I arrived on Wednesday evening and set up the GWS and my tent, with plenty of time to spare. I started out viewing Jupiter through clouds so thick that at times it could not bee seen with the unaided eye. I was able to see bands on the planet and moons when the clouds were not too thick. Some neighboring campers from Sarnia were there, and we toured the sky comparing views in her 8 inch and my 16 inch for various galaxies.
Don had staked out our prime territory on the hill and i moved in effortlessly. We erected a network of poles and ropes and soon had our HAA banner flying high and proud. We tried making a tarp into a picnic shelter. It held fine but had no wind resistance and soon was flapping. I took it down late at night, just as the lightning was approaching.
A visit to the local hardware store the next day for some pipe clamps perked it up enough to stand all day despite the wind, but when the rains came, it was too much for it again. This time, the pegs were tearing out of the ground. Bring on the spiral tent pegs for next time. With multiple pegs at each corner, it was again standing, but the fatal blow came when the grommet ripped out of the corner of the tarp. We got our $1 worth from it, but it was beyond repair given the tools we had.
Wednesday evening had lots of clear intervals and i stayed up until about 2:30 AM checking various directions for deep sky objects, and watching for early Perseid meteors. It rained overnight and i got a little bit of water in the tent, but fortunately, i had put my air mattress in the lowest part of the tent, and the water collected under it, harmlessly. Thursday evening was also good, with plenty of sucker holes to provide a window to the sky beyond. I tarped up the GWS in time to brace for Friday’s storms.
Friday night was clear almost all night, and i was still up at 5 am when the sun started to rise, chasing Orion into the sky. There were low clouds to the East by then, so it was not worth it to keep observing. Steve, Kim, and Alan from BC were visiting family at the park, and strolled up the hill. It was nice to show them the sky, and i fished up a lot of DSO’s from memory, but needed help to find M17, which Dave provided. The SQM read about 21.02 in the darkest parts of the sky, and 20.7 elsewhere.
I looked for IC289 and was able to find it in the GWS, but it’s pretty faint. Perhaps i will see it again at LSPP and the darker skies will show it more definitely. On Friday i was able to fish up 2 boattinis and Uranus and Neptune. Pluto evaded me. It’s going to be a binbrook object, or perhaps something to find at LSPP.
Saturday night was cloudy at first, but after the entertaining and informative talk about the LHC, there was a giant sucker hole (space between the clouds that blows away) in the sky which gradually expanded to almost the whole sky. It was pretty hard to keep dew off things though. It’s time for me to make eyepiece heaters for the GWS to get things more secure.
I had a long chat with Attilla who came up the hill where he could see an uncovered big Dob out after midnight. I learned a lot about many topics. The upshot is that a bigger scope does better than a smaller scope, and that atmospheric seeing does not degrade the view in a big scope. Bigger really is better. I was very happy to hear that.
Electricity was intermittent, probably due to water getting into the circuits and tripping them. It’s a real convenience to have electricity, and noticeable when it’s gone. For a while I plugged into the VW for power, but eventually, just ‘roughed it’. I was able to get internet connections at intervals, and have a big thank-you for Kerry who upgraded my CDC to have comet display in it now.
Saturday night was much cooler than the previous few nights, and i think i will augment my list of gear for LSPP to handle ‘cold weather’ camping somewhat.
