Vacation, B&B and Dark Skies

Well the wife and I finally got to go on a well deserved vacation to kick back and relax.  We ended up at the Piney Hill B&B outside of Luray Va, picked because 1) we love B&B's and 2) it is in a semi-dark site area, at least two to three Bortle numbers darker than at home, and I wanted to use my telescope in a dark sky.

So on Wednesday, November 11th, we drove the new Chrysler Town and Country, packed to the gills (well almost) with telescope and telescope gear (yeah - we took some clothes and other stuff too).

We rented one of the two cottages on the B&B property so I could have ample area to set up, and not bother the rest of the guests.  Site was great - ample views to the east, north and west, and to the south if I decided to set up on the other side of the cottage.

Wednesday night was a bit cloudy with high clouds but still seemed OK for setting up the scope and giving some photography a try. Thursday's forecast wasn't good, so I didn't want to pass up any opportunity. So soon after arriving I set up the scope. Boy what a chore!  New location meant new Lat and Long settings for the mount and software. Then I needed to set up the tripod with nearly correct North-South orientation so I wouldn't have to move the whole telescope after it was mounted.  That didn't work ... so I needed to re-orient the tripod and scope together a few degrees. That's about 200 lbs+ and at my age that's a good amount to be moving especially in the awkward position I needed to be in to get the thing to move.  By the time I got everything setup, the clouds were moving in.

I decided to install the Hyperstar lens on the scope and try imaging the Pleiades star cluster.  With the high clouds the final image shows some halos and is a bit diffuse all around, but compared to home, it was awesome.  I was able to image at least 120sec with the HS with no image fogging due to light pollution (back home, 60sec is about all can get).

M45 - Pleiades
120sec ISO800 EdgeHD11 w/Hyperstar

Next up would have been the Pinwheel galaxy, M33, but the clouds finally made it impossible to continue. I got one 2min sub and then had to pack up. But even the single sub showed quite a bit of detail.  A complete set of 20-30 subs would have made for a great final image - these dark sites really are nice.

M33 Pinwheel Galaxy

Although I couldn't image anymore this evening I did see a nice bright meteor streaking slowly across the sky - probably a Taurid, since the Taurid meteor shower was to peak this night.

Next day turned out to be much better than forecast, the rain ended soon in the morning and the rest of day was mild and sunny. We stayed at the cottage until about 1:00PM and then headed out to Dayton VA, to the Patch Work Plus quilt shop.  Both Joan and I purchased some goodies - Joan got a lot of cool material and I purchased a Dr. Who quilt kit.  After eating a late lunch at a local restaurant we headed back to the B&B.  The sky was clear and the forecast was for clear skies.  The only possible kicker would be the wind as the forecast was for some breezy conditions.

I set up the scope at about 5:00PM, in the wind, hoping that it would die down during the evening.  The forecasters said that would not be the case, but hey, I set up anyway.  Well, 30-40 MPH gusts and 25 MPH sustained winds does not make for a good night for observing, let alone photography.  Had to give up the attempt rather early as the winds were not going to subside.  All was not a total loss - I did get to see something I haven't seen in over 35 years - the Milky Way! It was wonderful.

I decided to leave the tripod outside. There is always a chance that tomorrow night might be better. Forecast is for 25MPH winds with 40+ gusts so I'm not expecting much.  We'll see.