2013 Grand Canyon Star Party, South Rim

[Skylook123]

Dates of GCSP 2013 were June 8 through June 15. GCSP is a shared event between astronomers from around North America plus occasionally other nations, and the U.S. National Park Service to bring astronomical outreach to visitors at the Grand Canyon. There are two parts to the GCSP; one on the South Rim, one on the North Rim, both held at the same time. The Saguaro Astronomy Club in Phoenix coordinates the North Rim activities, and the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association coordinates the South Rim activities.

Grand Canyon Star Party - DAY ONE - A Pretty Good Start

Location: Grand Canyon Visitor Center, South Rim of Grand Canyon, AZ, about 340 miles north of home in Tucson, about 7000 ft elevation

Weather: Mid 90s at Noon, Upper 80s at sunset, 80 when we quit at 11 PM. Clear skies, no wind, gorgeous night.

Seeing and Transparency: Reports were pretty good; I was so busy with other activities, I never looked through an eyepiece.

Equipment:

18” f/5 2286mm Teeter Telescope newtonian truss dob, Sky Commander DSCs

10" Meade SCT on Atlas EQ-G mount

Mallincam Junior video imaging system on 10", 13.3" LCD monitor.

Starting our third year at the Grand Canyon Visitor Center, some changes were made in our adventure. We changed the telescope positioning to around the outer rim with the center section for set up and take down vehicles, and pedestrian traffic during the event.

Four of us made the trip this year. Fourteen year old grandson Stephen came as the dob driver, and 16 year old Karina is the 10" SCT with video imaging. We are trying to add a new capability for GCSP this year: accessibility for those with physical and/or visual difficulties that prohibit getting to, or seeing through, an eyepiece.

We came up on Friday night and did dry runs on the theater setup and marking off the telescope setup areas. All looks well for the future.

Saturday was the usual running around getting things organized. The banner got hung at the Visitor Center. We brought a screen tent for Ginger Applegarth's information center campsite which we quickly set up.

It has been unseasonably hot this year with temperatures up in the mid 90s. I quickly went over to the site and dropped off the two telescopes. The new imaging for accessibility mission means that the big dob will be in the permanent setup location as usual, but the big SCT with the imaging capability will be set up at the entrance, which means no permanent setup and it is quite a chore to set up not only the scope as usual, but the table, Computer Cave, dual deep cycle battery systems for the monitor, mount, and computer, and table to hold it all. NOT fun at 96 degrees.

We got set up by 6 PM, and headed into the theater to do a dry run of the setup. Because of the sequester based staff reductions, the VC now closes at 5 PM so we can take our time setting up and making sure we are ready to go for the night talk. Then was our astronomer Otter Pop gathering, where a highlight was that we got to meet Laura Williams, the new hire for a special Grand Canyon Association project to reduce the lighting environment of Grand Canyon National Park.

Speaking of GCNP, I can't praise enough about, and be amazed by, the level of effort and quality of environment provided by our lead interpretive Ranger Marker Marshall, her assistant Ty Korlovetz, and the Park Aids who did all of the setup this year, both the elimination of the light intrusion as well as all of the traffic barrier setup, signboard construction, schedule production, and many more activities to make this all possible.

Predicted high winds never materialized, so I quickly collimated the big dob for Stephen to use on Polaris. Then it was time to head into the theater for the night talk by John Anderson. We had a special kickoff this year when the Deputy Superintendent Diane Chalfant did the introduction to GCSP 2013. Quite an honor!

John's talk is on Galactic Morphology. What sounds like a dry topic, it is always one of the top two talks in visitor response. John explained the classification of galaxies, the history of understanding galactic structure, and showed amazing imagery of interacting galaxies. John's talk runs about 25 minutes, and we often get that long of great questions from the audience. We finally broke away to get out for the scopes and constellation tour.

Unfortunately, in the rush to get all the setting up done with two scopes about 300 feet apart, I neglected to leave Karina with the information she needed to set up the mount (lat/long, time zone offset from UTC, Daylight Savings Time), and only a rough guess on polar alignment. In addition, when we had to go in for the talk it was still to bright to get either Venus or Saturn as an initial target. Since we were supposed to be the video imaging entrance for the visitors, not a good thing to do. Luckily, set up next to us was Bill McDonald and his Mallincam setup that he has been using for outreach events at Lowell Observatory for many years so we had a fall back location for the accessibility. I felt terrible abandoning Karina to a new situation, although we had done the setup practice for three nights at home. Too many changes, though. When I got to the scope, it was not useable because of some handset errors. So I jumped on it, got all the corrections in, found out she had done a near-perfect polar alignment, (later, no drift at 400X!), used Alignmaster to get two alignment stars taken care of, then set up the camera on Saturn. Had some initial trouble; the camera and monitor had the settings for the last item we'd imaged at home, M13, which takes four seconds of integration time and no shutter level control. Saturn needs the opposite; no integration, shutter at 1/1000 second at those conditions. So, when I tried to focus and just got a basketball (but good Saturnian moons), I corrected the camera settings and WOW, beautiful Saturn. Visitors were loving it, but my surprise was how much they praised the attempt at allowing people with physical and optical difficulties the chance to share the views that we normally gifted folks see in an eyepiece. Wonderful service we were offering, and we actually, first time I can remember, had wheelchair and walker bound customers. And Bill had nebula images in his Mallincam VSS with long integration times so beautiful that words can't express. My little Junior can only go to four seconds, but 35+ seconds does wonders for teaching. For some reason he kept having alignment problems, and it took five stellar alignments to get his mount under control.

Then I broke away to give the 10 PM constellation tour. Great crowd of about 45, we walked around the sky and pointed out the usual landmarks and I added the many-culture aspect of what they were observing. I later was told by a group of five that they had heard I was doing the 10 PM and remember from last year that they really enjoyed hearing the Native American, North African, and Eastern Mediterranean points of view, and how the same sight has different meanings to different cultures. LOTS of positive feedback afterwards.

Got back to the imaging station, all was well, then ran over to check on Stephen, who had been alone for over two hours with the big dob. What a show he was putting on! He knows the nature of multiple/binary arrangements, had his facts dead on correct, and was discussing stellar color versus temperature. AND, telling the Navajo family story about the Big Dipper, Polaris, and Cassiopeia. Oh my, were my expectations exceeded. He had done a couple of star parties with me and the scope, but I never expected his veteran quality of interacting with all comers, especially families with young kids. SO impressive.

We started to break down the setups around 11 PM when the visitor crowd evaporated. I put chalk circles around the leg positions, so the polar and stellar alignment, focus, and camera settings should be good enough that Karina will be able to start up at sunset. And, without having to fuss with it nearly as much, we will jump over to M13. We tried, but it was straight overhead and it put the visual back in a position that fine alignment was impossible. Earlier on, the angle will allow an alignment eyepiece to pull the target to dead center in the visual back and that image will bring tears to your eyes.

We had a great Sunday Pizza Party, now ready to rock and roll for night two.

The adventure has begun!

[Skylook123]

Grand Canyon Star Party - DAY TWO - A Good Ending To An Odd Day

Location: Grand Canyon Visitor Center, South Rim of Grand Canyon, AZ, about 340 miles north of home in Tucson, about 7000 ft elevation

Weather: Low 90s at Noon, Low 80s at sunset, under 50 when we quit at 11 PM. Occasional clouds, gusty winds, still a nice night.

Seeing and Transparency: Pretty crisp and steady, considering the gusts.

Equipment:

18” f/5 2286mm Teeter Telescope newtonian truss dob, Sky Commander DSCs

10" Meade SCT on Atlas EQ-G mount

Mallincam Junior video imaging system on 10", 13.3" LCD monitor.

The day started out hot again. It was the day of the welcome pizza party in the campground, which has had a menu expansion thanks to our wonderful information coordinator Ginger Applegarth and her husband Dr. Alan Delman. They made up some great salad to go with the pizzas. This time my wife Susan guessed right on the number to order, although I messed up her count by insisting on changing one of the vegetarians to sausage. Should have gone the other way. And, amazingly, the pizzas were ready a half hour early! We had a leisurely lunch with about 40 folks, then went back to rest up and write yesterday's report.

After dinner we hit the site around 5:30. The temperature drop was starting to be noticeable, and occasional wind gusts were worrisome since I would be in the theater with the night talk while Stephen would be trying to manage the big dob. A little after 6 PM I met with our speaker, Dr. Tyler Nordgren, Astronomy Professor at Redlands University with his PhD from Cornell University. Tyler is also on the board of directors of the International Darksky Association, which focuses his attention to our affects on the night sky. A superbly engaging person to interact with, his special area of attention is interaction of the night skies with the National Parks and protecting and recovering the night sky environment. He is also a gifted photographer of the night sky, as well as an artist who provided the publicity posters for the Annular Solar Eclipse events at four of the western national parks last year.

Although dubious about the wind, I got Stephen collimated and ready to go, and started up the Atlas with the right coordinates and time entries. The plan was for Karina to do the skymap handouts at the theater as usual, then head down and do a stellar alignment, go to Saturn, and start the video show. A very pleasant surprise was to find that, due to equipment troubles, Bill McDonald had to leave after one night but long time GCSP participant Wayne Thomas showed up with three cameras to help out. However, he was missing the right adapters for mounting the cameras. My long time observing partner, John Anderson, had an adapter that would work with one of Wayne's cameras although it took some duck tape patchwork to complete the installation.

Dr. Nordgren's talk is entitled Stars Above, Earth Below; Astronomy In The National Parks. He has travelled and written extensively on the topic, and it shows in his presentation. Not a single bullet point; just awesome night sky pictures that unite our need for the night sky with how it is being affected around the world by humanity. His photography of the Milky Way as seen at various parks, and the effects of light intrusion, tell an incredible story. We had to adjust the displays on about a dozen of the pictures so that they would work best with the theater system, and it came out flawless. I highly recommend buying his book Stars Above, Earth Below: Astronomy in the National Parks, proceeds of which are going to support of the Grand Canyon Association light footprint reduction effort here at the Grand Canyon, which I briefly mentioned in yesterday's observing report. We actually started half an hour or so early, so Tyler could do an astronomy Q&A before starting the talk. He also volunteered to do the 10 PM Constellation Tour. I was not surprised at all around 10:30 PM to hear a huge ovation at the completion of his tour.

Now to our adventures. The wind picked up strongly after we went into the theater. Stephen immediately shut down the big dob. Later I check on it, at it was a perfect stowage, with the shroud and ballast perfectly installed. GREAT kid.

As I was immersed in Tyler's tremendous talk and tour-de-force on National Park skies, Susan snuck in found me and told me that the wind had blown the Computer Cave box off the velcro restraints and took the box, camera and monitor to the pavement. Oh Joy. And also had blown so hard that it had swung the 10" SCT against the clutches and lost it's sense of position and whatever little mind it had. So, when we were done, I ran out to the 10" setup and found Karina had perfectly responded; she had the mount in Park, and the equipment was stowed. I would later check out the monitor and camera in the lodge, no apparent damage! So we were going visual, not video. I showed her how to recover Park with an old trick of using a bulls-eye level, rolling weights horizontal and setting RA to 6 Hr, leveling the OTA and setting DEC to latitude. Rolled it all back to zero indicators, perfect park. We rechecked Polar and it was OK, not great. Did a two star alignment, again OK, not great, but could get targets in a low power eyepiece. But the focus was set for camera use, so we pulled off the focus motor to get more range of motion and got focus back in the eyeball range instead of camera. By this time, I was shivering in the cold winds and the kids were kind of stressed out about the problems although that had each performed perfectly. So, I called Susan and she came back to pick them up and bring me a jacket. Then the night became wonderful for my personal interests. I went right to the Hercules Cluster, M-13, and it was awesome at about 120X. Next hour and a half was showtime, with a great cluster of visitors with insightful questions as I explained what they were really seeing. Despite having to totally pack up the whole site, I was really psyched - finally some eyepiece time with visitors. Can't wait for tonight to get back to Hercules in the video monitor. Now THAT will bring tears to your eyes. Then, we'll try PanSTARRS and the Dumbbell so I can see what this camera will really do. Oh, and we have the meteor shower predicted for around 1:30 AM local time. This is due to a long period comet that last demonstrated a shower in the 1930s, with a Zenith Hourly Rate of 30 in a full moon. With a one day old moon, we might be in for a real treat!

Tried some solar this morning, clouds in the way. I'm the speaker tonight, so gotta get my act together.

The adventure continues!

--------------------

Jim

South Rim Coordinator

Grand Canyon Star Party

gcsp[at]tucsonastronomy.org

[Skylook123]

Grand Canyon Star Party - DAY THREE - The Wind Decides To Move In

Location: Grand Canyon Visitor Center, South Rim of Grand Canyon, AZ, about 340 miles north of home in Tucson, about 7000 ft elevation

Weather: Mid 80s at Noon, 70s at sunset, DOGGONE cold and windy until 11 PM when we broke up. Clear sky, gusty winds.

Seeing and Transparency: The wind gusts are stealing the seeing. Transparency not as good as the last two nights, although my cue, Canes Venatici, had both main stars easily visible.

Equipment:

18” f/5 2286mm Teeter Telescope newtonian truss dob, Sky Commander DSCs

10" Meade SCT on Atlas EQ-G mount

Mallincam Junior video imaging system on 10", 13.3" LCD monitor.

Temperatures are definitely back to normal, but the winds are very gusty. I don't think, based on forecasts, that the big dob will be available for use for the rest of the stay.

We did the usual setup of the Atlas and video system, without the Computer Cave. I wrapped a thin bungee cord around the thin support neck of the monitor, and hooked the ends to the slats in the observing table. Despite the heavy wind gusts, the monitor was steady while the optical tube of the SCT was shaking like a castinet.

I did the talk tonight. I call it "What's To See", an overview of what to expect at the scopes. Brief stellar evolution, how the sun works, lunar fun facts, what a constellation is and why we have 88, what's a globular and open cluster, a galaxy, a nebula, and ending with man-made objects in space. Lot's of great questions afterward.

Got down to the scope and found a stack of problems. The Telrad was badly misaligned, which meant what Karina was aligning on was way off. And Karina was having a blood sugar event and was totally exhausted so, since Stephen had lost two nights with the big dob due to the winds, we sent Karina back to the lodge with my wife Susan and I started training Stephen in the setup.

Because we were using optical alignment prior to installing the camera, the focus was so far off the image of Saturn was invisible. I applied some tricks to blow out the image then converge back, got it all fixed, and Saturn once again was gorgeous. I left the setup with Stephen, and went away to do the 10 PM tour. Got back at 10:30, Saturn still in the monitor center, but it was so cold and windy that it was difficult to even concentrate. No visitor customers for about 20 minutes, so, rather than my original goals of going to PanSTARRS and some nebulae to see how the camera setup would do, in between the shivers we packed up and were out of there by 11:30.

When visitors see that display, despite the small image (I'm using an f/6.3 reducer to get more light on the chip), they are amazed. Quite an asset for this event!

--------------------

Jim

South Rim Coordinator

Grand Canyon Star Party

gcsp[at]tucsonastronomy.org

[Skylook123]

Grand Canyon Star Party - DAY FOUR - Clouds Roll In

Location: Grand Canyon Visitor Center, South Rim of Grand Canyon, AZ, about 340 miles north of home in Tucson, about 7000 ft elevation

Weather: Low 80s at Noon, Low 70s at sunset, chilly at night but completely overcast until after about 9:30, gradually clearing after we packed up.

Seeing and Transparency: Total overcast with occasional sucker holes. Later clearing after about 10 PM, but we were packed up by 10:45.

Equipment:

18” f/5 2286mm Teeter Telescope newtonian truss dob, Sky Commander DSCs

10" Meade SCT on Atlas EQ-G mount

Mallincam Junior video imaging system on 10", 13.3" LCD monitor.

Today was very interesting; the total sky coverage should have kept visitors away, but many turned out anyway.

We did the usual setup of the Atlas and video system, same as yesterday. Then we found that the three-way splitter to get power to the mount, camera, and monitor had died. Two deep cycle batteries, only two outlets available. In a stroke of brilliance, I took the battery from the big dob cooler fans and it had a socket connector that worked for the monitor, only drawing 20 watts. We were ready, if the sky ever cleared.

Marilyn Unruh did her usual great talk; no slides, only props are a softball sized sphere on a stick, and two quarters. Her three topics were Have You Seen The Shadow Of The Earth, great examples of how the curtain of the night pulls across the sky from the Belt of Venus until astronomical twilight ends. Then came Telescopes As Time Machines, where distances to objects near and far are given scale, such as if the solar system were the size of a quarter on the ground in Colorado, the Milky Way would be the size of all North America. Finally, Using Your Five Senses At Night. No slides, great talk.

Got down to the scope and found a pretty ugly sky. Dr. Alan Delman and I did all three of the constellation tours. Well, sky tours; for the most part we had Spica, Vega, and Saturn trying to burn through, and an occasional asterism. So we handed out skymaps we usually give out at the night talk and demonstrated how to use them, then did a cultural discussion of why cultures look up, and what the got from it. Surprised the heck out of me when it went so well! Great discussions; one I really remember was a question a visitor asked about common lore among Inca/Aztec cultures, and Native Americans. I had one example relating the need of the Chaco culture to follow the moon, and noticing the July 4, 1054 supernova in Taurus (now M1, the Crab Nebula) visible for 23 days in daylight starting July 5. There is some Inca evidence of observing the event as well. Then I mentioned the Mimbres pottery symbol of the moon as an arched rabbit. But there is one moon symbol in Mimbres pottery where the rabbit appears to be dancing on a ball with small rays. It was usually thought to be the moon and sun symbols, but if the spikes on the ball are counted, there are 23; the same number of days the supernova was visible in daylight. The person who asked the question about common lore, has a Mimbres pottery piece with that very symbol, and the crowd was very impressed. So we did more cultural talk about elements breaking through the clouds, and Alan was sharp enough to point out that the crescent moon was breaking through the clouds. Amazing what we could accomplish in 30 minutes with no sky to speak of. We mixed in a little Navajo, Greek, Seminole, and other cultural elements as sucker holes started opening. Quite successful event, I must say.

I got back to the scope, and found that Susan, Stephen, and Karina were ready to quit, and my feet were killing me too, but the sky was clearing. We packed up anyway; of the 35 telescopes starting the night, about 30 were still there and visitors were arriving in small groups. Astronomy under the clouds, great group of volunteers who stuck with it. And the clouds helped Wayne Thomas get a great view of Saturn in his monitor; the reduced illumination matched his 30hz frame rate perfectly.

As much as I wanted to experiment, we were all physically depleted so we packed and left the site about 11 PM, and I saw at least a dozen scopes at work with visitors. Tough fight, but we won the battle.

------

[Skylook123]

Grand Canyon Star Party - DAY FIVE - Clouds Roll Out

Location: Grand Canyon Visitor Center, South Rim of Grand Canyon, AZ, about 340 miles north of home in Tucson, about 7000 ft elevation

Weather: Low 80s at Noon, Low 70s at sunset, 60s during our time there tonight. Sky was mostly covered until about 10 PM, then exploded in glorious starlight.

Seeing and Transparency: Sucker holes early, clearing quite a bit after 10 PM. Seeing, despite the upper layer winds, was almost as good as last weekend. Moisture still interfered a bit, but better than the last few nights.

Equipment:

18” f/5 2286mm Teeter Telescope newtonian truss dob, Sky Commander DSCs

10" Meade SCT on Atlas EQ-G mount

Mallincam Junior video imaging system on 10", 13.3" LCD monitor.

Just as yesterday, the early total sky coverage should have kept visitors away, but many turned out anyway.

Wayne Thomas rescued us during setup. He had a spare splitter, so I was able to run the mount, monitor, and camera from the two deep cycle batteries. Once again, we were ready for the sky to clear as predicted.

My counterpart for GCSP from the National Park Service, Interpretive Ranger Marker Marshall, did her perfect presentation: Starry, Starry Nights, the universe as seen from Grand Canyon National Park. It is sort of a basic introduction to the structure of the solar system and Milky Way, factually rich yet expressed in a way to give a feeling of distance and comparative size of common visible artificats of the Grand Canyon night sky. I always learn a lot from her style and construction of presentation; great skills to learn from a professional.

Back at the scopes, the sky was still mostly obscurred by cloud but my wife Susan had the scope on Saturn, and it was a beautiful view. With the blockage of the sky so extreme, I decided not to interrupt and start the video since the 9PM sky tour was about to start. I went over to help Alan Delman with the tour; he was baking the cake, my job was to put the cultural frosting on the physical sky descriptions. We had various sky elements popping in and out, so we were able to do a good job at the physical nature of the sky, and wrap it in a bit of how other cultures would look at what we were now seeing.

I stuck around and did the 9:30 and 10 tours, and the sky was rapidly opening up. The Milky Way, rising above the trees, was starting to scream at us to look in wonder. The southern end, in Sagittarius, surprised one visitor because it cast a small shadow. Those to groups got the "gift" of being able to brag about looking at a black hole, the core of our galaxy. The understood that they couldn't really "see" the black hole, but now they could brag that they looked toward one. We were able to touch on the nature of looking to the sky to bring a real or imagined structure to life, as cultures have always been called to do. The Seminole concept of the Great Rift in the Milky Way looking like arms, and the comfort it brings in this season to see it rise and imagine that the Great Spirit has his people protected in his arms, gets a great reaction. With the opening and closing of the sky at various times, ending with a mostly wike open view, allowed all three groups to get both the physical structure of the ecliptic, Polaris, precession of the poles, core of the galaxy, and the last two groups got the extra benefit of the North Galactic Pole being quite visible next to Mel-111, the Coma Berenices Open Cluster (plus the legend of it's origin). VERY enthusiastic groups who joined us despite the early skies being obscured.

I got back to the scope, and because the wind had died down grandson Stephen had started up the big dob. He had wanted to know which eyepiece to use, so at the start of the 9:30 tour I told him to take an eyepiece I knew was a 26mm wide angle. He took the wrong one, a 9mm Nagler, and was showing a humongous Saturn but having to ladder climb every three visitors to recenter. He had been hiking most of the day, his legs were giving out, so he went over to Polaris and did his multiple star show.

Meanwhile, with Susan and granddaughter Karina having left, I said what the heck, and fired up the video. This is always a bit of a thrash since the focus has to be so extremely adjusted but I got it in and it was a screamer. So, for the first time with this object, I switched on the internal zoom and the doggone thing filled about 20% of the 13.3" monitor. Visitors marvelled at the huge view, lucky shot on the focus, Cassini division in plain sight, great shadow band on the planet, and a nice V shadow against the rear ring plane. Oh WOW.

Then the usual equipment gremlin. Karina and used a velcro tie to take up some of the slack in the dual power/data line from the camera, and I went to try the Hercules Cluster. In the dark I hadn't noticed the cord path, and the cluster was in the same meridian as Saturn so the mount did not follow the cord unwrap algorithm. Luckily, I noticed what was happening just in time and was able to catch the camera in mid flight as the cord pulled it out of the visual back. Good thing I hadn't tightened it too snugly. But the adventure killed the 12V power cord. Had a spare, swapped it out, gave up on M13 since I had to be on the ground to center it overhead, and Stephen helped pack up. It was 1 AM! Totally lost track of time, but Saturn was SO gorgeous in the monitor it was worth it.

Getting ready for a public service outreach we do every year over at the Kaibab Learning Center, where I'll set up on the Moon with the SCT, and Sun in the Lunt, (Video on this one), and do some teaching before tonight's show.

Can't wait to get back to other video treats tonight!!

[Skylook123]

Grand Canyon Star Party - DAY SIX - Finally, Good Skies

Location: Grand Canyon Visitor Center, South Rim of Grand Canyon, AZ, about 340 miles north of home in Tucson, about 7000 ft elevation

Weather: Mid 70s at Noon, upper 60s at sunset, mid 40s during our time there tonight. Sky was mostly covered until about 10 PM, then exploded in glorious starlight.

Seeing and Transparency: Seeing was pretty steady, despite the upper layer winds, almost as good as last weekend. Dust kicked up by high winds over the last few days and nights conspired with the five day old crescent moon to reduce the intensity of the Milky Way.

Equipment:

18” f/5 2286mm Teeter Telescope newtonian truss dob, Sky Commander DSCs

10" Meade SCT on Atlas EQ-G mount

Mallincam Junior video imaging system on 10", 13.3" LCD monitor.

There was a big change in the weather today. Back to the clear skies we've become accustomed to over the last few years.

This was a special day in several ways. The traditional Thursday morning huevos rancheros breakfast brightened the morning despite the absence this year of George Barber, with Steve Ratts, the founder of the event teaming with others of our intrepid gang to pull it off. In the afternoon, Marker Marshall, my granddaughter Karina, and I did a public outreach at the Kaibab Learning Center for three to seven year olds. I was planning to set up the SCT on the moon and Venus, and the Lunt solar scope on the sun. But when I set up the Lunt, the main bolt for one tripod leg was missing. I called Marker and she brought a nice spotting scope for the moon, and I moved the Lunt over to the Atlas mount and all went great. The sun was putting on a nice show, with at least four strong filament lines, a couple of sunspot groups. four sets of prominences, and several bright white faculae regions. I had the Mallincam Junior on the sun with the monitor allowing all the little ones to see the magic in the sky. Our daughter-in-law Gloria arrived with two more grandkids, 8 year old Thomas and 10 year old Andrew, so we have quite a crew here for the end of this year's adventure, although with a herding cats flavor.

I was really happy to see John Sauscavage arrive at the site. He owns the same Mallincam Junior as I now have, except he has several years of great video imaging experience compared to my several weeks of floundering to learn the nuances of the art. I am going do some learning tonight.

The Park Superintendent came to our nightly popsicle kick-off, and we were thrilled. Seems he had come the night before out of uniform and had visited the scopes, and was so impressed by what we were doing that he caught the fever and said he was less than subtle with his wife about a telescope and Father's Day. It was gratifying to all of us to hear how much our efforts mean to the Park, and that the visitor feedback that was flowing up to the highest level was so positive. Really psyched me up as much as the (finally!) clear skies.

I was the sunset speaker with a presentation "How a Telescope Really Works", starting with a depiction of the electromagnetic spectrum and the visible portion that we will be examining, going through the telescope being a time machine, and giving an overview of technologies with advantages and disadvantages of binoculars, refractors, reflectors, and catadiopterics, as well as equatorial and azimuth-elevation mounts to go with them. Interspersed were pictures of each type set up at last year's GCSP, and a final page of approximate price ranges of various types of optical tubes and mounts. Quick and to the point, it actually got seven requests for copies after the talk, with three or four more afterward at my scope while finalizing the setup of the SCT outside. We've needed this topic for years, and it was well received. Next year I'll convert three main descriptive slides to hard copy for sign boards at the site.

Back at the scopes, Alan Delman was doing the 9 PM clear sky tour, Marker did the 9:30, and I did the 10 PM. After the talk, it took me about thirty minutes to get the SCT ready due to some issues with a misaligned Telrad and some other minor issues, like leaving the tripod in the low height mode from the Kaibab event. That really makes the stellar alignment a bit tougher, but it also makes final camera alignment on near overhead objects very difficult since it performs better without the star diagonal. Finally got it all squared away with John's help getting the focus right (took forty turns of the focuser to get the huge donut down to crisp), got a great image of Saturn going, this time without the focal reducer and with zoom setting on the camera so the image was huge in the monitor, and went over to do the 10 PM sky tour which went extremely well. My tours include a lot of cultural mixing of the sky structure and use of the constellations, and I got quite a Pied Piper following back to the scope wanting to know how to get more of the information on how various cultures look(ed) at the sky. Best tour of the week so far. It gets an interesting reaction when I mix in the European/Mediterranean point of view of the use of the sky extremes with examples like Stonehenge alignment with Solstice, to the Native American point of view of a holistic balanced integration with the sky as evidenced in the Chaco Canyon alignments with the Equinox.

During the setup, had some great talks with passing visitors who were interested in the mechanics of the setup and alignment of the equipment; this part always surprises me, because we had over forty telescopes set up and working, yet twenty-five or more folks wanted to watch the astro-geek scramble. Human nature, go figure.

After the tour, I found that the polar alignment wasn't the best so the image had drifted off the screen. Dennis Young helped me get the image back. He noticed that when I replaced the camera with a 40X eyepiece in the visual back to get the planet centered, and I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get an image on the monitor despite having Saturn dead center in the low power eyepiece, he pointed to the fact that the camera was on the ground next to me waithing to be re-installed. DUH. All was recovered.

Over at their monitors, Wayne Thomas and John Sauscavage were again demonstrating that they knew what they were doing, as opposed to my feeble attempts. John had started on the moon, then went to M13, then The Ring, then as Sagittarius rose, Triffid and Lagoon. He was wondering why the initial deep sky object views on his monitor seemed subdued, and then remembered he had left the polarizing filter on the camera from his lunar beginnings. He removed the filter and was getting absolutely awesome views on his 7" monitor of all the Sagittarius eye candy. I was quite surprised at how well the 7" worked with the display; not too small at all. GREAT Hercules Cluster, and without the filter and making the right choice of options, the colors coming out of the nebulae in SAG were just as impressive as the exquisite detail. I MUST learn to use my camera that well. Up here, I'm doing my job as coordinator and can't play the learning game as well as I'd like, but John is demonstrating how well this device works for our purposes.

Temperatures had plummeted, no more visitors, so I was packed up and out by about 11:40 PM. Tonight I want to really start exploring what I saw John extracting from the night sky. I need to set the tripod much higher to get under the visual back for the final centering, and then do the search and learn exercise. Visitors come first of course, and honestly my first love has become the constellation tours. Next year, maybe only the SCT and leave the big dob at home. It's only gotten a couple of night's use for an hour or two by Stephen, with the tours and imaging setups taking my attention, but that's what growth is all about; what I can do with the tours and imaging is far beyond any personal Oh Wow I can get with the 18". And for me, an eyeball at the eyepiece guy, that is almost heresy. But it is real, and the effects can be seen in the faces and reactions of the public who see a three inch image of Saturn with Cassini and ring shadows, or feel enlightened by the cultural awareness of the night sky, has become a way of life. And, after all, that's why we're here.

--------------------

[Skylook123]

Grand Canyon Star Party - DAY SEVEN - It All Comes Together

Location: Grand Canyon Visitor Center, South Rim of Grand Canyon, AZ, about 340 miles north of home in Tucson, about 7000 ft elevation

Weather: Mid 70s at Noon, upper 60s at sunset, mid 40s during our time there tonight. Spotty clouds all night, light to occasionally moderate wind gusts.

Seeing and Transparency: Another night of pretty steady seeing. The six day old crescent moon to reduce the intensity of the Milky Way.

Equipment:

18” f/5 2286mm Teeter Telescope newtonian truss dob, Sky Commander DSCs

10" Meade SCT on Atlas EQ-G mount

Mallincam Junior video imaging system on 10", 13.3" LCD monitor.

Not much exciting during the day, but the night worked out pretty well.

Finally fixed a continuing issue with the Telrad on the 10". One of the AA batteries keeps popping out of the holder and losing the bulls-eye. Used some painter's tape and nailed it down.

We got to the site at the usual time and I set the scope up on the crescent Moon. Easier said than done. No easy long range target to collimate the Telrad, which, for some reason, was about five degrees off. Finally got the moon in the eyepiece, though.

We did the Otter Pop gathering around 7:10 PM, then went into the theater to set up for Jocelyn Layte's presentation on light pollution effects, very well done and the right length of time. I have to give a great shout out to John Sauscavage, who did a fast but professional fix to the inverter that runs the rope lights out to the scope area. On of the connectors had pulled out, and he rebuilt the system before dark. GREAT work.

When we got outside, things finally seemed running well with the 10". I was able to quickly set up the video capability, and we had a super moon in the monitor. Then I went over to start the 10 PM Constellation Tour. I was standing at the gathering sign and looked back at my scope and could see "No Signal" on the monitor. Went over and found that a visitor had tried to squeeze between the blocking cones and the scope and had knocked off one of the flashing tripod lights AND tripped on the camera line and yanked the camera and adapter out of the visual back. So much for putting barriers up! While the power connection was pulled out of the socket on the camera causing the No Signal, at least the data cable hooked on the mount head and prevented the camera from bouncing off the pavement.

Camera survived, after the tour I got back to the scope and set up on Saturn. With no focal reduction and zoom set on the camera, it was a huge, gorgeous display. After about an hour, I went over to M4 to try some Deep Sky Object observing. Polar alignment was flawless, but the stellar alignment was corrupted by yesterday's issues so I went to Antares, did a one-star alignment and then went over to M4. I remembered to turn off the shutter and set the integration time to the full four seconds available and got a fantastic exploded view of the big glob. I had forgotten to add either the f/6.3 focal reducer to the visual back, or the 0.5X Antares reducer to the camera, so the image was probably well over 500X as it was on Saturn. One could see condos being built in the core stars. It was now about 1 AM, I had my DSO with the camera, so I packed up and left. I was way too tired to break everything down, so I cheated and used a big cover over the scope, mount and tripod and only packed up anything that would possibly walk away. Hooked up the batteries and crashed around 2 AM.

Room smelled great with the slow cooked Kahlua pork that Susan was getting ready for the Saturday traditional pot luck. Yummy.

With the scope finally polar aligned, the final night should go much better than the rest of the week. Not having to do a cold setup while doing my other duties with the dozens of little adventures will have us far ahead of the curve, and I want to try the Sagittarius area if possible, M82, M51, M27, and M57 as well. Filters are all ready to go. First, though, the pot luck!!

Hint to self - don't forget the focal reduction. We were doing some daylight eyeball on the moon, the scope is a 10" f/10 SCT, does an OMG view with Mallincam Junior on a crescent moon, and Saturn on Zoom was pulling people from other scopes over to see Cassini, ring shadows, weather bands, all gorgeous and HUGE. But, when I went to M4, in the 13.3" monitor, I could see them building condos around the core stars. It was 1 AM by this time, brain non-functioning, forgot to use either the f/6.3 or the 0.5x Antares which makes M13 a perfect fit. The monitor has an interesting mode called Cinema, which puts it perfectly scaled in wide screen, and that alone made the core of M4 spectacular.

--------------------

[Skylook123]

Grand Canyon Star Party - DAY EIGHT - End Of A Great Week

Location: Grand Canyon Visitor Center, South Rim of Grand Canyon, AZ, about 340 miles north of home in Tucson, about 7000 ft elevation

Weather: Mid 70s at Noon, upper 60s at sunset, mid 40s during our time there tonight. Lots of clouds all night, light to occasionally moderate wind gusts, sucker holes all over as well.

Seeing and Transparency: Mostly cloudy, but good images when a sucker hole would show up..

Equipment:

18” f/5 2286mm Teeter Telescope newtonian truss dob, Sky Commander DSCs

10" Meade SCT on Atlas EQ-G mount

Mallincam Junior video imaging system on 10", 13.3" LCD monitor.

The days are finally blending together, but today was the final pot luck/cookout in the campground, always a highlight of the trip. Early in the morning we were getting predictions of thunderstorms, but the strong winds cleared out the threatening clouds and left behind lots of puffy cumulus. One huge surprise were special awards for our grandkids Stephen and Karina for all of their assistance to the Rangers in setup and takedown each night. They have really been essential elements of getting the whole site ready each night, and handing out skymaps at the theater, and helping me with the scope operations. Great interactors with the public, real gifts to have around.

I went over to the setup site and took down the big dob; no real point to prepping it with the forecast winds, and might as well get a running start on the pack out.

Leaving the 10" set up and aligned the night before (except for components that might grow legs during the day) was a great idea. We showed up at the site around 5:30 PM, and by 5:45 we had a great lunar view in the imaging monitor. Polar alignment was quite good, no real adjustments needed all night. And this time I remembered the 0.5X Antares reducer for the camera, leaving the moon a much more pleasing target in the monitor.

The show tonight was Dennis Young's fantastic wizardry with getting film photographs combining geological features and astronomical night, with a variety of lighting sources from natural moonlight to city lights to reflected light from rock walls, and even short bursts of artificial light to highlight near field elements like giant saguaro cactus with comets Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake in the sky view on many.

The highlight became the award of Celestron's two donated FirstScopes. One of our astronomer volunteers now works for Celestron and was able to arrange the donations to the Grand Canyon Association. Anyone between the ages of six and fifteen coming into the night talk was given a raffle ticket, and the two telescopes went to worthy young recipients.

Going back out to the moon, just in the hour and a half or so I was gone, Susan had already had over four hundred visitors at the lunar image. Gorgeous site, rave reviews, perfect Lunar Poodle with the Apollo 11 landing site easily identified when the clouds would break. I stuck around for a while, then began the 10 PM final Constellation Tour of the 2013 Grand Canyon Star Party. Although really hit and miss with the fast moving mostly cloudy skies, I was able to get in everything I usually try to highlight in a multi-cultural form, the constellations and other night sky elements such as the zodiacal features, the bears (really funny tonight; the Big Dipper was visible, most of the body was obscured, but the feet or "deer tracks" were out the whole time. It really gave perspective to the size of the Great Bear. As bright as it was, one could easily see the Elephant of Creation in some Asian religions in the image of the Big Dipper. We were able to get the Navajo family arrangement, the Antares versus Ares lesson, core of the galaxy, Cor Carloli (The Heart of Charles) in Canes Venatici that got the astronomer who named it quite an annual stipend for life when the Cromwellian revolution in England came to an end and King Charles II re-established the monarchy. Personally, I told the group I was looking for the Bill Gates cluster. We were able to get the multicultural impressions of the Milky Way, and even Orpheus' harp's story, Lyra, worked in along with Spica and a nice Virgo.

The only feature not available at all was Mel-111, the Coma Berenices Open Cluster and the legend of how Zeus placed Egyptian Queen Berenices' sacrifice of her hair to Hera as thanks for the safe return of her husband, King Ptolemy III, from battle. It is about three fingers from the North Galactic Pole, but was not visible this night due to the clouds.

Susan left for the room when I got back, and I switched the monitor to cinema mode, going from a square image to a scaled full screen. It made the image a bit larger in size, but the ratio was perfect and the bigger image got even more oohs and aahs. I was going to try some deep sky objects, but I was pretty tired, it was getting cold, and we still needed to pack things up. I usually need to be on supplemental oxygen at night, and had forgotten to arrange for a portable supply, so after nine nights at 7000 feet I just couldn't hit the fast ball any more. So grandson Stephen and I packed everything up, even the banner that we forgot last year, loaded the main equipment setup and left the big dob for the morning. Stephen and Karina have been a tremendous help to me, and especially to the Rangers, with setup and takedown. Tonight, Stephen did most of the packup work except for me lifting the heavy scope into the truck. Nice to be small enough to crawl back in the pickup and arrange things. Of course I forgot one roll-up table at the site, which my counterpart, Ranger Marker Marshall. found while finishing shutting things down and left at Park Headquarters, since she knew I'd be dropping all the people and hours worked sheets off. One of our other Rangers from last year, Mike Weaver, was on the desk and had it ready for me when I came in. Went out, Susan's battery was dead, looks like time for a new one. Mike got the local support out and we got a jump and kept it running all 350 miles home.

Once again, I leave absolutely stunned at the A-Team of outreach practitioners we bring in from around North America. And equally stunned at how much effort Marker Marshall puts in to prepare for this event. Her attention to detail and never losing sight of what we have to get done is such an inspiration. And the visitors are so grateful for the product!

[rowan46]

I enjoyed reading that thankyou

[Skylook123]

I enjoyed reading that thankyou

Thanks! Come and visit some time.

[Matt Scunthorpe]

Very nice report. Must be such a beautiful location both during in the day and at night.

[Skylook123]

Very nice report. Must be such a beautiful location both during in the day and at night.

The Grand Canyon Star Party occurs simultaneously from both the north and south rims of the canyon. Here is the view one night from the North Rim, which can only support about 12 telescopes due to the tight space right on the rim.

[umadog]

Thanks for the reports, Jim. I was there a couple of years ago but haven't had the chance to go again, unfortunately.

[rowan46]

Thanks! Come and visit some time.

Its a bit of a dream to do that but unfortunately I don't think its something I will ever get to do

[Skylook123]

Its a bit of a dream to do that but unfortunately I don't think its something I will ever get to do

You never know...keep a good thought. For all of the listening audience, we can always use volunteers who find themselves scopeless. Three constellation tours each night, a laptop with a planetarium program and a tour of the night's sky, and other volunteer functions gets one into the park at no cost, and if offering to be a volunteer on at least six of the eight nights, one can request consideration for a free campsite if that is of interest.

[Graham Darke]

I have very fond memories of the GCSP South Rim in 2002. Spent hours with a local guy called Mike Spooner and his homemade 18 inch dobsonian. Incredible skies.

Graham

[Skylook123]

Mike is quite a legend hereabouts. I've been privileged to look through three or four of the telescopes he's built for others, including the mirror grinding, and he is an outstanding craftsman and perfectionist, and all-around nice guy as well. Here is one of my favorites, a 16" super mirror in, honestly, a cardboard tube!

[bish]

Would love to be able to make it to one of those star parties. Added to my ever increasing bucket list!

[Skylook123]

Would love to be able to make it to one of those star parties. Added to my ever increasing bucket list!

To paraphrase Walt Disney, If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It. Never give up the dream!

Our third or fourth year, back in the early 1990s, one of the few volunteers at the time was an older Brit who came to join the adventure. Two years ago, he returned, as a visitor this time and needing mobility assistance, so in the future, anything is possible!

[bish]

To paraphrase Walt Disney, If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It. Never give up the dream!

Our third or fourth year, back in the early 1990s, one of the few volunteers at the time was an older Brit who came to join the adventure. Two years ago, he returned, as a visitor this time and needing mobility assistance, so in the future, anything is possible!

Very true. You have to put your mind to these things to make them happen. The biggest obstacle would probably be persuading the Mrs. She likes the USA but isn't so keen on looking through scopes!

[Skylook123]

Neither is my wife a fan of looking in scopes, in fact she has an eye defect that, despite multiple surgeries, doesn't allow focusing at night, so she acts as an emergency scope operator as long as I center it on a planet or double star.

But it is, after all, the Grand Canyon!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/grand_canyon_nps/collections/

And, within a couple of hours drive of the South entrance:

http://www.lowell.edu/

One of the best observatory visitor programs in the world

http://www.meteorcrater.com/

Also know as Barringer Crater - Awesome visit.

http://www.nps.gov/sucr/index.htm

Sunset Crater, last erupted about 900 years ago pouring lava into the Grand Canyon

http://www.nps.gov/wupa/index.htm

Wupatki National Monument

http://www.nps.gov/pefo/index.htm

Petrified Forest

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painted_Desert_(Arizona)

The Painted Desert

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antelope_Canyon

My wife has taken hundreds of photos in Antelope Canyon

Plenty to be amazed by in addition to the spectacular night skies.

[Skylook123]

Our club, the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association, sponsors the South Rim segment of GCSP. Dennis McMacken, one of our club members, helps put on our three weekend beginning astronomy training sessions several times each year; I help teach some of the lessons. I finally persuaded Dennis and his wife Mary to attend GCSP this past year. Mary wrote the following poem about the experience, which I'd like to share.

Grand Canyon Stargazing July 2013

(Mary Lilly McMacken)

It begins, the sky, filled with clouds,

the parking lot, filled with telescopes,

astronomers of all ages set up,

excited to share their passion.

Chatter, greetings, laughter,

We are here, racing to get ready,

The wind picks up, dancing, laughing,

Stealing hats and sky charts.

The melting sun throws buckets

of orange and purple hues, on the clouds,

drenching them, pulling them slowly

beneath the horizon line.

Venus comes out of hiding, bright,

winking through the shivering atmosphere,

bringing hope Mercury will soon follow,

and the wind will soon fade…….

The wind laughs softly then giggles,

Sending hair across faces, Grabbing the

"How to" booklet for the new telescope,

taunting as we race to grab it back.

Mercury blinks in and out, teasing the eyes.

It's almost there, then gone again.

It's almost dark enough when, it appears

a shimmering smile in the telescope lens.

Visitors come drifting up eager to see

beyond this tiny ball we call our home.

Smiling they stand in line, waiting

to be pulled into another dimension.

Vega shows its face, a new target.

The wind persists, voices grow in volume

A steady rising hum, "Do you want to see…

Vega, Venus, Saturn, Mercury?"

"Yes, thanks, sure, . . Ahhhh it's awesome."

A young man says, "You hear about

The Grand Canyon, but when you get here…

It's unreal." He looks up at the star filled sky

spreading his arms as if he would embrace it.

It's yummy dark now. The wind is moving slowly,

the laser pointers shoot green lines in all directions..

teaching constellations, stars, planets.

"Look, there, green light points, can you see

Arcturus the brightest star in Bootes, Saturn…..?"

"Oh my god, a voice almost sings,

"I've never seen the Ring Nebula before!"

Now, the night sky is velvet black dark.

"What," a voice asks, "you've never seen it"

The Milky Way, a magical cloak drapes

across it "hiding billions of sister stars

The stars, never seen this bright at home,

have multiplied, over and over, so many times,

blinking, shimmering, filling the sky,

"making the constellations hard to find."

The wind has given up, no fun left to be had,

The hum of the voices have trickle to a soft purr.

I look around, where did they all go, the visitors?

Back to hotel rooms, RV's and camping tents?

Ah yes, It's time to put the telescopes away.

We help friends, old and new pack up,

It's time to leave but we will be back tomorrow night

For the delight, the passion, lingers on and on and on……..

[shirva]

Been a busy man Jim..how's your wife getting on ...Davy

[Skylook123]

Thank you for asking, Davy. She is doing very well. She needed a few more biopsies on the opposite side, but they were just "fatty necroses", artifacts of a seat belt in a traffic accident eight years ago. So it is still the one tiny defect, no more issues showing up on MRI, surgery first week in August. Outpatient since all that is needed is to excise the bad guy and possibly some lymph nodes, then radiation therapy. Fingers crossed.