General Astronomy Topics

So far my wife and I have attended 2 outreach events, Country Day and the last Pelican Park outreach.

We are curious as to whether members meet up, unofficially, when the skies are clear.

This coming weekend we are headed to Franklinton to stay at some tiny house out in the middle of nowhere. Figured we would get some Bogue Chitto fishing time during the day, and tour the sky at night (weather permitting...grrrrrr).

But other than that, most of our viewing is in my Metry backyard, sometimes on top of the levee in Jefferson Parish, and we have been out to the spillway (which we have been advised is not that safe due to bad people out there). I have looked at the light pollution map and see near Middendorf's/Lake Borgne is pretty dark, but we haven't had a chance to get out there.

So do you guys ever meet up outside of outreach events and other sanctioned events to tour the sky?

Thanks.

I have meet up with people a few times outside of our normal events. Typically it is either at somebody’s house or on the lakefront. There is an old golf course in Abita Springs that I like to take my telescope to. The sky is super dark there compared to the majority of St Tammany and there are no streetlights. If anyone ever expressed interest in meeting up in the area for a casual night of observing I would be interested if free. I just got a Pegasus Smarteye so I have been looking for any opportunity to play with it.

My wife and I just spent our honeymoon in the Ozarks and managed to stop by Explore Scientific. Since we were staying in Mountain View (Bortle 4) and then Olive Hill, TN (Bortle 3), I traded in the AR127 and grabbed the CF 127mm triplet. Unfortunately, the full moon was the only thing we were looking at. Bad timing, but it is what it is and we found some nice places to visit and star gaze!

Does anyone ever go out to Middendorf's in Manchac to stargaze? I went out there last night, looks about a Bortle 5, and I could see so much more than I can in my back yard in Metairie (obviously).

Christina said she was advised the spillway was not a safe place to go, plus it's more of a 6 out there.

I go to the west side of I-55 on Ligththouse Road then go north for 50 yards. I mostly shoot comets in the western sky from there. It's not that dark. The boat launch & Middendorf's light things up pretty good but it's certainly better than my driveway, under my neighbor's prison-yard-quality flood lights. I caught the Northern Lights from the west side of I-55. I live in Ponchatoula, so it's a quick trip to Manchac for me.

Nice triplet! Make sure you register your warranty with them. Lifetime warranty is an absolute with them. I picked up an ED80 triplet at a yard sale a couple of years back. The optics were starting to build up mold within the air spaced lenses. It was physically good otherwise. They were going to trash it if it wasn't sold. I think I paid $10 thinking, why not. Ony $10 at risk. They said it had been in their garage for years and hadn't been used since their grandpa passed away.

I knew about the lifetime warranty which includes free cleaning and re-collimation if you ship it to them. I did so and told them no rush. They reached out to me about 2-months later to ask how long I owned it. I told them what I knew. It failed optical inspection, which according to them, should have never gotten out of the factory. They were sure that the original owner hated its performance. They turned around and sent me a brand new ED80.

Clear Skies!