An Incredible Weekend of Imaging
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The big weekend of the Mid Florida Star Gaze was finally upon us,
and I believe that for once, we were prepared for all possible
contingencies. My wife (Willette) had offered her culinary skills
to feed the entire star party, and she had been working herself to
the point of exhaustion for the last couple of weeks. It may not
seem like it at first thought, but creating ten tasty and nutritious
meals for twenty four people under near wilderness conditions is no
small task. She had no sink or running water, but there was enough
electricity to run a small refrigerator and a couple of coffee pots.
All cooking had to be done on a portable butane camp stove. Washing
the dishes was a major chore without water, but she performed all
tasks with her usual grace and flair. Every meal was superb, and
we never ran out of ice, beverages, coffee, or donuts. Late Friday
afternoon, she even drove 40 miles to the town of Lake Placid and
brought back a stack of pizzas for us. What a treat! Every evening at dusk I snuggled myself into my portable domed observatory, and I spent the entirety of each night imaging an assortment of clusters, nebulae, and galaxies. The weather was nearly perfect all night, every night. There was little wind, good transparency, and nearly no atmospheric turbulence. On Saturday night, the "seeing" was considerably better than 1 arcsecond. I captured twenty four images during the event, seven on Thursday, eight on Friday, and nine on Saturday. The final image on Sunday morning had to be cut shorter than I had hoped due to the pre-dawn twilight. Each of the images were the best I have ever taken with my telescope. Fred Lehman, March 20, 2004.
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