TSP

Messier Examples
m104: Sombrero Galaxy
m13: Globular Cluster
m20: Trifid Emission Nebula
m44: BeeHive Open Cluster
m57: Ring Planetary Nebula

• The Big Bend Archives is a Museum/Library Collection at SulRoss Univ in Alpine.
  Please check the COLLECTIONS link for a brief list, and let me know some PREFERENCE/Keywords.
  I can request (I know a staff member) some items to be PULLED for your viewing when we are there.
  I will ASSUME "Spanish Era Explorers": Maps & Photos
  rather than "Geology" or "Early Texana"
  We can plan to visit on Monday for a couple hours
  and you can examine/plan a return on Thursday with YOUR preferences.
• The "Texas Star Party" will be May 16-23 this year,
  near Ft.Davis in W.Texas.
  Detail info about the StarParty, parks and area: TSP
• NOTE: Planetary Gathering ... Late March.
• The official Star Party is on the Prude-Ranch property,
  It has become too expensive, since I don't do much with it
  ON the PROPERTY.
  so, we'll be doing all kinds of stuff, just not IN the StarParty.
• It is 500mi from Ft.Worth to Ft.Davis, one-way.
  map of West Texas
  note towns on map:
  Munday in upper-Rt is near Benjamin
  Rotan is NW of Abilene
  Midland is not listed, but is just E. of Odessa on I20
  Pecos is a good gas & burger-stop,
  Balmorhea is S. of Pecos
  Fort Davis and Alpine will be "HQ" for the StarParty
  Big Bend park is further South of Alpine.
   
  My buddy from Austin: "Scott Mgebrov" (not a typo)
  pronounced just as it looks: "M ga brovf" -- three syllables
  he loves BigBend, I'll get him to take you on a LONG day-trip...
  it is a 5-6 hours drive from ElPaso to FtDavis !!!
  a little longer from Rotan to FtDavis.
• the last few years, I've camped at nearby Balmorhea Park
  to shorten the trip... camping Fri & Sat nites
  map of Balmorhea
  The little town has 3-4 cafes,
  the PARK is SW of town at Toyahvale,
  it is a 12-million-gallon/day natural SPRING !!
  the area used to be a SWAMP in desert W.Texas
  back in the Indian days.
  WPA project in early 30s built the park with huge-pool (scuba)
  and canal-system for irrigation... and a shallow-lake nearby.
  It is an hour drive S. on Hwy-17 to FtDavis.
• Then it is easy to break camp Sun morn and get to DavisMt park
  and get a good campsite for the week, before other
  StarParty campers arrive. DavisMt is a popular Weekend Park
  so the park is often "full" for Fri/Sat nites.
  map of Fort Davis & park
• I'll pick you up in MidLand-Odessa Airport (MAF),
  Sat eve, 15 May. We'll spend a week "doing" stuff and
  return to MAF late afternoon on Sat 22 May.
  it is about 200mi from FtDavis to the airport in Midland.
• I should have *ALL* camping/misc stuff for you,
  just bring some old clothes, we'll wash mid-week.
  start making a check "list" for me.
  you should be able to make the trip with a 'carry-on'.
• General Astronomy Links/info
  here's all you need to know about Astronomy:
  » StarParty is during "new moon" (NO moon)
  » Messier was a Comet-hunter in Paris in mid-1700s
  he kept seeing Grey-smokey-smudges in his little scope
  that were NOT moving... thus NOT comets.
  » He made a list of these Non-Comets, to avoid confusion.
  The smudges in his small scope are the Beautiful-Astro things today.
  1. » Other Galaxies - (WAY) OutSide of our Milky-Way Galaxy
    then inside and sorta near us inside the Milkly Way:
  2. » Gas Cloud: Planetary Nebula - "stuff" from an exploded star
  3. » Gas Cloud: Emission Nebula - big cloud CONDENSING INTO stars
  4. » Cluster of hundreds/thousands of Stars, in a big "ball"
  5. » Aligned-stars in our Line of sight, an "Open Cluster"
   
  These are generally called "Deep Sky Objects", not 'stars'.
  » Messier's list has 110 items listed,
  » around 1800, an Englishman, J.Hershel had a bigger scope and
  found/cataloged a couple thousand "nebulous(Greek=cloudy) objects"
  » since then, professional astronomy has identified/cataloged
  some 30-40-50 Thousand, mostly little faint smudges on long-exposure photo-plates.
   
  The Brightness of a star (object) is measured in "Magnitude"
  the scale is Brilliant= Mag 1, Bright=2, obvious=3,
  in DFW or Detroit, with all the "crap", you won't likely see Mag=4
  except on a clearer night, looking straight UP (thru less air/crap).
  Out in perfect - dark skies... the faintest Naked-eye stars are Mag=6
  there are 10,000 STARS of Mag=6 or brighter.
  This is from N.Pole to S.Pole ... Summer/Winter/fall...
  with a modest pair of binoculars, you can see Mag=7,8 pretty well,
  a small telescope (like I have) will bring in Mag=9,10,
  a larger amateur scope will bring in Mag=13,
  the professional scopes make it to Mag=16,
  long-exposure Professional photo techniques (some 1-2-4 hours!!)
  can (with some imagination) might record Mag=24/25...
   
  However, our little astro-campers measure ability to "SEE"
  a dim-object as "One", "Two" or "Three Beers" -- to be able to see it...
• Two really-easy WebSites to quickly monitor for an "Astro-Info Quickie"
  · SpaceWeather: one-page Current-events
  · APOD: nice photo each day, with brief info