NorthWest Florida Astronomy Association

On the 20th of November we added a third state park to our theater of operations after being invited to hold a sky view at Eden Gardens State Park.

We expected a lot of trees and a reconnaissance visit verified that prediction. The tree line is high enough that it made a solar viewing session untenable. There would just be too much time waiting between the Sun dropping behind the trees and the Sun actually setting. But a high tree line will not stop a star gaze.

Due to the park’s location we expected a dark sky which resulted in a great turnout by club members:

• Frank Atchison
• Dean Covey
• Bob Gaskin
• Dave Halupowski
• Tom Haugh
• Dennis Hausch
• Chuck Lynch

The assembled members were not disappointed as the dark sky prediction was very accurate.

Dennis and his 12″ dob.

Dean in front of the Wesley house all decorated for the holidays.

Since this was the park’s first star gaze we only had a moderate turn out of guest observers. But there were enough to keep all the scopes busy without any waiting lines. We even had a group of cadets attend from Eglin AFB’s Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol. All were treated to some great views of deep sky objects as well as a bright meteor that crossed the sky from tree line to tree line. Another transient visitor was the Air Force’s X-37B space plane, easily visible as it passed overhead.

“Can you take a photo through a telescope with a {insert your favorite phone name here}?” has become a very common guest observer question at our events. The answer is “Yes”, so there were several smart phone pictures taken through scope eyepieces during the event. Also during the evening, Frank Atchison attached his Canon camera to his 8″ Meade and demonstrated some of the advantages of CCD observing.

Chuck and his guest observers.

Dave supervises his wooden dob.

This picturesque location as well as the dark sky will make Eden Gardens State Park a favorite location for the NWFAA. We look forward to returning to the park in 2016.

The NWFAA made its first trip up to the Laurel Hill School on Friday the 6th of November to support their Science night. As usual we set up just before dusk and while we waited for the sky to darken took part in the school’s spaghetti dinner fund raiser. We are hoping for more star gaze invitations based on the spaghetti dinner alone.

Dean Covey, Tom Haugh and Chuck Lynch each brought telescopes for our guest observers to view the sky through. Since neither the Moon nor any bright planets were visible we had to rely on deep sky objects for our targets. The Great Hercules Cluster (M-13), the Ring Nebula (M-57) and the Andromeda Galaxy (M-31) were all visible as well as numerous other celestial targets. For the school’s first event, the turnout was outstanding keeping each telescope in constant use. The guest observers were enthusiastic and asked plenty of intelligent questions.

We were quite amazed at the darkness of the Laurel Hill sky. Even though there were a couple of annoying security lights bright enough that we cast shadows, the Milky Way was plainly visible crossing the sky.

Spaghetti dinner and a dark sky; you can’t do any better than that.

Once again, the NWFAA supported Walton Outdoor’s Explore the Outdoors Festival. This year we returned to Live Oak Landing. The trees here limit our location to the same place every year. Luckily, it puts us right on the walking path from parking to all the other outdoor exhibits. This means we get a constant flow of guest observers throughout the event and two chances to offer them a look through our equipment.

Young Miss Kennedy mans our booth early in the event.

In white light the Sun was very quiet. There were no appreciable sunspots visible and after a couple of hours of explaining what a sunspot would look like (if there was one) Dennis decided to change tactics. His alignment was good enough that he was easily able to find Venus in the daytime sky and for the rest of the event, that was the target in the Mak. The planet was deep in a crescent phase and provided a very ‘teachable’ moment to the public observers.

By now, Dennis targets the daytime crescent Venus.

Guest observers view the Sun in Hydrogen-Alpha light.

We handed out plenty of club flyers and sky charts and had a great time showing the daytime objects to the crowd. The Explore the Outdoors Festival is one that we all enjoy supporting and we have already been invited back to next years event on Oct 15, 2016. We will be there.

Threatening weather did little to thwart the August Henderson Beach State Park sky view. We had to delay setting up the solar telescopes for a short time due to a light mist, but once it stopped we pressed on. To the West was a large thunderhead that, although threatening, never came toward the park and eventually dissipated.

Solar observing started with Dean Covey, Dennis Hausch and Tom Haugh. The weather kept all but a couple of solar observers from stopping by. As the Sun set the day shift was joined by Frank Atchison, Robert Sutphen, Dave Halupowski, Chuck Lynch and Ken Leone all bringing optical equipment to bear. Sky charts were handed out and instruction on how to use them was provided to the growing crowd. Jupiter started the night time show as it was viewed setting right after the Sun. Saturn, as usual, was the ‘star’ of the evening, although there were plenty of other bright objects in view. The great Hercules cluster, the Ring Nebula (M 57) and the famous multiple star system Epsilon Lyrae to name just a few.

The weather kept the count of guest observers lower than normal; we estimated about 70. Just before we started to disassemble the equipment a couple of the park rangers stopped by in order to take a look for themselves. We took the opportunity to thank them, once again, for hosting our events.