[Chaos-l] Staunton River last night.

[Jayme Hanzak]

Last night was  an incredible night. John Nigro, Mark Mantazer, Loren Herbert 
and Michael Hrirnak joined me at the park.We had about 50 campers   from the camp 
ground come to take a look through our telescopes. They 
were engaging and asked some very good questions. Many had never  been close 
to a telescope in their lives and some in their 50s were taking their first look. 
  
One gentleman stood back, while his family and friends took their turns at  the telescope  
and went back giggling with excitement of what they had just experienced. They encouraged 
him to take turn and look through the eyepiece. 
  
" OK, OK, here I go for my first look through a telescope." he said.  
  
He walked up to the telescope as if it was an important  rite of passage, w ith his clan behind him still 
talking about what they had seen. They watched as he slowly bent over and took his first look 
through  the eyepiece. 
  
I stood back and watched the whole event with curious anticipation to see just 
what his initial reaction would be and  the wave of emotion that would continue through 
to the rest of the group. 
  
You could almost hear his heart skip a beat as he stared just on the other side of the threshold 
of the eyepiece where the light of Saturn painted an image on his mind that would last him a life time. 
  
"Oooh my! Oooh my!" were the words that past his lips. 
 Then the laughter and comment of, "Well, what do you think Dad?" 
"Amazing, that is just amazing" 
  
He along with many other campers there last night accused me of painting or putting a sticker on the 
eyepiece. I'm sure everyone else had similar experiences last night. 
  
T he rest of the night was just as incredible. It was the best full night that I have 
experienced at the park. The deep sky objects seemed to shine and were easy to make 
out in detail. I observed the usual suspects M13, the Hercules cluster, M57 the ring 
and so many more. 

The star of the night was the Milky Way. It didn't take any imagination 
to see the steam coming out of the teapot and go across the sky. It was just there. The general 
comment was, " I haven't seen the Milky Way with this much detail"  
  
The light dome of South Boston was negligible and there was a slight sky glow on the southern 
horizon. There wasn't any thing to the North or East. Time constraints and dew at 3am finally shut 
us down. 
  
It was just a great night and I hope for a repeat in July when we have two session in the park. 
The dates are the weekend of the 13th and July 20th. 
  
Jayme 
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