by Jane Houston
Every corner of the world holds a cluster of astro friends for all of us. All you have to do is find them. All you have to do is open your eyes and ears, and they appear! A little astro talk will bring them out of hiding! Over the holidays my fiancé, Mojo and I flew from San Francisco, CA to Tampa, FLA. We observed the holidays with family and new and old astro friends. Observe? You bet! I always take my 12.5 inch LITEBOX reflector on all my vacations. Last Christmas we traveled to Florida to visit family and set up the scope on a lovely circular path around a park in Sarasota. Our site was on an island or key right between the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida coast. While the shoppers were shopping and the playgoers were on their way to and from the local production of The Nutcracker" we two California amateur astronomers shared views of Jupiter and the moon with a hungry hoard of innocent bystanders. And they loved it as much as we did!
This year, we introduced some new friends to the sky and then played tourist. Astro tourist, that is. In November, at the end of the NASA Leonid Mission I met the parents of one of the Air Force servicemen who flew the aircraft we from which we chased Leonids around the world. We were in Cocoa Beach, Florida, near Kennedy Space Center on the last night of the mission, and one serviceman's parents drove across the state of Florida to welcome their son home. I sat with them at the mission celebration. When I heard that Jim and Jinna lived in Sarasota, I remarked, "I'll be there for Christmas!". They extended an invitation, and a few nights ago we showed up at their beach front home with Strider, the traveling telescope. After watching the great blue heron named graybeard, and varieties of egrets and the orange sunset we had a great dinner and showed the NASA video of the mission (which featured their son in a cameo appearance!). Then we peeked outside and the sky was dark. The stars were out. The moon wouldn't be rising for hours. Saturn and Jupiter were brilliant! And it wasn't as cold as it had been earlier in the week. It was 60 F instead of 40 F this night!
We snuck out and set up the scope. And called them out. They had never seen such a large telescope before! Then the usual happened. They stepped up to the eyepiece. Leaned forward and peeped into the past. The first gasp was for Jupiter. The second gasp was for the many bands they could see on the planet for the first time. The third gasp was for the great red spot. The fourth gasp was for the missing moon, Io. Just as Jinna was watching, it appeared off the limb of Jupiter and brightened significantly! That was fun for all of us, but especially fun for Jinna. We proceeded to go through the deep sky wonders of the winter sky. The Andromeda galaxy and its companions. The big and bright "M"s -- we showed them some examples of each type of object. We saved Saturn for last. As we were all enjoying the magnificent ringed planet, from the beach front of Siesta Key, Florida, Jinna called her son at Edwards Air force Base in California. We described to him over the telephone what we were seeing. Jinna described her astronomy conquests of the evening to her amateur astronomer son in Southern California. I promised to visit when he transfers from Edwards to Vandenburg AFB in February. It's closer to home for me. I promised to bring the telescope, too! As we left, we looked out over the water. At the boat dock out back, an American Flag was illuminated with a small spotlight, in honor of their son. It had been a beautiful night for visiting with new astro friends.
A few nights later it was our turn to be tourists. We traveled 200 miles to the Chiefland Astronomy Village. 80 acres seven miles north of Chiefland is owned by astronomers. Each has purchased a five acre parcel. Most parcels sport a pre-fabricated home or mobile home, an observatory or two, air conditioned darkrooms, barns, and more than one ham radio antennae. The gravel road leading to the village sports warning signs. After dark, only parking lights are allowed and the speed limit is 15 MPH. There were no lights anywhere! The first lot is owned by Tippy D'Auria, founder of the WSP, although health concerns keep him away most of the time. The next lot sports a sign "Star Geezers" It's the winter home of astro photographer Jack Newton and his lovely wife Alice. We visited Jack's observatory with a matched set of every LX-200 size made! Behind the observatory was his computer room. Jack offers CCD classes here at Chiefland. Village founder Billy Dodd's observatory, Ham radio antennae and home is across the street. Then we turned into our destination at 36 Galaxy Lane. The home of Tom and Jeannie Clark. The Clarks are old friends of mine, although I only met them face to face for the first time when they organized a trip to Australia earlier this year. We took a tour of the "barn" where Tom makes Tectron Telescopes, edits the Amateur Astronomy magazine, and stores the Yard Scope II. A 36 inch behemoth of a reflector, several hundred pounds lighter than the original Yard Scope, it rolls out the door onto a concrete pad, until the observatory is built. We met Bogie, the ancient Irish Wolfhound, and joined all the Astronomy Villagers for an early supper at the Light House restaurant. Thursdays are all-you-can-eat Grouper, a delicious fish. Cooked southern style, deep fried in "Lighthouse" batter or cornmeal batter, served with grits and hush puppies. All washed down with sweet tea, unless you ask for no sugar.
We waddled out thoroughly sated and hurried home. It was time for some tourism. Astro tourism, that is. We didn't even bother setting up our 12.5 incher. We took turns climbing up the 12 foot ladder and peering at 200X views of galaxies and planets. The Zodiacal light was brighter than the Milky Way. A meteor whizzed by. The Milky Way was brilliant!
As the big scope was swung into place, I knew we were in for a treat. Barred Spiral NGC 253 in Sculptor was just phenomenal at 206X using a 20 Nagler through the F4.5 36 incher. It was one of the very first objects I spotted through my 12.5 incher on it's first light night in Hawaii two years ago. The Superman Galaxy - another barred spiral NGC 1300 showed curvy arms attached to the bar look like the "S" on Superman's costume, only backwards.
We could feel moisture in the air, and our spirits sunk. We had been observing only about one and a half hours. Ground fog was rising, so we quickly looked at a few more objects, including the horse head nebula and great Orion nebula - both indescribably stunning through the big scope. On to a watery Jupiter, which despite the moisture was beautiful! Soon the sopping wet scope was snugly back in the barn, and we were snugly inside reminiscing about our Australia trip, listening to the didgeridu music and showing slides from down under. And talking about the next star party.
There's nothing like sharing an evening with astro friends, new and old.