Scratching the Itch

The Almost Heaven Star Party (AHSP) was an event that I got excited about when I signed up with NOVAC back a couple of months prior. I then got absorbed in buying my telescope and then in passing talked to my wife about possibly signing up for the AHSP. After a few days of talking about it I had the green light! I then pretty much after that put it in the back of my mind as I had my new telescope arriving and WOW I had to figure out how the damn thing worked! I made a call for help via the NOVAC Listserve and was directed to Allan Mayer as my "mentor", he sent me many great and clear posts based on questions I asked and didn't for that mater on what to do and not based on his vast experience. After a weekend at Camp Highroad and a couple times out during the weeks before I was ready for my trip to Spruce Knob or so I thought...

Starting out
I left for AHSP around noon on Friday and after stopping a couple times to pick up a few items and gas up the car I was back on my way. I didn't run into any speed traps that I had been told about but I did give money to the fireman collecting money along the way in the small towns. I managed to arrived at The Mountain Institute (now Experience Learning, Spruce Knob Mountain Center) around 4pm and received a very nice welcome from the AHSP Staff. I then drove over to the area where Allan had set aside a spot for me to keep me well protected under his wing! :)

Rain, Scott and no clothes
Right after I setup it started to rain...I had to move my car up a row after setting up my tent on the yellow ridge to make room for the last RV that needed the spot...I watched them maneuver the RV and get out a number of times in the rain to check its position. Scott came over and introduced himself and made sure he hadn't blocked me from my night viewing needs. Somewhere in the conversation it came out that he had left his suitcase with all his clothes at home! I thought what that would be like and made an easy decision to ask him if he would like to borrow one of each item I knew that he would need until he could get to Elkins to buy more clothes. He took me up on it and we were quick to find that we had tons in common in a bunch of areas which aren't all relevant to this post! What I find most interesting is that I believe that most people that met over this weekend would have easily done the same thing for anyone at AHSP. This is one the things I most take away from the weekend, just how damn nice everyone was and easy to be around.

Wind not for me or the birds
After it stopped raining the wind started to pick up and it continued on all through the night and into Saturday. I went to bed at some point but I doubt that got more than 4 hours sleep that night so I was up with first light and ready to get going on the day. I went down to breakfast and came back and had to make a number of adjustments to my tent as it seems the nylon straps just aren't made to hold my tent down with 25mph winds gusting at for hours on end the night before. After fixing me tent I went down to attend the birdwatching walk with Ian. It was so windy that we only saw one bird on the whole walkabout. Ian though was amazing and I really enjoyed just listening to him talk about birds and the area that we were in and how it affects what birds live and stay at Spruce Knob. I would really like to do this again in the Northern Virginia area. (Little did I know all those years ago I would be doing bird walks and talks at SKMC)

GBT Tour
After the birdwatching tour was done I met up with Teri, Ward and their son Peter who had graciously offered me a ride the the Green Bank Telescope tour. What a great family! We talked on our way and again I was shown what great people were at the AHSP and part of the astronomy community at large. The tour was great and the staff was really knowledgeable, ASHP Staff members Arlen and Euro to name a couple were in my group and had all the right questions at hand as well which made the behind the scenes tour even better with Sue Ellen. I was dead tired by the end of the tour and thought I would get a nap in but it never happened as I talked to Ward pretty much the whole way back.

Saturday nights all right by me
We returned in time for dinner and even know everyone was saying the sky was going to be clear there was still a breeze and clouds everywhere. I listened to Bob Naeye's talk about Saturn and the Cassini mission, what a great talk! Afterwards I walked back up the hill and move my scope from the ridge and down to the area that had Terry, John, Allan and Scott with their gear. I have to thank Allan again here as he set me up in a place that I was bound to have success and learn from the mass amounts astronomy knowledge around me. Little did I know the treat that was about unfold in front of me.

(I did steal a view through John's monster solar scope! Thanks Alice and Allan for that since John wasn't around at the time. John, I look forward to learning more about the sun to understand what the hell I was looking at!)

As it started getting dark and stars are popping out in the sky that I have never even imaged and as I'm trying to get my sky bearings up walks Rod Mollise. Uncle Rod as he is known asked me about my new scope and helped me get through the setup for the first time up at SKMC. I think I was nervous at first with him around and me being a total newbie! Either way after a quick lesson about DST :) we were up and running with Rod throwing out names of objects for us to look at. This went on for about an hour! I must have seen around 25 objects with astounding clarity. I still can't believe that Rod spent that much time hanging out and enjoying the night sky. I also got peeks through Allan's and Scott's scope but at some point after too many beers Scott and I had to take a bathroom break! On the way back we walked over and got some looks through an 18" Dobsonian and a pair of binoculars owned by Marcus. He would hardly let us leave and kept showing us more and more through his telescope ;). I finally made it back to my scope and continued to go though the catalog of Messier objects that I had only seen pictures of. At around 1:45 am the clouds set in and it was time for me to call it a night...I had seen more in this one night than I had my whole life! I hear that it cleared up again by 4am as I know some people couldn't resist the sky we had availed to us.

I did take up an offer from Scott to sleep in his RV with his family. After the night before with basically no sleep it was a no brainer. His pullout couch was a godsend!

Jam packed Sunday
Even know I slept well I was up with first light again. Scott and I had coffee at the RV and talked for a while before I decided to head down for breakfast as I was scheduled for the hike up to peak of Spruce Knob. Thank goodness for the breakfast burrito as I needed it for the hike. There were 12 people on the hike as we started out and as luck would have it in our group we had Bill Burton and Laurel Wanrow. Jeff our SKMC guide was excellent with his knowledge of the area and especially the trees. Bill and Laurel filled in Jeff's information with things about the mountain formation and the flora and fauna around us. I don't know if I've had a informative hike like that since I was little and at the Fern Bank Science Center in Atlanta GA, my mom would have loved it!

We made the peak and had great views of multiple mountains and ranges. The bus ride back was dusty to say the least. It was more than time for a shower! After that it was dinner and time to settle in for Rod talk about the Messier's! Right as Rod finished it was twilight and time to get the scope up and running again.

Just as I got the scope setup and running Bob Naeye came up and gave a number of us quite a few lessons about the Milky Way. I offered a few views through my scope to Bob and shortly after Rod came by and shared with us all in the area again his vast sky knowledge! Even as I write this still can't believe I had Rod and Bob helping and looking though my scope with me. My 8' Orion SkyQuest XTg GoTo may never had more educated eyes look through it again! It was truly an honor!

For some reason I started getting cold and couldn't shake it. By 11pm I was done! I was so tired that I believe multiple people came in and out of the RV after I was asleep to make hot cider for the group. God knows what I said to them! Maybe Patricia (Terry's wife) and Scott know...

Monday, time to leave for me!
I got up and slowly started to pack up my things back into my VW GTI. I talked to a number of people that morning thanking them for the all the views I had bummed through there scopes and again thanking them for the outstanding company!

My Cygnus Court Crew - Terry, Patricia, Alice, John, Allan, Scott, Mike and Rob thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

The drive was nothing coming back that I remember because the whole time I was thinking about the night sky at TMI!!

Best Skies,

Chris