July 1-3, 2006
Dave Wyman and crew put on another great adventure for the San Diego Natural History Museum. I brought along the Megrez 80mm f/6 Super APO refractor and did a group observing session on Saturday night for an enthusiastic group of parents and kids. I showed them the moon, Jupiter, star clusters, nebulae, red giants and binary stars. And, I gave them the story of Apothis, the asteroid on a possible collision course with the earth on Friday the 13th later in the century. The rest of the weekend, I had fun peppering kids with bits of flotsam and jetsam, all accompanied by shouts of "asteroid impact!". Weather was perfect 7600 ft high in the Sierras, and the waxing cresent moon set early enough to promise hours of late night astrophotography of the summer Milky Way. Black skies, a green meadow of wildflowers, and all night to capture the beauty of the universe - what more could one want?
Dave's own web page for this event includes some of my own photos, as well as his.
Our Leader and his trusty mastiff |
I'm ready for my close up, Dave |
2x5min stack on M22 in Sagittarius, through the Megrez |
...and a more cerebral moment |
Fresh greens get the personal touch |
Sunday night I was pretty tired, and ended up sleeping till 3:30am. Only time for a little astrophotography before dawn...
The Scutum star cloud setting behind firs on the edge of the meadow. Very short exposure - note the sharpness of the tree on this autoguided shot, and note the resulting digital noise |