Pacheco State Park public star party April 2005

by Dan Wright


I was worried it might be cold and windy, but it was relatively warm (one coat, no hat). We had some breezes but not what I'd call winds, and no dew problems (well ... not until late).

Nice to see Jeff Crilly, and weird to see his equipment without cameras or wires dangling around -- his scopes were sporting eyepieces instead. I didn't know he owned any eyepieces! But of course he does. Later that night, for I believe the first time in my life, I looked through his refractor. He was showing a pretty-good M81 and 82 at the time.

Nice to visit with Phil Chambers and M. A. Marcus, and to hear Rashad's voice over there. When it got dark, we got down to business and the public. Junior-high students and their parents lined up for views. Two particular girls hung around, asked a lot of questions, and seemed really excited.

Are all you guys like, "scientists" or something?

How can you just look in the sky and tell the difference between a star and a planet?

Why did they decide to call some of those things "moons"?

I see two tracks across Jupiter -- like it got ran over by a truck.

OK -- the moon is a "moon", and the earth is a "planet" -- so what is the sun?

When I was little, my dad told me those were "wishing stars". I was so mad when I learned they are really just airplanes with exhaust trails. I made a lot of useless wishes on them.

If earth's atmosphere was thick enough, and Jupiter's was thick too, so they touched, could we fly there in an airplane?

I've always hated science, but I'm so excited now. As soon as we get back, we'll tell our science teacher Mrs. Cox all about it.

I had binoviewers on the moon at high power, and I showed one of the girls how to use slew keys to move around. They invented a new way to use binoviewers -- friends put their heads together side by side and each gets an eyepiece, then one slews around and they both make remarks about what they're seeing.

During the star party I made a new friend: Ron from Brisbane, a fellow owner of a 10" LX200 GPS. He saw me setting up my LX200 and wandered over to introduce himself. He got his only three weeks ago -- got a great deal; used on E-bay.

I've observed with mine regularly for three years, so I thought I could give him advice, but he already knew so much about the LX200! He knew the entire menu system, and had already downloaded and installed the latest OS from Meade and performed all the calibrations, and had installed the best-choice aftermarket kits, including the ones for the DEC clutch and the primary focuser, and Bob's knobs, and had already figured out alternative quick ways of aligning, etc.

Ron said he learned a lot doing research prior to buying, and also during the weeks of cloudy weather after the scope arrived. He read large parts of the LX200 yahoo group, which takes plenty of time since there are 4800 members and 73000 messages in that group. I think it's remarkable how fast he came up to speed -- I guess he's a quick study; a smart guy.

Jamie arrived and set up his dob later in the evening, and I was glad to see him. I hoped to show him a geostationary satellite since he had never seen one, but I was worried about finding one because they're often pretty dim and it was kind of a moony night.

I couldn't do it. I had one in sight for a moment (a tumbling flasher actually), but lost it. Jamie may have seen it for only a second. Later I realized the satellite tracking software was using the laptop's system time, which was off by more than a minute. I had forgotten to set this to the exact time taken from the LX200's GPS fix. This threw everything off, and it was purely an accident I ever got that flasher in view in the first place.

After I triple-checked all the software settings, I still could not locate a geosat. I gave up at 12:30, and as I was packing I realized my corrector had become slightly dewed toward the end of the evening. Maybe that was why I couldn't find those dim little buggers! Silly mistake. M. A. Marcus had even tried to warn me earlier I was getting dewed, but I couldn't see it that way (stubborn I guess).

I was the last one out, at 1:06 AM, and had a pleasant drive home. Pacheco is just about 1hr 15 minutes from Palo Alto with no traffic.


Posted on sf-bay-tac Apr 17, 2005 23:56:05 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Apr 23, 2005 22:17:51 PT