Virgo Venture - May 26/27 2017

[jjones7777]

Greetings all,

The 2nd 'official' MAS star party is just around the corner! The Virgo Venture is scheduled for the weekend of May 26/27, with Friday, May 26 being the primary night and Saturday, May 27th being the backup.

The purpose of the Virgo Venture is to observe 25 galaxies in and around the constellation of Virgo. I've attached the list below. You can also find more info at the Virgo Venture webpage at http://www.mnastro.org/virgo-venture/ , including Greg Haubrich's Virgo Asterism page.

This challenge is, in many ways MUCH EASIER than the Messier Marathon of last month. All of the objects are in the same essential area of the sky and all can be observed in a much shorter time. If you have never focused your observing on this area of the sky, now is the time to do it!

As with the Messier Marathon, I will make the GO/NO GO call sometime in the afternoon of Friday, May 26th.

Feel free to let other know you are attending by adding to this thread.

Clear Skies!

[TrenaJ]

I would love to attend this event and give it a go.

[Enberg]

I'll be there - but as usual, I will be logging as many Herschel-400 objects as I can - instead of competing for the coveted prizes in the Virgo Venture.

[Huggy]

I plan to do the VV with the 30" at the LLCC.

[Dave Venne]

After looking at the extended weather forecast I may jump the starter's gun for this and go to CG on Wednesday night ("Mostly clear") for some imaging of the Virgo Cluster. The forecast for Friday night ("20% chance of showers. Mostly cloudy") is not encouraging--but that could change, of course.

[Enberg]

I was also looking at Wednesday night to head to CGO for some visual observing - we'll see how the weather evolves the first half of the week!

[heinerv]

I just looked at clear outside and the whole week looks poor. Which forecast showed a wed possibility?

[Dave Venne]

I just looked at clear outside and the whole week looks poor. Which forecast showed a wed possibility?

The National Weather Service. I know it might be the least reliable forecast source, and it's showing partly cloudy for CG itself, but it is showing clear for the Cities, and that's close enough for that far out in time. Hey, I'm grasping at straws here

[jjones7777]

Well...
Astronomy Life is not looking too happy here for the upcoming Virgo Venture.

The Brits are saying the Friday will be super-crappy until 1:00am and Saturday is only slightly better.
The Americans are saying 50% cloud cover and possible showers on Friday and Saturday has the cloud cover climbing to over 60%.
The Canadians don't know yet.

There MAY be a clearing on Wednesday night, at least that's the NOAA is saying (the Brits agree after midnight as do the Canadians). This may be the only chance we get this new moon cycle. Ick.

Keep grasping, Dave. Keep grasping...

[Sureshks]

This weather forecast is making me cry!

Suresh

[TrenaJ]

I fear that it may be typical Memorial Day scenario, as when you want to camp, it pours and pours and until you go home.

[setnes]

I think the forecast might be improving for this. I haven't lost hope.

Cherry Grove_as_of_2017_05_24_17.16.30.png (31.89 KiB) Viewed 2489 times

[Sureshks]

Like Kris says, conditions appear to be improving. But the Brits seem to think that Saturday is the better overall night vs. Friday.

CSC shows Friday as looking good all night. Hasn't gotten to Saturday night yet.

NOAA doesn't seem to like any of the 3 nights this weekend, though they appear to favor Friday.

Up to you Jerry!

Suresh

[jjones7777]

For any of you who have been following the weather for the weekend, you have seen how much it has changed. I suspect it will change again tomorrow. I'll be making the call tomorrow afternoon before 4:00 pm. I'll post it here and on the main webpage.

[Enberg]

We'll see tomorrow afternoon - but if it's even halfway decent I may be out both Friday and Saturday night!

[heinerv]

Since there is a possibility that we may be able to put our eyes to our eyepieces today and/or tomorrow, a few reminders. First, do not drive on the observing field. It's probably still soft and you would leave ruts. Next, be prepared for wet ground. There has been a lot of rain down there. Finally, watch out for the cow holes, we will be filling them in the near future. In fact, watch the Cherry Grove forum for a work day in which we will be filling holes had tamping the fill down.

[setnes]

The "Center on Midnight" feature on "Clear Outside" can be very misleading. I had my suspicion about this, so experimented around the noon hour today.

If you use "Center on Midnight" prior to noon, today's chart shows last night. If you use the feature AFTER noon, today's chart shows tonight. The "Generated" time is the same in both of these shots, but the time of the snapshot for the first chart is before noon, and the second chart is after noon.

Before_Noon_sm.png (42.08 KiB) Viewed 2413 times

After_Noon_sm.png (41.81 KiB) Viewed 2413 times

EDIT: I have sent a note to the Clear Outside e-mail address asking about this.

[jjones7777]

Greetings all,

I'm calling tonight's Virgo Venture ON FOR TONIGHT, FRIDAY, MAY 26TH.

While not all of our weather predictors are in complete agreement, they are 'generally' in agreement, and Saturday looks worse:

The Canadians (Clear Sky Chart) are predicting good skies except some nasty high cirrus clouds from 9:00 pm to 11:00 pm. The Americans (NOAA) are predicting <20% clouds all evening – that could be the nasty high cirrus that Canadians are predicting. The Brits (Clear Outside) are predicting good conditions from 7:00 pm to midnight, then a couple of hours of nasty high cirrus clouds. We'll be able to tell tonight who is more accurate – the Canadians or the Brits depending upon when the nasty high cirrus hits us. As always, check the satellite images before you come out (visible, infrared & water vapor), just to make sure. As of now, South Dakota looks pretty clear, and that clarity looks like its coming our way.

Humidity will be in the 80% range, so make sure you have your dew heaters ready.

Temps will be in the 50s, so dress for the 30s.

The roll off roof has been fixed, Vic and I will be using the 14” and the 12” - you are welcome to join us. The BAD's ServoCat has been fixed so that will be available as well. Of course, there are always the 8” and 10” dobs in the warming house, should you desire to use those.

Please read Vic's comments in the thread above. Some people complained about the barriers I put up last month to mark the cow holes, so I won't do that tonight. Consequently, please be careful walking around the field and remember to not drive onto the field as it will most likely be wet. Dob owners might want to bring a large tarp for a ground cloth.

I will have Virgo Venture forms and asterism charts with me, but feel free to download them from this thread.

Sunset is at 8:46 pm with astronomical twilight ending at 11:06 pm. I plan on showing up around 8:00 pm. I'll be bringing some goodies; feel free to bring something to add if you desire. I think there's still plenty of bottled water.

Be careful on the roads – I'm suspecting the traffic will be heavy getting out of the Twin Cities – and possibly distracted. Please be wary.

See you tonight!

[heinerv]

With respect to traffic and roads. The last time I drove down to CGO highway 52 at county 46 had a bypass using the off ramps. The bridges N/S over 46 were removed. I would bet that the new ones have not been installed yet. So there may be some backup there.

[TrenaJ]

"Humidity will be in the 80% range, so make sure you have your dew heaters ready."

If anyone has an extra dew shield for a 150mm (6in) Orion StarSeeker IV reflector that I could potential borrow for the night, i would appreciate it very much. Thank you.

[jjones7777]

I have a dew shield for an 8" SCT and a roll of duct tape. I'll bring both. The duct tape is even black!

[TrenaJ]

I have a dew shield for an 8" SCT and a roll of duct tape. I'll bring both. The duct tape is even black!

LOL> Wonderful. Thank you Jerry.

[Dave Venne]

It might be a good idea to pack some bug spray along with the warm clothing. When I was there on the 13th mosquitoes were a mild nuisance.

[jjones7777]

After the clouds cleared out around 12:30 am, the skies at CGO were some of the nicest I've seen there for some time. We had a great crowd and some great viewing and conversation. Thanks to all of you who came out!

If you worked on the Virgo Venture list but didn't hand it in to me, you can email it to me at jjones7777@aol.com.

[heinerv]

On the way down Joan & I saw the brightest rainbow we have ever seen. It was due to the thunder storm that we thought passed south of CGO. We later found out that CGO indeed had a quick burst of rain prior to us arriving.

It sounded like Brandon was the go to guy last night as people tried out new scopes or worked on cranky older ones. Anyway I was happy to use his help on the 14" in the observatory and kept hearing his name through out the evening.

The field was in very good shape thanks to our mowers who had mowed the place earlier in the day. They also went over it with a lawn sweep to remove much of the clippings. That was a big help in cutting down wet grass sticking to everything after the cloud burst we had.

Given the number of people attending with less than perfect projections, I would say our club is suffering from serious photon deficiency. While last did not cure the problem, it helped some. Let's hope in 2 weeks we get more chances to work on lower the problem.