NorthWest Florida Astronomy Association

When we made the weather go/no go call Friday morning, the skies were clear and the day looked promising. But, by the time the cars were loaded and we started toward Freeport it was lightly raining. Once on site we re-evaluated the possibility of having a productive star gaze. It was very cloudy but there were blue skies to the south so we rolled the dice and kept going. Tom Haugh set up the projector and started the NWFAA solar presentation to the 66 or so students and teachers. Meanwhile outside, Dean Covey and Dennis & Marietta Hausch started to set up their scopes. They had to quickly cover the equipment as it started to rain again, but it stopped and they finished readying the equipment. By the time Tom’s presentation completed, the clouds cleared the students were treated to 3 different views of the Sun.

Students line up for Dean’s H-alpha scope.	There were no sunspots visible in Dennis’ white light telescope.
Tom’s spectroscope shows a colorful view of the Sun.	Lots of students under the hot Sun.

We would like to thank the Freeport SPICE coordinators for the invitation to share our enthusiasm of Astronomy with their students. We also thank Marietta Hausch for her constant support and event photography.

It’s been seven years since we last set up our scopes at Camp Timpoochee. The last was for 4-H youngsters, this time it was for a local Girl Scout Jamboree. Our first attempt this year was postponed due to weather but luckily, we had an opening in our schedule when the scouts re-scheduled. We had plenty of guest observers as we hosted 103 scouts and their parents and leaders.

Several NWFAA members were able to support the Camp Timpoochee event:

• James Dubben
• Dave Halupowski & and his granddaughter Kennedy Odom
• Tom Haugh
• Dennis & Marietta Hausch

We started in the late afternoon with solar observing. Dennis setup his H-alpha scope. There were no sunspots visible so instead of showing a featureless disk, Tom set up his spectroscope and displayed the Sun’s spectrum.
 

 
After all the scouts got to see the Sun, we were invited to join the scouts for supper. By then Dave & Kennedy and James had arrived and set up their scopes for nighttime viewing. After supper was over, and as the Sun started to set, the scouts adjourned to the campground meeting hall for our general astronomy presentation.
 

 
After the question and answer session, it was everyone outside to the scopes. Even though it was not completely dark yet, Venus was very obvious in the western sky and was our first target of the evening. Once dark it became obvious that there was a very high haze layer interfering with dim targets so we were limited to bright ones. Thankfully, there were several. Ultimately, Jupiter rose over the southeastern tree line. Several of the scouts had sharp enough vision to see the Jovian moon Europa’s shadow as it traversed the planets disk.

James used the club’s 16″ scope to show M 51 (The Whirlpool Galaxy) which was just visible through the haze. M 13 (Great Hercules Cluster) was also visible along with the big dipper’s Alcor and Mizar. Dave and Dennis moved one of the scopes to try and view Omega Centauri but it was very low and they could not find it through the trees.

We had an additional question and answer session with several scouts right up until it was time to break everything down and pack up. We would like to thank the Twin Cities Girl Scouts for their invitation and supper. We had a great time and look forward to our next event with the scouts. We also thank Marietta Hausch for her event photography.

Once again we were invited to support the Saturday in the Park Heritage Festival in Valparaiso. While other members supported Walton County’s Earth Day Festival, Dennis & Marietta Hausch and Dave Halupowski supported their home town event providing telescopic views of the Sun to their guest observers. This year they braved the requirement to have everything set up and vehicles out of the way by 7 AM. This, of course, led to a very long day, but an enjoyable one.

Dave demonstrating solar projection.	Dennis’ dual mounted scopes.

The skies were clear, but the Sun, nearing solar minimum, was very quiet. Dave set up his classic Unitron refractor to provide an image of the Sun by the projection method. Dennis, on the other hand, dual mounted his solar telescopes and was able to show both white light and Hydrogen-Alpha views of the Sun using one mount.

We want to thank Marietta Hausch for her photos of the event.

The 3rd of February dawned clear and cold. Cold as far as Northwest Florida is concerned. It might have been okay for the participants of the fun run but it was uncomfortable setting up the scopes. But, it warmed up as the event went on and by tear down time it was almost warm enough to doff the jackets and hoodies. Almost.

Dennis discusses the solar view.

Fort Walton Beach first-responders take a break and get a view of the Sun.

Club members Norm Dingle (snowbird), Tom Haugh, and Dennis & Marietta Hausch braved the temperatures. Tom set up his Hydrogen-Alpha telescope, while Dennis set up his white light filtered Maksutov. Unfortunately, the Sun was not cooperating. There was little solar activity to view. Our alternate target, Venus, was too close to the Sun to safely view. Jupiter, our alternate alternate was already below the treeline so we were stuck with the sedentary Sun.

Our group waiting for more guest observers.

A stilted pirate maiden was able to crouch down and view the Sun.

Overall, we had a good event but there were only few guest observers who made it out into the cold.

We want to thank Marietta Hausch for her photos of the event.

Our last public star gaze for 2017 went on without a hitch. As usual for Topsail Hill, we had a few park attendees, who were there for other attractions, stop by and view the Sun through our white light and hydrogen-alpha filtered telescopes. We also had several campers stop by and promise to come back after dark.

NWFAA members who supported the Topsail Hill event were:

• Frank Atchison
• Tom Haugh
• Dennis & Marietta Hausch
• Robert Sutphen

Guests observe the Sun with Dennis’ and Tom’s solar telescopes	Frank sets up his equipment just as the Sun sets.
Dennis discusses his telescope with guest observers.	Robert and guests wait for the sky to fully darken.

As the sky started to darken the crowd of guest observers slowly grew. We transitioned to nighttime telescopes and since Saturn was just visible through the trees to the southwest, that is where we started. However, it was not long before the planet was no longer visible through the trees.

By the time it was fully dark the Milky Way was just visible. It was not obvious; you had to look for it, but it was there. There was some high thin haze that hid dim objects from view so we had to stick to the brighter deep sky objects.

Some of the brighter objects we were able to view were:

• M 31 (Andromeda galaxy)
• M 45 (Pleiades)
• Double Cluster (NGC 869 & NGC 884)
• M 42 (Orion nebula)

Some of the guests were able to check off the “I observed Uranus” box. Neptune was too low in the low altitude muck to see. Eventually, all the guests headed back to the campground or left the park so we wrapped up just shy of 10:00 PM.

Thanks once again go to Marietta Hausch for the event photography.

Update:
This was Robert’s last star gaze wtih the NWFAA. Robert passed away on the 10th of May 2018. Robert was one of our go-to guys for supporting our educational outreach programs. He had recently updated his mount and was just getting a handle on the new technology. He will be missed.

Robert supporting our 13 Nov. home schooling event.