2016 Maine State Star Party

I got back earlier today from the Maine State Star Party, hosted by Downeast Amateur Astronomers at Cobscook Bay State Park in Dennysville. Wonderful state park. Has all of the luxuries: running water, hot showers, secluded camp sites, and of course dark skies (only 3 small buildings have lights and all are surrounded by thick woods). I did see a small light dome from a near by rural town, probably Machias ~20mi away, but it was just barely above a treeline 3/4mi away, hardly affected viewing. Measured sky light meters were 21.58 on average from a club liason’s sqlm. He measured the same readings 3 years ago, so it is very encouraging that conditions have *not* gotten worse. There were talks with the head park ranger about getting the park registered on IDA’s site of dark sky locations. I hope this happens.

I arrived on Friday afternoon roughly 4pm-ish after about a 3+ hour drive from Central Maine, ~170mi. I’ve been to Machias once a few months ago, but not any further east. A short ride to the US/Canada border. The campsite chosen was listed as a day site only, but the park allows our group/party to stay overnight. It wasn’t the best location in the park (a meadow was just across a dirt road with better views), but you can’t really complain about free. A large canopy was setup with a banner for Maine State Star Party. Parking and tents could be setup anywhere.

Around 7pm more astronomers showed up, including our club member with the club’s 16″ dob, so we quickly got that setup. Friday night’s weather was “okay”. Party cloudy, slight breeze, around 60 I think maybe warmer. In total I think there were 8 telescopes setup. We had probably 20 other campers visit our site and look through our various scopes. I didn’t do too much observing with my scope and tended to check out the 16″ dob’s views. I don’t remember exactly what objects were viewed that night. Most of us went to sleep around 11pm as it was a long day.

Saturday night was awesome. Just before sunset most of us got a fleeting glimpse of the Venus/Jupiter conjunction, which was just above the treeline. We literally had 10 maybe 15 minutes of observing before it went under the treeline. I remember a group of 5 young women/teens came with a parent/guardian, and we quickly rushed them through various scopes and binoculars so all got a glimpse of the conjunction before it disappeared. They were very impressed, though quickly ran off after that, not choosing to stay after dark. I think I could see some bands on Jupiter, but I’m not 100% positive. A lot of atmospheric disturbance due to the low altitude. Very neat treat for the night.

The sky really popped after the conjunction. Inky black spots in the Milky Way. I could count 8-9 stars of Pleiades (once it rose around 1am). A couple more astronomers showed up on Saturday afternoon, so I think the total was 10 telescopes and 1 binocular station. I think we had probably 50 to 100 campers visit us until like 11pm. It was a steady stream. Young children, teenagers, retired couples, visitors from other countries. A real gamut of people and stories. I did a lot of personal observing, looking at various objects through my scope. I also got confirmation on how to do proper star tests, and checked my telescope’s mirror for spheric aberration/turned edges using a ronchi eyepiece (no issues detected). M13 and M92 were stunning, many stars, very pinpoint too. Double Cluster was fabulous. M11 Wild Duck cluster was nice, I think my first time finding it. I never got to see the Ring Nebula in my scope. Being on the zenith, it is hard to operate a dob. My neck is still sore from trying. Saturn and Mars looked good, though low on the horizon and a lot of atmospheric disturbance, moisture.

The 16″ dob made the Veil Nebula look impressive. Same with the Ring Nebula and Dumbbell.

Through another club member’s scope, we looked at Triangulum Galaxy. I could not see it naked eye. Could not really see anything in the scope either, 5″ refractor with a variety of eyepieces. It’s just really diffuse I guess. Viewed several other objects (all Go-To so it was easy) like Dumbbell, Hyades, M13 again, M11, and North American Nebula (could see black spots, that’s about it). The cherry on top of the cake was viewing M1 Crab Nebula around 1:30am, last object I looked at before heading to sleep.

Good people. Friendly jokes about telescope brand superiority stuff like that. Astronomy Jeopardy was a lot of fun, though I only scored 30 points while the winner was 68 points I think. I need to brush up and be ready for next year. A nice guest speaker from the director of the Emera Planetarium at UMaine Orono. Lots of info, even through the projector screen was washed out by sunlight and we all were baking inside of the canopy. That was my first time to the Maine State Star Party. I hope to make this an annual trip for myself, and the club members too. Maybe even come up for some personal viewing.