My First Star Party

Whenever I look at online discourse about astrophotography, there's always at least one post (normally Cloudy Nights) about dark sky sites. As someone who, like most people, lives close to a major city, I'm no stranger to seeing the ugly orange glow of street lamps appear in my images. Post-processing can normally get rid of that noise, but it is very annoying, especially the loss of signal.

I joined the Austin Astronomical Society in April, and they have a few dark sky sites. Every once in a while, they host star parties for members at Pedernales Falls State Park. It's a Bortle 4 compared to the Bortle 5 around my home (borderline 6).

At least the clouds made the sunset look very pretty

Pedernales Falls is pretty far from my house. I had little free time during the school year, especially not an entire evening. So, I avoided going to any of these events.

I was also concerned about the forecast. Multiple sources were in relative agreement that thick clouds would roll in after around 9:00 pm, so visibility would decrease before astronomical dusk even ended. Attendance would surely be far less than normal, even if some die-hard members decide to go.

I was too excited at the prospect of going to a star party for the first time, however. I ended up convincing my dad to drive me there.

When we arrived, there were still clouds on the horizon, but I was surprised that attendance was as high as it was. There were about 15 people, some with massive light buckets. The man next to us had a 10" Dobsonian with a mount he had built himself. He was kind enough to let me look through it occasionally throughout the night. There was also a group of veteran members attempting to fix a donated 18" Dobsonian. Eventually, they gave up.

10" Dobsonian

An incredibly handsome fellow

For a long time, the only visible object was the waxing crescent moon peeking out from behind the clouds to the north. Despite my initial concerns, the clouds did not end up heading south, so the southern sky was mostly clear for the entire night. As the sky grew deeper and deeper shades of blue, I noticed that there were already far more stars than I could see from my home. It's amazing how much of a difference one Bortle level can make in astronomy. I could still see the light domes from Austin and San Antonio in the distance, obscuring parts of the eastern sky close to the horizon. I attempted to align to the M57, but that didn't do any good.

My second plan was to look for objects I don't normally see easily in Austin. At first, I considered finding some galaxies, but most were very low-contrast and the skies, despite our distance, weren't dark enough for my 8" SCT to make out the arms. Instead, I spent some time talking to some of the other members at the star party.

The sky with some clouds (credit: my dad)

For a long time, the only visible object was the waxing crescent moon peeking out from behind the clouds to the north. Despite my initial concerns, the clouds did not end up heading south, so the southern sky was mostly clear for the entire night. As the sky grew deeper and deeper shades of blue, I noticed that there were already far more stars than I could see from my home. It's amazing how much of a difference one Bortle level can make in astronomy. I could still see the light domes from Austin and San Antonio in the distance, obscuring parts of the eastern sky close to the horizon. I attempted to align to the ring nebula, but that didn't do any good.

My second plan was to look for objects I don't normally see easily in Austin. At first, I considered finding some galaxies, but most were very low-contrast and the skies, despite our distance, weren't dark enough for my 8" SCT to make out the arms. Instead, I spent some time talking to some of the other members at the star party.

I was surprised to learn that many of them were also attending a star party for the first time. I was even more surprised to realize that I was not the most inexperienced member at the party.

Quite the ego boost.

Otherwise, it was an amazing experience to learn so many interesting things about astronomy and get to know interesting people. There was a father who was getting into the hobby because of his son, who had set up a Celestron Edge HD 8. One family told me they were from just outside downtown Austin and recommended the Eldorado Star Party at X Bar Ranch in October.

The most surprising detail was that there were other kids my age. I spent a good portion of that evening talking to an 8th grader who seemed to know a lot of information about astronomy and was getting into the hobby because of her father. We discovered that we had a shared taste in movies (Interstellar and Dune) and wanted to study astrophysics in college. Frankly, I wish I had decided that when I was her age.

Me yapping (and what am I doing with my hand?)

18" Dobsonian telescope

The real stars of the show (haha, get it?) that night were the globular clusters. Normally, they are difficult to make out from Austin, but I could easily make them out through my telescope at Pedernales Falls. I settled on tracking M5 for the first half of the night, which was interesting to observe, especially since I fixed the collimation for my scope a few nights before when imaging Saturn. Then, word began to spread that Omega Centauri was above the horizon.

Omega Centauri is a globular cluster of stars widely considered one of the best. It is normally seen only from the southern hemisphere or near the equator. Even if it does peek above the horizon, light pollution and the added distance through the atmosphere normally make the cluster too dim to see. At the star party, it was easily visible. By the end of the night, most of the large telescopes were pointed at the cluster to take advantage of this rare opportunity. I saw it through the 10" Dobsonian before deciding to see it through my telescope. My Celestron happened to have the perfect base-level zoom to see Omega Centauri in its entirety.

I snapped a few photos and was surprised to see how many stars had appeared despite the lack of processing. I couldn't be bothered to do an entire astrophotography session, so the image below is the best one I could get.

Omega Centauri (NGC 5139) - June 10

Toward the end, we attended a tutorial to use the ZWO Seestar, which, for a $500 scope, does everything that I normally do when taking photos but better, cheaper, and faster. Did I also mention that it's all automatic? It's an amazing beginner scope, but I don't regret learning everything manually. After all, it's part of the process.

Arguably the funniest event of the night occurred when my dad and I went back to our car. After shutting the doors, we could hear a constant high-pitched whining. We turned on a red light flashlight, and to our utter horror, numerous large mosquitos were flying around with us. What ensued was a swatting fest in which we committed war crimes against the local mosquito population. The mosquitos were extremely ravenous that night, and despite my jacket and pants, I was bitten many times.

Overall, the experience was a fun one. Though I am likely short a few pints of blood, I learned a lot from this experience. The people were fun to talk to and nothing beats great stargazing through massive, expensive telescopes that I could never hope to afford. If you are ever in the area and don't mind a long drive and insects, I highly recommend visiting one of the star parties. The party I attended might be members-only, but the Austin Astronomical Society hosts parties open to the public. Details are on their website.

I give AAS Star Parties 9 mosquitos / 10 Omega Centauris. (If you want an actual rating, it was good)