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Tag Archives: binocular mount

A Weekend at Almost Heaven

06 Friday Sep 2019

Posted by gfbrandenburg in astronomy, Optics, science, Telescope Making, Uncategorized

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Almost Heaven Star Party, binocular mount, dobsonian, NOVAC, Spruce Knob, star party

I spent Labor Day weekend at the Almost Heaven Star Party very close to Spruce Knob, the highest ridge in West Virginia. When the skies cleared at night, the stars and Milky Way were magnificent, but that only happened about 1 night out of three. My 12.5″ home-made Dobsonian telescope performed very well; in fact, because its primary and secondary mirror are almost fully enclosed by the light shrouds and upper cage, I was able to keep observing long after all the other refractors and Schmidt-Cassegrains were closed down by the heavy dew. (To keep the dew off of my finder scope and Telrad, I used large rubber bands to wrap chemical hand warmer packs around them, and that crude and cheap arrangement worked very well!)

Here are three photos taken by me:

Exploring the geology of Spruce Knob Mountain Center: Lyle Mars in blue shirt and white hat is in front of the entrance to a cave carved in limestone
Exploring the geology of Spruce Knob Mountain Center: Lyle Mars in blue shirt and white hat is in front of the entrance to a cave carved in limestone
Selfie with me in front of three others on the geology hike
Selfie with me in front of three others on the geology hike
This lovely sunset did not portend clear skies
This lovely sunset did not portend clear skies

All but the photo with the sextant were taken by Oscar.

Alan Goldberg teaching someone how to use a sextant
Alan Goldberg teaching someone how to use a sextant
Me studying my charts, in front of parallelogram binocular mount
Me studying my charts, in front of parallelogram binocular mount
Oscar Olmedo and me at our campsite
Oscar Olmedo and me at our campsite
Mike Laugherty and me
Mike Laugherty and me
Mike Laugherty and me
Mike Laugherty and me
Me fiddling with my 12.5" home-made dob in the daytime
Me fiddling with my 12.5″ home-made dob in the daytime
Me fiddling with the parallelogram binocular mount in the daytime
Me fiddling with the parallelogram binocular mount in the daytime
Mike Laugherty and me fiddling with binocular mount
Mike Laugherty and me fiddling with binocular mount
Left to right: Mike Laugherty, Oscar Olmedo, me
Left to right: Mike Laugherty, Oscar Olmedo, me
The lottery drawing for a whole bunch of neat prizes. None of us 3 won anything.
The lottery drawing for a whole bunch of neat prizes. None of us 3 won anything.

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