Tag Archives: Kopernik

Posted on October 12, 2011 by kreegan99

My 2011 Kopernik AstroFest 2011 Experience

This year at Kopernik AstroFest 2011, the skies were just down right mean to us.  It never really rained (as far as I can remember) but we were socked in with clouds for 49 of the total possible 54 hours of AstroFest from Friday September 30th until Sunday October 2.  We’ve come to expect this living in upstate, NY.  That’s why our fantastic leadership team booked so many great speakers and guests to present and attend AstroFest 2011.

With this in mind, I first point to the time I spent with Barlow Bob.  I have to admit, I was a bit leery about what magic Barlow Bob would pull out of the van with such dismal daytime skies.  I’ve attended Barlow Bob’s NEAF Solar Star Party to observe “Bob’s Only Star he cares about.”  And I know he has a VERY amazing inventory of solar observing equipment. When I previewed the weather forecast, I was a bit bummed out that I would not be able to play with these wonderful solar observing toys.

But as I’ve come to expect from Barlow Bob’s reputation – I wouldn’t be disappointed.  We spent the better part of Friday and Saturday playing with different spectrascopes and spectragraphs.  We observed a variety of different gases contained in small light bulbs that emitted different types of spectra.   We observed everything from some elements similar to those in our sun to the ever-puzzling spectra produced by Iodine.

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Posted on February 14, 2010 by kreegan99

Kopernik Winter Star Party – February 6th, 2010

So what do a bunch of up state New York Amateur Astronomers do in the heart of winter?  Well they throw an outdoor astronomical observing party for the public.  I mean why not?  What’s a little cold anyway?  Ok so we aren’t talking 40 degrees F out there, but rather something more like, well ok, 10 degrees F.  But hey we are a hearty bunch right?

The day started out at around 4 PM, when we began the event with a special family workshop to build a small telescope.  The gist of the program was to accomplish two goals.  First, to teach families about how telescopes work, and then to also get them to look through the scopes.  We had 19 families, for a total of about 60-70 people including moms, dads, children, and other family members.

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Posted on August 14, 2009 by kreegan99

The 2009 Perseid Meteor Shower Adventures

The Perseid Meteor Shower came and went last week. The peak was occurring between Tuesday August 11th and Friday August 14th. I always get excited about the Perseids. A few years back, I was observing on a rather explosive night of shooting stars, and ever since then, this has been my favorite meteor shower to observe. Living in Upstate NY, it is also one of the few Meteor showers to observe in shorts, under the warm August nights.
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Posted on January 30, 2009 by kreegan99

2009 Kopernik Winter Star Party

On a cold and brisk January day in Vestal, NY, the skies uncharacteristically clear for January, and a group of ametuer astronomers couldn’t think of anything better to do than hold a star party.  The temperatures reached 0 degrees by the time all was said and done, but that didn’t scare off astronomy enthusiasts nor the curious public.

I manned the C-14 dome, which houses a Celestron C-14 Schmidt Cassegrain telescope  mounted on a Celestron CGE mount.  A great piece of equipment.  The C-14 is a vintage Celestron scope from around the mid 1980’s and has superb optics.  We just recently renovated the dome by installing a new CGE mount donated by my good friend Erik.  I brought my high end eye piece collection to support the event since it was such a beautiful day and night.

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