After a 10-hour drive from north Florida to Marathon on Saturday, my wife Debbie and I arrived at our vacation rental house for this year’s Winter Star Party (WSP). I chose this particular abode because it sits on the ocean side of Vaca Key and provides me a direct view south with nothing but the Atlantic Ocean between us and the horizon. Literally, if I take two steps the wrong direction on the south deck of the vacation rental, I fall in the Atlantic Ocean!
On Saturday, I spent some time checking out the best place to set up my mount for viewing. I also did some general binocular stargazing. I like to set up scopes both at the rental house and at the WSP itself so I have the option of viewing at either site.
The sky at a latitude of around 24.6° north was magnificent. The seeing was terrific with excellent transparency (which can occasionally be an issue in the Keys, as well as all of Florida).
Like in most of the country, this winter has not offered my state the best viewing. The only difference for us in north Florida was no snow and milder temperatures. Yet we’ve had no clear skies most of the time. So to see stars — and down to the horizon with very little light pollution — was exhilarating. Orion was nearly directly overhead right after sunset.
As I looked south of Sirius in Canis Major, the bright star Canopus in Carina was easy to see. Using my binoculars, I explored a number of deep-sky objects, including M41, M46, M47, M48, and M50.
On Sunday night, I spent time setting up a couple of mounts and carefully polar-aligning both. After that, I did some test images through my Canon EOS 5D Mark II DSLR. These images will provide me with crucial information, such as the best part of the sky to image. That’s a consideration due to a bit of light pollution from Marathon to the west of my site.
While at the WSP, I will test a telescope for Astronomy magazine. This is a fine Italian-made 5-inch photographic apochromatic refractor, and I look forward to the opportunity to put it through its paces and report to you how it looks in a future issue of the magazine.
Today we check in and the event begins with a talk by WSP founder and good friend Tippy D’Auria.
Keep looking up!