Part II; star gazing fun continues and even includes...a UFO?                                                

Waupaca Star Party

            Seeing my struggles with the planisphere, Rick said, “Bring it here and I’ll help you.” Examining it, he reassured, “It took me three years to figure mine out. Suddenly one night I was doing it! Keep at it and you’ll be fine.” He held up what looked like a thickened pen. “This laser is another helper.” Shooting its bright green beam skyward at what he called the Keystone Formation, he scribed a line from the star Vega on one side to Arcturus on the other. “The line between those pointer stars locates the M5 star cluster in the Keystone. It’s not visible to the naked eye and your binoculars will only show it as a tiny smudge.”

            He was right. Through our binoculars M5 was just a pea-sized bit of fog.

            “Now try it with my ‘scope.”

            Out burst more of our “Wow’s!” as we took our turns. Seen through his 14” Meade, the cluster’s bright center of closely packed stars had a lovely halo of outlying ones. After re-aligning his ‘scope, he next showed us the Dumbbell cluster and the Swan nebula.                      

            Jeff called to us from atop his ladder “Come up and see it with my twenty-two inch!”

            Fascinated with the cluster’s greatly magnified image, I kept staring at it ‘til Ruthie tugged my pants leg. “OK, dear, let someone else have a turn.”

            Our exclamations were echoed by others all over the site as they, too, zeroed in on whatever they were itching to see. Better, the viewing was enhanced by perfect conditions; no interfering moonlight, a clear sky, and the cooler air temperature.

            As a surprise add-on to the excitement someone yelled, “Look to the west! What is that!”

             A very bright object was blinking on and off at regular intervals in its orbital trail across all the other stars.

            “I’ve never seen a satellite do that!”

            “Without red and green running lights that’s no plane!”

            A “Close Encounters” fan just went ahead and said it. “Maybe it’s a UFO!”

            As it winked out of sight, one of the pro-astronomers was a party killer. “Nah-it’s a satellite tumbling end over end. The panels are reflecting light from the sun that we can’t see.”

            Finally, Ruthie nudged me. “It’s been great fun, dear, but its way past midnight. Let’s go home.”            

            As we headed for the car, I kept raising the binoculars for final peeks at the Andromeda Nebula. I’d spent many a frustrating evening failing to even locate it. Tonight these NCSF people had taught me where to search it out and then shown what it looked like when brought closer in their ‘scopes. Seen now through our 7X50 binoculars the huge spiral nebula was still only a small patch of brightened haze. Even so, it looked awesome.

            As Ruthie waved me towards our car, I thought-It’s definitely time to give our stingy kids some stronger hints about that new ‘scope!