MnGCA

Buzzygirl · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2004 7:49 am Post subject: Stargazing event?

Hi all,

I was talking with KB last night at the Get Sauced event, and he is interested in doing a combination geocaching and stargazing event at some point in the near future. As many of you know, I'm a member of the Minnesota Astronomical Society. Our club has an observatory in Baylor Regional Park, which is located in Norwood-Young America, MN, about 45 miles southwest of Minneapolis. The skies there are moderately dark, and one can see the Milky Way and the northern lights without trouble.

I'm one of the observatory's team leaders, and with some advance notice to the park's caretaker I can host an event just for MNGCAers, or in the alternative, we could plan to meet out there for a public event that's already scheduled. Public events are held rain or shine. The schedule of upcoming public evenings can be found here: http://www.mnastro.org/events/showonanpublic.php

The observatory has a large telescope and there are usually other club members viewing with their telescopes if the night's clear. We are a friendly bunch and like to show visitors what can be seen with backyard astronomy equipment.

I was thinking it would probably be best if this was held in late September to early October, as we won't have to deal with as many (or any) bugs. We could do a group caching event in some Carver County parks, then meet at the observatory when it starts to get dark.

If you're interested in doing such an event, let me know.

Marsha and Silent Bob · Past MnGCA President Joined: 02 Sep 2003 Posts: 6261

TwentySeven · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2004 8:30 am Post subject:

My step Dad is a member of the Minnesota Astronomical Society, I'll bring him and my son. Should be fun!

Shane
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KC0GRN · Past MnGCA Board Joined: 22 Feb 2004 Posts: 1424

Shoot I was thinking of going out there even without the lure or a geocaching event. Count me in!

BTW, since plans aren't set in stone yet, the first weekend in October I'm going to be out in Washington, hopefully the event will be on another weekend Smile

DigiFerret · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2004 10:24 am Post subject:

Sounds like fun! I've been itching to do some astrophotography. I agree that late Sept. or Oct. would be a good time to do it. Count me in! Very Happy

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Arcticabn · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2004 10:35 am Post subject:

I'd be willing. I'd like to try to get my kids interested. At least my 7 year old. The 5 year old my be a little young yet.

Seems to me that it's still get dark awful late right now. When were you thinking about doing this?
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KC0GRN · Past MnGCA Board Joined: 22 Feb 2004 Posts: 1424

Probably would be perfect after daylight savings time kicks in.. isn't that late october? plus ya got your first frost of the season to kill the bugs off...

King Boreas · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2004 11:47 am Post subject:

I'm in, Jackie !

15Tango · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2004 5:13 pm Post subject:

Sounds like a great idea--count me in!!!
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DigiFerret · Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2004 8:51 am Post subject:

Speaking of stargazing, the Perseid metor shower peaks about Aug. 12th.
This is usually a pretty good meteor shower to watch if you don't mind staying awake until 2-3am.

Shocked

...more coffee, please!
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Buzzygirl · Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2004 12:14 pm Post subject:

Yeah, the Perseids are coming up quickly... 2-3 am is way past my bed time... Surprised

I was thinking about maybe doing this in late September-early October. The bugs will have died way down and the skies will likely be a bit better (summer humidity tends to make dim things harder to see). I really like hosting events out at Baylor at that time of year.

More on this later... I'm looking forward to this!

KC0GRN · Past MnGCA Board Joined: 22 Feb 2004 Posts: 1424

I'll just cross my fingers and hope it's not over the October 2-3 weekend Smile

rickrich · Geocacher Joined: 06 Jul 2003 Posts: 673

A few years ago I got a Celestron Nextstar 5 "goto" scope. Dyl1231 and I did some astrophotgraphy with it. Notice how clear the red spot of Jupiter is, and that we could resolve four moons of Jupiter.

Anyway, I went down to Baylor for an eclipse last year, and snagged a bunch of caches on the way down. It almost seemed like KB had laid a trail of caches on the way to Baylor, just for the eclipse. It was a lot of fun using the "big scope" down there, as well as some really decent binoculars on a mount. Both of them blew away my Nexstar (for different reasons).

SirPoonga · Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2004 11:14 pm Post subject:

Somewhere on NASA's website you can get info on satellite watching. I signed up for the weekly email of best times to see sats. Pretty cool stuff.

Buzzygirl · Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2004 12:29 pm Post subject:

Another place to get times for passing satellites and the International Space Station, as well as sky maps and sky event listings, is here:

www.heavens-above.com

We saw a very bright International Space Station pass at the observatory last week. The ISS is bright and really easy to see, even in the city. You can find pass times and where to look at the link above.