Paul Atkinson filed his third report from the 2008 Chiefland Star Party. Take it away, Paul!
Monday night was pretty cold for Florida, and an unexpected cold front pushed through. The sky was clear, and the humidity all but disappeared. The seeing degraded from the front blowing through, and it caused the stars to dance quite a bit.
On the field, the die-hard imagers continued while others decided to use the night to observe visually. A tripod with 150 mm Fujinon binoculars was drawing attention from many observers. Because of the cold, I didn’t wander the field nearly as much as I wanted, but I did stop to take in a great view of the Veil Nebula through an 18-inch Dobsonian-mounted reflector.
I spent the night huddled in the new Kendrick Observer Tent. Jim Kendrick of Kendrick Astro Instruments sent his newest model down for me to try out during the star party. See the photo with my 14-inch Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope (C14) and 6-inch Takahashi TOA130 inside it. My buddy Mark Keitel and I observed lots of the faint fuzzies in Sculptor. The observing tent provides protection from the elements, especially the wind, so it was nice to have. The Silver Coin Galaxy (NGC 253) looked impressive through the C14 using a Tele Vue Nagler 31mm eyepiece. Due to Chiefland’s low latitude, many of the objects low on the horizon are located at an acceptable altitude for viewing. Stephan’s Quintet (NGC 7317, NGC 7318A, NGC 7318B, NGC 7319, and NGC 7320) also was a great object. Spinning around the TOA130 gave some great wide-field views of multiple open clusters through Cassiopeia. We called it a night after another long viewing session.
Previous reports:
Part two
Part one