MnAstro Forums

Is anyone planning to head down to cherry grove this evening? The skies are looking hopeful.

I plan to go if the weather continues to look promising later in the day/toward evening.

I think I will head down and see if any of the Heshels I need are still up. I would like to pull out the BAD.

Huggy I'd like learn how to set up the BAD. What time are you planning on getting down there?
Ray

I am new to this thing and I also plan to attend tonight. Is the BAD what I think it is?

The B.A.D. is a 24" StarMaster Dobsonian, lovingly known as the Big A__ Dobsonian.

I don't know who originally called it that, but that's what it's known as. Ken Hugill (Huggy) can shed more light on this.

If I'm not mistaken, it was the first large dob to be purchased by the MAS. Now I believe we have 3 other dobs close - or larger - to that size.

I'm going to give it a try tonight. tomorrow night looks good, too, but a bird in the hand, etc.

My recollection is that Bill Bynum gave the B.A.D. its name.

I'll be heading down. Bringing cold water so please be thirsty!

I've been reminded of some prior responsibilities for tomorrow. It is now doubtful I will make it to CGO.

Thanks for bringing the water!

Dave Venne wrote:I'm going to give it a try tonight. tomorrow night looks good, too, but a bird in the hand, etc.

My recollection is that Bill Bynum gave the B.A.D. its name.

I chaired the committee that raised funds for the BAD, but I honestly don't remember who coined the name. I think we just got talking one day and decided we should get a big-ass Dob, and the abbreviation was used to protect the innocent

Deane Clark wrote:

Dave Venne wrote:I'm going to give it a try tonight. tomorrow night looks good, too, but a bird in the hand, etc.

My recollection is that Bill Bynum gave the B.A.D. its name.

I chaired the committee that raised funds for the BAD, but I honestly don't remember who coined the name. I think we just got talking one day and decided we should get a big-ass Dob, and the abbreviation was used to protect the innocent

I was also on the BAD committee and don't remember who originated the name. It seemed to fit at the time since we didn't know exactly what kind of scope we wanted, just something substantially larger than the 16" that was previously at Cherry Grove.

To avoid confusion, maybe we should abandon the BAD moniker and just call it the "24".

Dick Jacobson wrote:To avoid confusion, maybe we should abandon the BAD moniker and just call it the "24".

Why would we ever want to change that name? It's perfect.

A=Aperture if you're talking to somebody's mother.

Although it was the MAS' first large Dob, it's kind of funny to think the B.A.D. is now only the third largest Dob the MAS owns, after the 30" Obsession and the 25" Obsession at LLCC. But it is definitely the oldest. Dick and Deane, do you remember what year we bought it? And wasn't it about four years old already when we first got it? At least it's held up well.

Last night was the third night that Joan & I did some observing during this lunar cycle. Unprecedented!! It was fun to see many people out last night. Steve was able to train some new people on the BAD. However, I think we all forgot to sign in, I know Joan & I forgot. At 21:30, I was convinced that we weren't going to do much, many clouds. Dave V. reassured me it would work out, and he was right. I looked at the Unisys radar replay after I got home. It was interesting in that there was this narrow band of clouds over us until around 22:00. A lot of the group saw a nice shooting star, Joan & I were both in our eyepieces so we missed it.

Here's to the end of July and our next opportunity.

By the way Steve & I are going to work on the siding for the cooling house on Sunday. Help is always welcome

Really enjoyed seeing everyone at Cherry Grove last night... here is a link to my timelapse I made from midnight to 2:30 am... its on facebook, but should not require you to sign in ( or have a facebook account ) to see it :

https://www.facebook.com/steve.baranski ... 3388737565

Oh - and might as well put it on youtube as well :

https://youtu.be/uSg5PMwkW8Q

Thanks everyone!

Steve

SEmert wrote:Although it was the MAS' first large Dob, it's kind of funny to think the B.A.D. is now only the third largest Dob the MAS owns, after the 30" Obsession and the 25" Obsession at LLCC. But it is definitely the oldest. Dick and Deane, do you remember what year we bought it? And wasn't it about four years old already when we first got it? At least it's held up well.

We purchased the 24" Starmaster in 2003. I looked at some of the Gemini back issues that are now accessible on-line. There was an article about the purchase in the August/September 2003 issue and more articles in other issues. The scope was originally owned by Herb York, proprietor of Anacortes and Astromart. We purchased it from its second owner, a guy in Washington State whose name I don't remember. He had begged Herb to sell it to him after seeing its great quality, and later Herb purchased another identical scope. I had been planning a trip to the west coast and volunteered to be delivery boy for the scope, which just barely fit into my Passat wagon. A little later we further enhanced the scope when we installed Servo Cat on it in Steve's garage.

Whatever you call it, the B.A.D. has been good for MAS!

Nice time laspe Steve, thanks for sharing.

Nice time lapse Steve. Thanks for sharing.
Jim Cegla

That's an awesome time lapse! Now I want to do photography!

Also from this night, M 56:
Full frame. 13 x 120s, TV-102 @ f/7 and Canon T2i @ ISO 800. Dark frames used for calibration.The full scale image is here at AstroBin.

I have five more globs from that evening, but they get progressively smaller and are of interest mainly for completing the Astronomical League's Globular Cluster Program.