Stargazers Weekend in Roxbury NY

Hi Astromart'ers!,

This coming Labor Day weekend will be the inaugural "Stargazers Weekend" at the Stone Tavern Farm in Roxbury NY. Those of you who have been to the "AOS Starfest" know that the Stone Tavern Farm is noted for it's amazingly dark skies, along with the warm hospitality of the Burrows family. This combo makes for a perfect match for amateur astronomers in search of quality dark skies, and a little comfort too.

As it stands the B&B is STILL available for Friday and Saturday, but I can't promise that will last much longer. So, if you were thinking about going up to enjoy the skies please call John and Danielle Burrows at;

607-326-3600 to make your reservations now!

The other options for the "Stargazers Weekends" are listed on this web site;

http://www.catskillevents.com/

Camping fee includes electricity hookup, and full use of the facilities.

I hope to see a lot of Astromart people there!

Geoff Cintron
[email protected]

Hello A'marters,

I'm just back from one of the best observing weekends I've ever had. This was the first of the "Observer Weekends" at the Stone Tavern Farm. We really got lucky too, as the weather for it was extraordinary, with both Saturday and Sunday nights completely clear, light winds, and no dew until near daybreak.

Saturday 8/30 was the most unusual of the two days as the weather appeared to threaten rain right up until late afternoon. But like a gift from above the clouds started to break just before sundown. This made for one of the more spectacular sunsets I've seen in a while, and I've got the pics to prove it! The atmosphere continued to clear as darkness set in, and by the time it was completely dark, 9:15 or so, there was not even a hint of clouds in the sky, only the Milkyway from horizon to horizon. To say that the Milkyway was apparent is the understatement of the year, it positively glowed with a brilliance like I've never seen. As I knew I had the whole night ahead of me, I didn't mind taking an hour or so to show some of the Stone Tavern Farm's guests, employee's and family members some of the highlights of the night sky. The first thing I showed them was Jupiter. That was a big hit, and then I went onto M22, and then the Swan (Omega) nebula. Each object was more appreciated than the last. It's always a treat to show people the astronomical sky for the first time. The "oh's! and ah's!" that invariably get eloquated by first time observers are one of the most gratifying parts of this hobby. Makes me wonder why more people don't bother to observe. Perhaps they just don't know what they are missing?

It was just a little after 10pm when I got down to business. I already had the Telrad, and red light set to minimum brightness, and could just about see the charts with only the light of the Milkyway, and a little help from the spotlight called Jupiter. Speaking of which, Jupiter was so annoyingly bright that it became unobservable. Just looking in it's direction set back my dark adaption several minutes. Luckily there was more to observe than Jupiter that night. Since we're going to be saying goodbye to the summer constellations soon I decided to work the southern sky around Sagittarius and Scorpius. Using Sky Atlas 2000, I uncovered dozens of objects that go unnoticed from my regular observing site at RMSP. From obscure NGC Globular Clusters that just started to show resolution at 400x, to B dark nebulas that I've never even attempted to see. It was a night that everything in the book was available for the observing. I don't even want to post a list of it as it shames me to think that even at this late date in my observing career there's just too many "first observation" next to the notation. By the time I ran out of gas at about 2 am I was so far past what I normally observe it was like I was coming back from observing for the first time. And this was only the first night!

To be continued......

Geoff Cintron

Geoff Cintron said:

Hi Astromart'ers!,

This coming Labor Day weekend will be the inaugural "Stargazers Weekend" at the Stone Tavern Farm in Roxbury NY. Those of you who have been to the "AOS Starfest" know that the Stone Tavern Farm is noted for it's amazingly dark skies, along with the warm hospitality of the Burrows family. This combo makes for a perfect match for amateur astronomers in search of quality dark skies, and a little comfort too.

As it stands the B&B is STILL available for Friday and Saturday, but I can't promise that will last much longer. So, if you were thinking about going up to enjoy the skies please call John and Danielle Burrows at;

607-326-3600 to make your reservations now!

The other options for the "Stargazers Weekends" are listed on this web site;

http://www.catskillevents.com/

Camping fee includes electricity hookup, and full use of the facilities.

I hope to see a lot of Astromart people there!

Geoff Cintron
[email protected]