{"id":3254,"date":"2024-07-01T09:58:39","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T13:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asnh.org\/ShootingStar\/?p=3254"},"modified":"2024-07-01T09:58:41","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T13:58:41","slug":"julaugsep2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asnh.org\/ShootingStar\/2024\/07\/01\/julaugsep2024\/","title":{"rendered":"JulAugSep2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Get More Info about CSP HERE<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We are pleased and lucky to have the opportunity to celebrate our 34th anniversary of the Connecticut Star Party (CSP) under the clear dark skies of the Edmund D. Strang Scout Reservation in Goshen in northwestern Connecticut. Mark your calendars! CSP-34 will be held from September 06 – 08, 2024.

Camp Strang offers two different observing fields to choose from, all with beautiful dark skies. Each field has its own character, and it’s up to you to choose where you want to set up.”Brownsea Field” has a good-sized flat area near the showers to set up your scopes on. There is a bunk house there with beds to rent, and a porch for you to enjoy, and plenty of room around the field to pitch a tent. “Camporee Field” is the largest of all the fields. It is also the highest elevation (at 1440.29\u2019), and has the best all around views of the horizon in all directions. Camporee is also the most remote and “rustic” of the fields with outdoor latrines available on the edge of the Camporee field. We will have a warming tent near the path to Brownsea. The tent will have snacks, coffee, heat, chairs and tables.

Bunk Housing<\/strong>
All bunks have a mattress but do not have any pillows or sheets so bring your own pillow and a sleeping bag.

Power<\/strong>
We will be providing a limited alternative source of AC to a specific area of the Camporee field on a first come first served basis. The power is for scopes, computers, cameras, and heat emitting diode dew heaters ONLY. This is because the power is limited. Anyone who is using this power beyond what is stated may be asked to leave.

This is a large spread out camp. The walk from the Brownsea Field to the Dining Hall is approximately a 1\/2 mile. Camporee is approximately a quarter mile from Brownsea Field, but accessible directly from West Side Road.

Your support of Connecticut Star Party has allowed us to spread the word about the wonders and beauty of astronomy to thousands of people through our public outreach program. ASNH has observed here in the past, and based on common consensus most believe the skies are at least a mag darker than our other locations. It’s very difficult to find a good spot in our state, and we truly believe this is a good one!

ASNH and the CSP Team are very grateful for your attendance, your understanding and your friendship. We sincerely hope hope you enjoy this great location. We thank you for your support!

The ASNH Board of Directors<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Solstice Picnic, June 22, 2024, Sleeping Giant Pavilion<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

By Donna Pursley<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The solstice picnic is a great way for everyone to get together without scopes to just sit and enjoy each other\u2019s company. It was a nice combination of about 20 or so long time and recent members. As always, there was plenty of food and drinks. We were in the midst of a heat wave but it was cooler in the pavilion. I think we all stayed put and no one wanted to hike in the heat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to our cooks who stood out in the hot sun to bring us the delicious food, we all left with full bellies. When we were leaving, we were starting to hear thunder in the distance. I hope most everyone was able to get home before the rain hit. If any members have never come to a picnic, please consider it next year. It is a great way to meet your fellow members and you don\u2019t even need to talk about astronomy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reports on the April 8 Solar Eclipse<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Stowe, Vermont<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Neal Lewis<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are a few pictures of the eclipse taken from Stowe, Vermont. All three were taken using a Canon EOS 60D camera at ISO 200, f\/8. This was connected to a Canon telephoto zoom lens (recorded at a setting of 340mm). These were saved as JPG files to reduce the file size. The original RAW photos run about 18 MB. All have been processed through Adobe Photoshop (mostly noise reduction). The Moon was moving from lower right to upper left in all photos. I followed the directions in the Sky & Telescope article (from the special eclipse edition) on how to photograph an eclipse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Left: 3:26 pm, 1\/160 second exposure. Right: 3:28 pm, 1\/50 second exposure.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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3:29 pm, 1\/125 second exposure. The end of totality occurred right after this was taken.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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New Haven, Connecticut<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Michael Amato<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My friend Rose, her daughter Jenn, and I went to an eclipse party at Yale\u2019s Leitner Observatory to look at the partial solar eclipse. There were about 200-300 people spread out on the grounds of the observatory. Many people came to look at the eclipse through my Sunspotter solar telescope. An interviewer from National Public Radio came by to interview me. Two pictures of me showing people the eclipse in my scope are now on the NPR website. Another interesting thing was the temperature dropped from 63 to 54 as the Moon was covering up the Sun. There was also a fairly large sunspot on the Sun’s face. My brother Anthony took this image of the Sun at the West Haven beach and sent it to me from his location. We had a great time here during the eclipse and everyone applauded during the eclipse maximum coverage. What a great day!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Eclipse Reports, continued:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Albans Bay, Vermont<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
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By Jim Mazur and Laurie Averill<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laurie’s family has owned a cottage on the shore of Lake Champlain in St. Albans Bay, Vermont for more than 70 years. For many years we had been planning to observe the 2024 solar eclipse there, since the location was right in the middle of the path of totality. Our main concern was the weather, because long-term weather records showed about a 70% chance of clouds for this date in April. As it turned out, we were very lucky. Yes, there were high thin clouds over most of the sky, but the eclipse was still a very dramatic event, and we were able to observe it all the way from first contact to last contact. During the first half of the eclipse, the thin clouds produced a beautiful halo around the Sun. As totality approach, we saw the Moon’s shadow on the distant clouds across the lake, moving toward us from the southwest. It looked like an approaching thunderstorm, except that is was traveling much faster (over 2000 miles an hour, in fact)!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During totality, we were treated to a great view of the Sun’s corona despite the clouds, and there were some amazing red prominences visible on the rim of the Sun. One V-shaped prominence of the lower right rim was especially vivid, even without binoculars. We could hear people up and down the lake shouting and cheering at the spectacle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of our pictures were taken with a Canon T6i camera and a 200-mm lens, which was covered with a filter from standard eclipse glasses except during totality. A series of images taken one minute apart were combined to make a video of the entire eclipse. The Sun appears hazy in the video because of the thin clouds, and its brightness varies as the clouds passed by, but the video is actually pretty close to what it looked like through our eclipse glasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At this moment, both the Adirondack Mountains in the distance and our shore are in darkness, and the Moon’s shadow can be seen on the clouds overhead. Further in the distance, the Moon’s shadow has already passed and the sky is returning to daylight.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The beginning and end of totality.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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