Virgo Venture June 3 and 4

[wkocken]

We scheduled the VV for both CG and LLCC this weekend.
We are calling it OFF at Cherry Grove for tonight due to a forecast of poor conditions. We will try for Saturday night at CG. It looks more promising.
HOWEVER, the forecast for LLCC looks much better, so we are ON for the VV at LLCC.

[Wayne]

Wonderful!! Heading up to LLCC soon.

[Huggy]

See you there.

[Dennis_Faith]

Jim Elmquist and I will head north for the evening as well.

[SEmert]

We had a pretty good turnout at Cherry Grove last night. Probably around ten people. Rod opened up the 14" observatory and did a little imaging with his Orion Starshooter. We got the 24" Starmaster out and looked at the supernova in M51. The views of M51 with the Ethos were very good. You could clearly see the spiral arm structure of both galaxies. As usual, M13 and M57 were awesome through the same combination of the 24" Starmaster and 13mm Ethos eyepiece.

The skies weren't cooperating very much, however. Although it was clear in the Twin Cities, as we drove south toward Cherry Grove the cloud bank grew ominously. Before sunset there was a clear line of clouds extending east to west, beginning just north of Cherry Grove. Fortunately it started dissapating as the sun went down. Throughout the evening the skies would range from small spotted patches of clouds, then dissapate, then re-form over our heads. We would frequently have to stop trying for galaxies in the Virgo cluster for 20-30 minutes until the clouds dissipated again before we could continue on our searches. I managed to get all but 5 galaxies on the Virgo Venture list by starhopping. I think Dave was close behind me, just missing a couple more of them. Greg Haubrich's detailed chart of the Virgo cluster was again invaluable in identifying the pathway to the galaxies. As the skies were again filling with thin clouds that made it very difficult to starhop to the remaining galaxies, we finished out by cheating, using the Argo Navis on the Starmaster to locate the remaining galaxies on the list.

[Wayne]

At LLCC we had 7 observers on Friday and 5 on Saturday.

As we arrived Friday under hot, humid conditions, we were met with signs on rooms 1 and 2 directing us to rooms 12 and 13. The nearby alternate rooms proved to be cool and comfortable. Thank you LLCC! Friday skies were mostly clear, but not as transparent as we often see. Although we found we had to combat heavy dew right away, a front moved through bringing a nice breeze and dry air which evaporated most of the dew. Electronic and observational wizard Ken worked his magic and gave us a number of wow moments in the 30". Galaxy hunting was a great success! Yours truly finally managed to find most of them without go-to.

Saturday afternoon we were able to log onto LLCC-Guest and see a very promising clear sky clock from the Marcus parking lot, but the signal was too weak to use on the observation field. As we got ready to observe that evening, thin clouds moved in. Except for a few temporary holes, we could only see the brightest stars. Despite the poor transparency, Saturn was still viewable (inlcuding a band in the northern hemisphere) and a friendly competion arose: Who could spot the dimmest moons. Conditions did not improve, so we all packed up after midnight.

Searching the skies, comparing views between scopes, camaraderie, learning, sharing ideas and equipment; despite the disappointing weather on Saturday, we had a good time.

Wayne

[wkocken]

Steve and Wayne,
Thanks for the reports on the Virgo Venture at Cherry Grove and LLCC. It sounds like you had a good time at both places, despite the below-expected conditions.
Bill

[Jmedrano]

Attached are some pictures from the Virgo Venture 2011 at Cherry Grove, I was the last to leave at about 3:15 am or so, when finally the clouds rolled over for good. I imaged M51 and M101, still processing them. I had a good time even with clouds!

Regards,
Javier

[Jmedrano]

More Pictures

[Jmedrano]

some more

[Jmedrano]

and some more

[Jmedrano]

and more