic ballpoint pens have frozen up on my last two outings. :)

The highlight of the night was very much the great aurora we saw. They were dancing and pulsating strong enough that we were arguing over whether or not it was casting shadows. Suresh took several pictures... and they all looked great on the back of his camera.

[bhamil]

Last night was a lot of fun at Cherry Grove. The field was mostly full. The aurora was spectacular! I wanted to publicly thank Vic and Steve for talking to our neighbor to the west. They were able to get him to try out an IDA approved light shield for one of his two garage lights. Hopefully, he finds this acceptable and installs an additional one on his second external garage light. The shield on the one garage light made a dramatic difference. Way to go
Vic and Steve! Keeping my fingers crossed. --Brandon

[Dick Jacobson]

The observing field and all facilities are in great condition. Big thanks to Steve and Vic and all others involved. I enjoyed the "coming out party" for my 29" scope (finally). Skies were very good after the early evening smoky haze cleared.

[Dave Venne]

Thanks to Jerry, Rob, Vic, Steve and everyone who makes Cherry Grove such a great place to gather. Yet another night that starts out with a so-so sky that turns brilliant. And a pulsating, shadow-casting aurora, too! I hope more pictures of that are posted!

[Sureshks]

The highlight of the night was very much the great aurora we saw. They were dancing and pulsating strong enough that we were arguing over whether or not it was casting shadows. Suresh took several pictures... and they all looked great on the back of his camera.[/quote]

Thank you sir! I posted my aurora pics as its own album on the MAS Facebook page. If you cannot access them, or want to full resolution version let me know (sureshks1@msn.com). I got it down to the 31 best pics, and I'm not really sure how I can send them at 4MB apiece... but I'm happy to try!

Suresh

[Sureshks]

Hi all -- I can't seem to find my small blue camping chair. I think I might've left it at CGO, or perhaps someone picked it up in the darkness of the early morning....

If you've got it can you please let me know? You can e-mail me at: sureshks1@msn.com.

Thx!!

Suresh

[setnes]

Thanks for posting those photos. I got to re-live the event all over again. :)

[Deane Clark]

Thanks Suresh! Those pictures are amazing. 12 and 13 are my favorites.

[Sureshks]

Hi Deane,

Thanks!! That sure was a fun night. I slept well after I got home at 5am...

I was telling co-workers that at first I was upset that we had northern lights, because it detracted from our deep-sky observing!

But after a while I was okay with it. ;-)

Suresh

[jjones7777]

Greetings all!

I'm so pleased that everyone had such a great time at the Virgo Venture! Thanks to Rob for taking over.

Chris Setnes asked earlier in this thread about how to improve one's observational logs. I've attached a list of questions that I picked up from the Nebraska Star Party a few years ago. You can tell it's traveled many miles in my eyepiece case..

observing questions.pdf

(424.28 KiB) Downloaded 72 times

Regarding writing tools, consider the Fisher Space Pen. It was developed in the 1960s for NASA and can be found in numerous forms and prices. Its made to write in extreme temperatures as well as in zero gravity, under water, etc. (The old story about the Russians: when told NASA spent millions on developing the space pen, and then asked what they used to write in space. Their answer: a pencil.)

Now that the observing season is open, let's keep it up!! The star parties at CGO will no longer be officially called on or off (until the 4M in the fall), but continue to post whether or not you are going to attend on of the designated weekends. As always, the more the merrier!

Clear skies!!