Friday 13th ... a good day for a Star Party?

[stargazerlily]

Last night I hosted my very first ever Star Party, albeit an informal one with three other people (friend from work, his wife and son). It was a perfect evening ... chilly ... cold ... freezing ... but the sky was clear as a bell.

Kick of time was about 8.30pm, so at 8pm I started to put the mount out in the garden. Tripod down ... all level ... attach mount and proceed with polar alignment. Dialled in the correct date and time and looked through the polar scope. No stars ... couldn't see anything. Sky still clear ... cap removed from the mount tube ... still couldn't see anything ... argh. Mount must be in the wrong position. Double checked the orientation using a compass ... everything was ok but still couldn't see anything (time was now 8.20pm ... stress levels beginning to rise). The penny finally dropped ... I hadn't rotated the DEC axis so that the hole was in line with the hole in the mount ... do-oh. Rotated the axis and polar aligned ... just as my star party guests turned up. I decided to leave it as it was to let them view Polaris through the polar scope.

A while later I mounted the OTA on the mount and slewed it to the general position of Jupiter. All looking good ... in the excitement of the party I forgot to set the tracking on the handset. Then something really bizarre happened ... the SynScan handset froze ... literally ... no response from any keys. What was more bizarre was that the mount was commanding the OTA to rotate about the RA axis. Non of the keys would work, not even the Esc key ... argh ... it did a full 360 degrees before I decided to switch it off. Only one thing for it ... switch off and retire inside for a warm cuppa and some star party Fridge Cake.

I went out a bit later, switched it on again ... and it was now working fine. Quickly got back on Jupiter and had a good session looking just at Jupiter and it's four moons, one of which was just visible to one side of Jupiter, at the 3 o'clock position. when viewed through the scope (the rest were aligned from top to bottom).

Everyone had a good look ... I changed eye pieces and added a x2 Barlow. The bands were really crisp ... it certainly had a wow factor.

Time for more impressive stuff ... I got out the laptop, plugged in the web cam and proceeded to show Jupiter on the laptop ... until ... hmm ... web cam not working ... hmmm ... then suddenly ... blue screen of death (ARGH !!!) ... major dump.

It was yet another case of switch off and start again. Second time round it all worked fine but by this time the guests were getting a bit cold and hungry. The rest went in doors whilst I was booting up again and my friend and I stayed out to capture a few videos before retiring indoors for more warm drinks, fridge cake and imaging processing (see below).

We went out for one last session. Checked out Jupiter again and this time the moon which as at the 3 o'clock position was now closer to the 2 o'clock position. After Jupiter we looked at a few stars and finally at Orion's Belt (first time for me too!!). The stars and the hazy blur of the belt was really impressive!

Finished off at about 11pm. All-in-all it was a pretty good first ever star party. There was plenty of wow factor to keep people interested and the cold temperature at bay (it was -3.5C by the time we finished).

I do wonder though about the wisdom of holding it on Friday the 13th (was it coincidence about all the problems with various bits of kit ... who knows).

Thanks

Pete

[tbird]

Well done on your first star party, sounds like you had a good time.

I'm organising one for a few friends and family in a fortnights time.

[estwing]

first night nerves n all that but still kept cool, well done