Virginia Skies
Astronomy in South-East Virginia
My Astronomical journey began around 1964 on the sores of Lake Erie in the small town of Avon Lake, Ohio. My dad brought home what now might be compared to a Bushnell 2" refractor. Of course, it boasted "over 1000X" and the images at high power would make the eyes of someone blessed even with pilots vision, water. However, one cold winter evening (up there, they're all cold) we happened on Jupiter. What an incredible sight during a time when man was only flirting with exploring space in a large world not yet made small by the Internet.
In 1985, a local classified ad featured a Celestron C8 for the princely sum of $900. Armed with Deep Sky Atlas, mechanical setting circles and a Polar Alignment Finderscope, the wonders of the night sky would surely be mine. Books would follow including one of my favorites, David Levy's, The Sky, a Users Guide. There were even books on Astrophotograpy but I wanted to observe, not fiddle with precision polar aligning the scope, hypering film, guiding for an hour or hours. The plain-Jane C8 would be sold to help pay for Celectron Ultima C8 in 1991. With its Crown Glass corrector, reportedly hand-selected optics and heavy mount, the C8 is still my scope of choice for lunar and planetary observing. Images from the Ultima are are comparable and sometimes surpass those from many high-end refractors when compared side-by-side on the same object.
1993 saw us move from Virginia Beach to our farm in southern Chesapeake, VA. While this location did shed a great deal of sky-glow, our close proximity to the Ocean means a lot of humidity. Being located at sea level, we get to look through about all the atmosphere there is.
Everyone needs a Dob at some point, right? Mine came in the form of a Mead Starfinder 16". By the luck of the draw, I was blessed to get a superb mirror with mine and it yields breathtaking images. Problem is, the 16" is just a bit awkward and requires at least 2 people to safely move (even with the mirror out). The The investment in setup time is well worth it. Color in The Great Nebula in Orion and detail in the Andromeda Galaxy mesmerize even new observers. M51 is a snap and the surface of our moon reveals startling detail.
Soon after, I
found the Back Bay Astronomers
or, perhaps they found me. What a friendly, knowledgeable and involved
group of observers! A great program every meeting, an ongoing educational
outreach program and knowledgeable members involved in the science of Astronomy.
I still have the Ultima-8 and Starfinder 16, the moon remains a target of
fascination and being available on semi-rare good seeing evenings is still a
challenge. The addition of a 12" Meade LX200GPS and a laptop have
increased my productive observing time.
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