Well I went to Cherry Springs for the 3rd year in a row for the Black Forest Star Party. This year it was a full house. I’m guessing nearly 400 amateur astronomers crowded into the field on top of the mountain. This year I had new gear to test and use. I brought up all my glass along with my R6 and S5 cameras, new tripods, and my trusty CG5 mount for tracking. This year I set my tent up as my astro-office and slept in my van. I bring a mattress, sleeping bag, and an electric blanket. This year it only got down to about 40 degrees so I didn’t need the electric blanket.
I arrived on Thursday afternoon and was greeted by intermittent rain and clouds. I found a spot to park and just joined the rest of my group that had already arrive before me. In between the raining I slowly set up my tent and emptied the van into it so I could sleep. It rained off and on Thursday evening and I got pretty good sleep. We woke up Friday to beautiful weather. The daytime consists of talking with friends, looking at other telescopes and patiently waiting for night.
As night approached we optimistic for clear skies. I set up my main rig to capture 2 hours worth of light from our Milky Way core area. After getting everything up and running I decided to walk around with a friend and capture some tripod shots of the stars above all of us. About 10 minutes into that I started to notice a haze slowly forming in areas. An of course it was getting very hazy right were I wanted to image.
About an hour later I shut down my scope because it lost tracking with all the haze. I reviewed the captured images and was sad to see that only the very first image was cloud free. All other images captured had clouds blocking the milky way. I was pretty disappointed. The following day many decided to leave because the weather was looking iffy for the next night and possibly rain in the morning. My brother and I decided to stay and see what happens. We took a couple photos of stars and clouds and then went to bed. I was awaken around 6:30 am to the sound of rain on my van roof. Realizing that it could get worse I had to jump out of bed and start moving everything back into my van. My brother did the same. We left around 8 AM. It was a long 5 hour drive back to Baltimore. Unfortunately, I only captured one decent image on this trip. Fingers are crossed that next year is better. Below are a few photos that I like.
