Skip to content

Random Connections

A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Photos
  • Resources
  • Other Voices
  • Post Archives
  • Home
  • Miscellaneous
  • Star Party

Star Party

Posted on March 25, 2007 By Tom 1 Comment on Star Party
Miscellaneous, Science

Saturday night the Roper Mountain Astronomers and Furman University’s Physics Department hosted a star party at the Furman observatory near Cleveland, SC. I decided to load up my telescope and head on up that way.

I arrived to find the party in full swing. Jerry Polsinelli had brought the club’s 14in Dobsonian and had it set up. There was another smaller Dobsonian, A couple of Newtonians, and a really nice refractor telescope. Furman’s 14 in Celestron was also available. My tiny little Celestron looked sad next to these behemoths.

The sky was clear, but conditions were far from ideal. The moon was brighter than we would have liked, which obscured many of the fainter objects. In addition, this location is starting to get tons of light pollution, thanks to the new Cliffs developments about a mile away. There was also a significant glow on the horizon to the north toward Hendersonville and the south toward Greenville. I’m guessing there is just about no place left in South Carolina where you can go for dark skies.

I tried taking some long exposure shots of star trails, but it was obvious that there was just too much ambient light. Even with my settings as low as they would go, a 15-minute exposure produce a very light image. I would have had to leave the aperture open for qhite awhile to get true star trails, and that just wasn’t going to work.

Even though conditions weren’t great, we still saw some neat stuff and I had fun.

Post navigation

❮ Previous Post: Heart of Dixie
Next Post: Blue Ridge Westward ❯

One thought on “Star Party”

  1. Jerry Polsinelli says:
    July 16, 2007 at 10:28 am

    I read the article about the March 25th Star Party at the Furman observatory. There is one correction. The RMAs outreach telescope (Godzilla) that I brought to the Furman observatory is a mobile 17.5″ fork mounted newtonian.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Categories

  • EdTech (199)
  • Entertainment (201)
  • Family (118)
  • Gear (115)
  • General Technology (97)
  • Geocaching and Maps (208)
  • History and Genealogy (253)
  • Internet (144)
  • Local (447)
  • Miscellaneous (539)
  • Music (188)
  • Paddling (239)
  • Photography (777)
  • Podcast (6)
  • Rambling (223)
  • Rants (160)
  • Recipes (34)
  • Religion (48)
  • Restaurants (165)
  • Science (48)
  • Things Overheard (29)
  • Travel (410)
  • Uncategorized (129)
  • Washington Sabbatical (113)
  • Weirdness (59)

Recent Posts

  • Paddling the Saluda River from Cooley’s Bridge
  • Germophobic Paranoia Blues and Other Dream Tunes
  • Orphaned Graveyards – Bakers Chapel AME
  • Orphaned Graveyards – Fellowship Church
  • Website Updates

Recent Comments

  • Elaine Griffith on Paddling the Saluda River from Cooley’s Bridge
  • Ruby on Paddling the Saluda River from Cooley’s Bridge
  • Alan Russell on Paddling the Saluda River from Cooley’s Bridge
  • Johnny on Paddling the Saluda River from Cooley’s Bridge
  • Shelby chambers on The REAL Children’s Cemetery

Tags

blogging cemetery Christmas Columbia Edisto River edtech Entertainment family Flickr Florida Furman Furman University gear geotagging Ghost Town Ghost Towns Google Earth Google Maps GPS Greenville Greenville Chorale hiking history Instructional Technology kayaking Lake Jocassee LCU Lowcountry Unfiltered maps Music North Carolina Paddling Photography rambling restaurant Restaurants review singing social networking South Carolina time-lapse Travel video Washington Washington State
March 2021
S M T W T F S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  
« Feb    

Copyright © 2021 Random Connections.

Theme: Oceanly by ScriptsTown