Black River Astronomical Society &
Ohio Turnpike Astronomers Association
Convention
 John R. was our emcee and did a fabulous job |
 Here's a view inside the Hall |
 Here's the young fellow mentioned on the previous page... |
 and one more shot of folks enjoying the meeting |
 Here's a group of guys inching toward the door. I'll join them as soon as I get my pictures. |
 Our southern horizon isw fabulous |
 Looking north |
 and north east |
 Look at the old criterion on a fork mount |
 No star party is complete without a DOB |
 We watched a series of prominences all day long |
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 WOW |
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 A happy door prize winner |
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 First light from OTAA/2007, the Flame Nebula and Horsehead |
 A historic passing, Mars and The Crab, M1 |
 The Great Orion Nebula M42 and the Running Man |
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The Star Party was exceptional.
Around dusk the people who only come for the star party and don't care
about the meeting showed up. There was a flurry of activity as they set
about setting up equipment, renewing old acquaintances, etc. I had
another surge of folks to show POD to, but this time it was dark,
the scope was setup and people were actually able to enter the POD and
do some observing.
I got lots of comments from people saying how roomy the POD was.
They seemed impressed with the size. I guess it looks like it's small
from the outside. I was also able to demonstrate the POD Bays
functionality, since my power supplies, laptop and photographic gear
were inside the Bays leaving the interior of the POD open for human
movement.
A natural succession, like a conveyor belt began to take place.
Guests would arrive, place their elbows on the walls and await their
turn to get inside the POD. I had a slide show going on in one of the
bays, so guests could be entertained while awaiting their turn in the
POD. As one person exited, one would enter and step to the right.
From there he would step in front of the power supply bay, then to the
eyepiece of the scope. Then to the laptop bay and then out the
door.After exiting, lots of folks leaned on the exit side walls and
asked more questions or hung around and watched the rest of the slide
show. (A 17 minute long Photodex presentation featurin my
astrophotagraphy.)
By 2:30 am the armchair astronomers had gone home. All that was left
were the "hardened" astronomers and us crazy "astrophotographers". I
setup on the Pole, did a quick drift alignement and started shooting.
Not having a lot of night left I decided to forego my usual routine of
shooting one image all night long and stacking. I selected images I
could shoot and get decent results of without stacking. The
flame nebula and horsehead was a stretch. A little more signal to noise
ration was needed but it's not a bad image considering it's a temporary
setup. I was happier with the Orion Nebula. My favorite image of the
night is the Mars/Crab Nebula shot on this page.
So, that's my
2007 BRAS/OTAA report and my POD report combined into one.
I hope you enjoyed it.
Oh, and
one last thing before I go.
If you decide
you want a Skyshed POD for yourself, please order through the link below
and help
support my site by doing so.
Purchase your POD here!
.