Posted by Bob Vickers, Jun 19, 2006

Mid-South Star Gaze 2006

A Travelogue

By Cosmosbob At the 2005 Twin Lakes Star Party I heard many exotic tales of other star parties both near and far, in particular the Mid-South Star Gaze located near the little town of French Camp, Mississippi. I had seen David Paessler’s pictures on the WKAA web site of his and Jeff Burton’s trip earlier that year and their stories got me hooked. The only other star party I had been to besides Twin Lakes was the Georgia Star Party back in the early 90’s, so I determined to broaden my horizons a bit and attend Mid-South in 2006.

I contacted David toward the end of March and we made travel plans, although I had almost waited too late. As both of us are well over the age of 19, sleeping on the ground in a wet tent no longer appealed to us. David tried to get us a room at the nearby lodge in French Camp, but, unfortunately, they were full. Some star party attendees, they told us, make reservations for the next star party before they go home! So, my wife, Melissa, and I checked around on the Internet for motel rooms and found one in Kosciusko (pronounced by the locals as Koz-e-es’-ko), about 20 miles south on the Natchez Trace. We figured a 25 minute drive was well worth having real beds to crash in, a shower, and maid service.

As it turned out Melissa had a conference to attend in Jackson, Mississippi, at the same time so we decided to caravan. Still, almost all of the equipment had to go in David’s van. When he arrived at our house he had dutifully left half the space in his van for me to fill. The beautiful 12.5” truss dob he had built himself collapsed to about the size of a bread box and all of his remaining equipment took up no more than a foot of height. My scope, a tube type 12.5” dob with a newly rebuilt cradle and rocker box, plus the sled I used to transport the tube, took up a volume roughly equivalent to that of a baby elephant. After the second load from my observatory my half of the van was full and I had more to come. (I was used to loading my stuff into a covered longbed pickup truck!) David politely suggested that I might want to leave some things, like the third volume of Uranometria 2000.0, at home. But, even after weeding out some other “nonessentials,” it didn’t help much. “Okay,” said David, “let me see what I can do.” Mumbling something about the virtues of portability, he eventually rearranged all of his “half” into about a quarter of the van space. We finished packing with all of the equipment coming nearly to the bottom of the windows. No problem.

The trip down to French Camp was pretty uneventful. It was overcast all the way but we were hoping for clearing by evening. David and I parted from Melissa at Winona Mississippi and she proceeded on to Jackson. After checking in at our motel in Kosciusko we arrived at Rainwater Observatory about mid afternoon. Rainwater is run by Jim Hill, a tireless promoter of astronomy and science education, for nearby French Camp Academy as a public outreach program. It consists of several domes and roll-off-roof observatories clustered on an open hilltop where star party attendees set up their scopes and tents. The two main buildings contain a small planetarium, a library, a small kitchenette, a lecture hall and an impressive collection of meteorites, astrophotos and NASA educational materials. Their pride and joy is the new dome and attached control room for the as-yet-to-be installed research grade 0.65 meter Richey-Chretien telescope. The building, as I understand, was nothing more than a hole in the ground at the last star party.

David and I staked out our territory, set up our awning and our scopes and plopped into our chairs to relax and await the evening. Weather reports promised clearing by 9pm, but when 9pm came and went the forecast was updated to clearing by 10:30pm. As 10:30pm approached the sky was still totally overcast and we began to wonder aloud at the competency of weathermen. Almost on cue, however, a clearing appeared toward the west. Within half-an-hour the sky was clear – and dark. French Camp is in the middle of nowhere!

So, the fun began. I decided to take advantage of the dark skies and sketch a couple of Herschel 400 galaxies first. Sketching the Herschel 400 is my current project (or as David says, “it’s not just a project, it’s a quest.”) He’s right. Sometimes it seems never ending, but in a good way. I have spent many magical nights hunting down and sketching Herschel objects, and I wouldn’t trade those nights for anything. I’m now over three-quarters of the way through and the end is in sight.

As I was finishing up the sketches, someone announced that they had Comet 73P (Schwassmann-Wachmann 3) in their scope so I wandered over to have a look. This was apparently the brightest piece (fragment C) as the comet had broken into two main pieces and several smaller ones. It was a beautiful telescopic comet with a large fan-like tail.

I continued wandering for a while, looking at various objects through other people’s scopes and developing a serious case of aperture envy. The night was growing chilly. David suggested that I look for Omega Centauri, the big southern sky globular cluster, and pointed out where to find it. When I got it in the eyepiece I was astounded. It was huge! And very resolved! I had never seen it before except in pictures and wasn’t quite prepared for the view. A cosmic experience! This alone was worth the trip.

By now it was the wee hours and both David and I were tiring and beginning to get a little cold. We were fighting dew, and ground fog was beginning to creep up the hill toward our site. I decided to sketch one more Herschel galaxy and call it a night. We headed to the motel. Real beds. Showers. Nice.

The next day was beautiful and there was much anticipation of a really good night. We napped during the day, visited our neighbors, and readied our equipment for the evening. But first, “Dinner at Pap’s.” Apparently this has become a ritual of sorts at the Mid-South Star Gaze. David promised an evening of culinary delight and gathered a handful of “true believers” to make the twelve mile pilgrimage to the town of Ackerman. When we arrived, I was not impressed. “Are you sure this is the right place?” I asked David. “It looks like an old furniture store.” “Oh ye of little faith,” said David. “Just wait til we get inside.” He was right (again.) Chicken and dumplings. Home-cooked vegetables. Yeast rolls. Desserts! The buffet was scrumptious. An hour later we all waddled back out to the cars. I had seen the light.

As dusk approached, everyone was abuzz with plans for the night. The sky was pristine and darkening. The temperature was comfortable. The equipment was ready. I casually looked off to the east and noticed smoke billowing up along the horizon and drifting off to the south. Idly, I wondered what it might be, but didn’t really care as long as it drifted away to the south…. Then the wind began to shift. The smoke got closer. The sky got darker. The smoke got closer. Darker. Closer. What was it? Forest fire? Nuclear reactor meltdown? Newly formed volcano? “Farmers burning off their fields,” we were told. Before long the entire sky was obliterated. “There’s ash falling,” someone yelled. “Cover your optics!” Everyone threw covers over their scopes. Now, I must say that I have been clouded out at star parties, rained out, fogged out, even dewed out, but I have never been smoked out before. Bummer. But, every cloud (cloud of smoke, in this case) has its silver lining and this one was no exception. About two hours after it had begun, the pall had moved over and off to the west. Clear sky was visible once again. Clear and dark. I wanted to find both major comet fragments on my own so that was my first task. It didn’t take long to locate the main fragment as it was not far from spot I had seen it the night before, still beautiful with its bright, fan-shaped tail. I had been told where to look for the other fragment and found it without too much difficulty. Surprisingly it was several degrees away from the main fragment and looked just like a smaller, dimmer version of it. Cool. This made the night a good one after all.

After an hour or two of general sightseeing – including M41, M51, M4, M57, and M13 - I took another look at Omega Centauri. I couldn’t believe it but it was even better than the previous night with even more stars resolved! Borrowing one of David’s premium eyepieces I literally felt as if I was floating out in space right in front of it. Who knows how long I was there, but eventually I came back to Earth. Wow! The night had become even better. My last goal for the evening was the southern galaxy Centaurus A. From my home in Tennessee it is just below the treeline (like Omega Centauri) so this, too, was a treat I had never seen before. The wide dust lane which slashes diagonally across it was very pronounced. Again, I was floating…. Floating, and eventually getting cold, and tired. I glanced at my watch. 1 a.m. I looked back up at the sky and noticed some clouds beginning to intrude. David came over to talk. It had been a wonderful night after all, but, we agreed that we were both ready to head for the motel. Did I mention the real beds? And showers? We would sleep late in the morning….

VROOM! VROOM! VROOM! VVVVVVRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!! I woke up. What in blazes was that? VROOM! VROOM! VROOM! VVVVVVRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!! It sounded like “start your engines” time at the Indy 500. Only this engine wouldn’t start. VROOM! VROOM! VROOM! VVVVVVRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!! I glanced at the clock. It was a little before 8am. “Idiot,” I thought. VROOM! VROOM! VROOM! VVVVVVRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!! Finally, the car started. I got out of bed and stumbled to the window just in time to watch the pea-brained moron sputter out of the parking lot. David rolled over and moaned pitifully. “What is going on out there?” “I don’t know,” I said, “but the entire parking lot is full of blue smoke.” Of course. Silly me. The National Clunker Car Convention must also be in town this week. I couldn’t go back to sleep.

The weather channel showed increasing cloudiness all day Friday and rain moving in on Saturday, so we decided we would spend the day attending talks, visiting with other people, inspecting their scopes and then go home on Saturday. I attended a talk on variable star observing and later, our friend Jay McNeil gave an interesting talk on CCD imaging. We even attended a wonderful storytelling session in the tiny planetarium (aimed mainly at the kids, but I’m just a big kid at heart!). As evening approached quite a few people were leaving. We wandered over to visit with C.W., a very talkative but likable friend of David’s. While C.W. was packing up his van he kept David and me entertained with a running commentary. It seemed that during his talk earlier in the day, Jay had told a story about how one winter night he kept having trouble keeping his imaging equipment focused and couldn’t figure out what the problem was until he realized it was due to the warmth of his own breathing. C.W. found this fascinating. Never one to miss an opportunity, David piped up, “Yeah, with all of your hot air, C.W., you wouldn’t be able to take any images!” For a moment (and only a moment) C.W. was speechless. Then he began to laugh, followed by laughter from everyone. David 1, C.W. 0.

As the conversations continued, the topic of scope portability came up (one of David’s favorite subjects.) David related how he was rebuilding his 16” scope to eliminate as much weight as possible because of his back problems. He lamented the fact that he had already had two back surgeries and could be facing a third. C.W. saw his chance for revenge. “Man,” he said “you’re just falling apart like a cheap suitcase!” More laughter all around. David 1. C.W. 1. A truce was called.

We went to bed early that night, got a decent night’s sleep and headed out to link back up with Melissa the next day. Rain clouds ushered us toward Memphis and beyond to home. All-in-all it had been a good trip. I had seen new things, met new people and gotten some new ideas. I’m already thinking about next year: Dinner at Pap’s! Oh, and the star party of course!

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