14th Annual Summer Solstice Star Party - 1997

The first indicator that the star party was going to happen soon, came when Richard Brenz from Cadillac, dropped off his equipment here, on thursday night.

Friday brought mostly clear weather. I took the day off to finish up the preparations for the weekend. I spent a couple of hours on the lawnmower cutting the grass over the observing field. Next was trimming all the weeds around the house and the observatory. Especially the 10 foot dome, we were to work on over the weekend.

Friday evening brought partly cloudy skies, and some of the campsites were taken by those who would spend the weekend. About a dozen scopes were setup by dusk, and we waited for the sky to improve. Just patches of sky from time to time opened up, but we managed to observe a few things. I packed it in about 3:30am Saturday.

Saturday morning brought crystal clear blue sky and dry conditions. It was gorgeous. Blaine fired up the grill and made pancakes, and sausage for breakfast. Everyone chowed down by 11:30am.

Now it was time to start one of several optional projects. The group decided to work on Obs. #2. It needed the flooring and joists to be pulled out and replaced. Ripping the old foundation out, was pretty easy, since it was quite rotten. Once that was done, we measured out what wood we needed. I then went down to the lumberyard and picked it up. I bought all treated wood, including the plywood for the floor. We measured the wood, cut it and put the floor framework together. Next we moved it to the 6 supporting posts from the original building, and set it there. Now we cut the plywood out to fit the Hexagon shape of the building. The flooring went down without a hitch. All this got done in about 3 hours. That included getting the wood from the lumberyard. The next item on the agenda was to replace the 10 foot diameter ring on the bottom of the walls. This had rotted out also. We drew the arcs on the plywood and started with the saber saw. The plywood is 3/4 inch treated, so it was difficult to cut. We ended up burning out the motor on the saw. We only got one of the 4 pieces necessary to complete the ring. So this project came to an abrupt halt. We packed all the tools away, and cleaned up the area. This project will be continued at a later date, once I get some better tools. Stay tuned. By the way, we videotaped this fire drill.

By now it was time for dinner, so we fired up the grills. Many more people arrived over the next several hours. About 25 to 30 scopes were up on the observing field. The 20" was setup for all to use, along with the 12.5". We put the 27" TV in the garage that evening so people could watch the RedWings win game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals.

The sky conditions were great all day long. Come dusk, a cloud bank rolled in for about an hour, then cleared away, leaving a high, choppy haze. We seem to have a ribbon of clear overhead for the first half of the night, and finally it cleared all around, the rest of the night. Still somewhat bright, as the moisture in the atmosphere, was significant.

We had an observing contest, of which Marty Kunz won. He was the only one who turned in the list. Marty, you will get your prize the next time I see you. Observing went on all night, with some leaving at dawn. In the morning we had a handful of people left, which Blaine made breakfast for.

I would like to thank everyone who came out to the star party last weekend. I think I've finally recovered. It was great fun, and we actually accomplished some things.

I especially would like to thank all of you who helped out with rebuilding the foundation for the 10 foot dome. That was a real treat to get that done. After sitting there for 3 years rotting away, we can now put this observatory back into service. I hope someone would like to use it. But if not, we will put the 8" f/6 in there.

The next project will be putting up a building for the 20".

We had 44 registrations, with a total of ~50 people. The participant who came the farthest was from Northwest of Chicago.
The Stats are as follows:

Club Name	logo	totals
Ford Amateur Astronomy Club	FAAC	8
Warren Astronomical Society	WAS	25
Genesee Astronomical Society	GAS	3
Detroit Astronomical Society	DAS	1
?Lower Chicago Astronomical Society	L.C.A.S	1
Greater Muskegon Astronomy Club	GMAC	3
Capital Area Astronomy Club	CAAC	2
University Lowbrow Astronomers	LowBrows	1
Eastern Michigan University Astronomy Club	EMUAC	2
None or Unknown		12
Totals		58

The next event schedule for NCO is September 27th, here. and then Oct 3-5 at the Northern Wilderness location west of Cadillac.

            "Grab some photons tonight - it'll warm your heart"
Regards,
Doug Bock   Resident Observer - Northern Cross Observatory (1984)
            83 44 36.5W   42 42 17.6N
            DeepSky Chairman of the Warren Astronomical Society  
            Member of Ford Amateur Astronomy Club - Dearborn
            Member of Lowbrow Astronomy Club - Ann Arbor
            Member of Genesee Astronomical Society - Flint