I just wanted to share some of the highlights from my visit to the Black Forest Star Party at Cherry Springs State Park this past Friday, and point out some events for this week!

Many of you may have heard that Jupiter's southern equatorial cloud belt has been "missing" since May--while the reasons for this remain something of a mystery to astronomers, the missing cloud belt has provided a better view of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Check out this brief story about how and when to see it through 2011.

This week, Mercury makes a comeback! Look towards the east just before dawn this week and watch Mercury brighten from magnitude 2.0 to 0.2! It can be found about 5.5 degrees below Leo's star Regulus. Binoculars may help you more easily find it in the pre-dawn light.

Speaking of light, also in the predawn sky in the east, you can look for September's zodiacal light. Basically, it is a pyramid of light near the horizon about 80 to 120 minutes before sunrise. Sunlight illuminates dust and debris particles in orbit and we see it as an oddly-shaped glow on the horizon. Try to capture a picture!

My scope at sunset-L. Beightol

This past Friday I, along with over 400 others, had the opportunity to attend the Black Forest Star Party at Cherry Springs State Park, hosted by the Central Pennsylvania Observers. The park is located near Galeton in northern Pennsylvania (Potter County) and is known for having some of the darkest skies in the state, and the country. Friday night the sky cleared out around 8pm and it was breathtaking. The skies around my house are dark, but still nothing compared to Cherry Springs. Perseus and Cassiopeia had so many "extra" stars around them I never see at home, and the Milky Way was so vivid, it was like someone had placed a thin white veil across the sky.

I had my 6" Orion Newtonian Reflector with me, as well as a pair of 10x50 binoculars and was able to see quite a bit. I set up my scope right around sunset and just before I aligned the scope, I saw how great its silhouette looked against the darkening sky and had to snap a picture (see above)! Once it got dark, the Andromeda Galaxy, along with M110 and M32 showed up well in the scope, as did M13 in Hercules, M15 near Pegasus/Delphinus, M8 (Lagoon Nebula), M20, M21 (in Sagittarius), and M33 (in Triangulum). We were even treated to a nice overhead pass of the International Space Station...everyone on the field applauded as it passed by. The 2500-foot elevation, combined with the lack of wind and clear skies, meant it was going to be a chilly night. I heard Saturday morning that it got down to about 39 degrees on the field, which isn't bad, but its rather cool if you're sleeping in a tent! Condensation started to become something of an issue to those of us without dew prevention equipment for cameras and telescopes.

One of the CPO members, Tom Kasner, had a tethered balloon with a camera attached to it. He snapped a few aerial photos of the astronomy field Friday evening from eights between 75 and 100 feet.

CPO "Camp" area at Cherry Springs-Tom Kasner

Aerial view of Cherry Springs Astronomy field-Tom Kasner

While two consecutive nights of clear skies would have been wonderful, we only had clear skies on Friday night. A cold front moved in Saturday afternoon and clouds and nighttime rain put a damper on stargazing (but of course Sunday night cleared out nicely behind the front). The Black Forest Star Party is held each year during the "dark weekend" of September. More information is available at the BFSP star party website. Additionally, the Astronomical Society of Harrisburg, PA holds an annual star party at Cherry Springs in June.

Keep your eyes to the sky and enjoy the view! ~Lisa C.

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