The following article first appeared in the  Spring 2003 issue of  AMATEUR ASTRONOMY Magazine.     To find out more about this excellent magazine, please check their Website which is located at : www.amateurastronomy.com    This article is printed here with the permission  of both the publisher and the author.

Anchoring one end of a large grassy clearing amid the conifers of northern Wisconsin, a pair of metal domes stands ready to open to the night sky. This grassy clearing, just north of the rural town of Fall Creek, is home to the Hobbs Observatory, a main attraction at the Beaver Creek Reserve. A well planned site housing two telescopes, Hobbs Observatory serves both as a research facility for students of the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire and as a friendly venue for the star-partying public. Operated jointly by the Chippewa Valley Astronomical Society and UW Eau Claire, the site and its observatory is also host to Northwoods Starfest, a weekend event usually held in mid-Summer. I attended this 14th annual star party from August 9 to 11, 2002.

Thoughtful Layout, Relaxed Program.
The three-day event got underway late on Friday afternoon with set-up and registration. Most participants had already arrived by late afternoon; I arrived at the nature reserve's parking lot just before sunset. A high berm running the length of the lot lined one end of the grassy clearing, a nice touch to keep headlights from interfering with observing on the other side of the berm.

The large, grassy clearing itself, serving as an observing field, had ample room for all to set up campsites, so that no observers were jammed in next to one another, unless they chose to imitate canned sardines on their own. Tent stakes pounded easily into the sandy soil, but you'll want to leave boots or shoes outside if you don't want grit all over the floor of your tent.

My new neighbors, members of the Chippewa group and others from nearby Wisconsin and Minnesota astroclubs, stopped by to greet and to offer assistance with setting up my campsite. George Stecher, associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UW - Eau Claire and the university's liaison to Hobbs Observatory, was especially helpful and acquainted me with the activities and history of the Chippewa Valley Astronomical Society and its fine set-up on the grounds of the Beaver Creek Reserve. I tented quickly and looked over Starfest's relaxed weekend schedule. Dr. Sanjay Limaye, Director of NASA's Office of Space Science Education, from University of Wisconsin's campus in Madison, started off this weekend star party with an informative lecture entitled Mars, Quest for Life, a topic received well by the star party-goers.

After the early evening's lecture, as twilight deepened, the mylar and plastic tarps were slid off the telescopes set up for viewing, and Starfesters set about their chatty business of observing the night sky. On that first evening, a high, humid haze dimmed hopes for all-night viewing; a subsequent deck of thickening clouds arrived after midnight and eventually obscured the heavens for the rest of the night. The mylar and plastic tarps slipped back over the scopes when a front of rain threatened, but missed, the observing field.

Saturday morning broke with an overcast sky, but prospects for observing brightened when it was readily apparent by noon that clearing skies would prevail through the afternoon and into the night. During the day, Starfesters occupied themselves with various unhurried activities, including mulling over items at the afternoon swapfest, touring the grounds of the nature reserve, strolling its visitors center stocked with local fauna mounted for display, and attending informal talks presented in the adjacent auditorium by members of the astronomical society and its guests.
 
 

From the west dome, a look across the observing field to the south-southest.	A close-up near the big telescopes eyepiece holder, showing the panel for controlling the focusing and digital  imaging system.  The panel and eyepiece at the far right is original equipment, but is unused.

How Were the Talks?
Greg Furtman, editor of the Northwoods Star Notes, the newsletter of the Chippewa group, presented an update on the efforts of the International Dark Sky Association and its progress in alerting communities to an increasing loss of the night sky due to existing lighting standards; he urged Starfesters that local advocacy is necessary to get towns to adopt sensible, full cut-off lighting and then cited examples where such lighting has been successfully installed. Incidentally, the city of Eau Claire, twelve miles due west from the observing site, does flood the night sky above the treetops with an unwanted glow, so the Chippewa group likely has more local advocacy to do to get full cut-off lighting installed there citywide.

Bert Moritz, president of the Chippewa Valley Astronomical Society, showed his latest gallery of digital imagery of the night sky. He then presented the results of a practical experiment that debunked the Moon illusion in an interesting way, namely, calculating the size of digital images to show that Moon's apparent diameter is nominally larger when seen high in the sky than at the horizon.

Gary Baier, a lively member of the Green Bay Astronomical Society, described his group's night-sky activities held at the Neville Public Museum in Green Bay also, he presented his own list of methods and solicited a number of others from fellow Starfesters on how to improve the quality of the observing experience for the visiting public.

Ed Henry, of Clearview Farm Observatory, presented his photography and imaging of nebulae, telling how he achieved his remarkably detailed long-exposures with careful guiding and extensive post-processing using software like Adobe Photoshop. Recent examples of his work has appeared
in Sky and Telescope within the past year.

In this same paper session. I presented an overview of my progress with deploying the workable combination of a Newtonian/Mersenne-Nasmyth telescope, including my attempts to overcome the design's inherent flaws with a possible Mersenne-Gregorian alternative. I had the telescope, its warts and all, on display in Mersenne mode at my campsite on the observing field. From useful chats with other Starfesters after my short talk, I expect to be enlarging the telescope's bearing surfaces, lowering the sides of its Dobsonian style box, and perhaps raising the entire assembly onto a Poncet mount.

On Saturday evening, after the group photo was taken and names for door prizes were drawn, the featured speaker Dr. Paul Thomas, of UW Eau Claire and on recent sabbatical with the SETI institute, delivered a long, lively presentation on the likelihood of finding extrasolar planets that may harbor life.
 
 

The license plate of a dedicated observer from the Chippewa Valley Astronomical Society	A look down the tube of the Newtonian-Nasmyth configuration.  The telescope has a replaceable secondary allowing the Cassegrain element to be slipped into place which then uses the small flat mirror located midway inside the tube to direct  light to the Nasmyth focus. This feature remains unused at present.

Nice Place To Visit.
As at many star parties, the tone at the Northwoods Starfest was both friendly and leisurely. Nearly 120 skygazers. the effective capacity for this nature reserve, attended the weekend event enjoying plenty of traditional breakfast and strong coffee served up for late morning' brunches in the main lodge. and double. helpings of sloppy Joes for Saturday night dinner with build-your own chocolate sun dues br dessert. On the ground floor between the twin domes of the observatory, both Friday and Saturday at midnight, long tables were set up and spread with snacks, including chocolate cookies, cold juices, ripe fruits, corn chips, and salsa dips. For camping on the observing field, including all meals and plenty of hot water for a relaxing shower, a nominal fee of $40 per person bought the weekend at Northwoods Starfest. If one delayed in signing up for this star party, the late fee was minimal.

The weekend star party was not complete unless one took the opportunity to view the deep-sky through the large telescope inside Hobbs Observatory's west dome. A Ncwtonian-Nasmyth telescope. 24 inches aperture at f/5, mounted in a rotating turret, serves as the observatory's main instrument. Obtained in 1982 as Federal surplus from the Edwards Air Force Base in California, the mustard-yellow telescope was reportedly used to track high-flying aircraft in the 1960's. The telescope's huge iron turret once carried a 5-inch gun on a Navy destroyer during World War II, but now serves a more peaceful purpose neatly balancing the 20,000-pound telescope.

UW-Eau Claire's Department of Physics and Astronomy teamed with the Chippewa Valley Astronomical Society to pack and ship the surplus instrument to the Beaver Creek Reserve, installation of the re-located scope required pouring a mammoth pier with 60 tons of concrete and subsequent completion by 1989 of the current observatory, which also houses a large classroom, office space, and a resource library. An adjacent warm-room to the main telescope's dome allows computerized guiding, tracking, and digital image processing. The observatory's east dome houses a Celestron14 telescope.

The impetus for acquiring and re-locating the surplus telescope was the brainchild of Bob Elliott, observatory director emeritus and retired astronomy/physics professor, who, since the 1970's, sought a suitable observing site away from the encroaching glare of Eau Claire's city lights. A local philanthropic organization, the Hobbs Foundation, and a 1000-member support group, known as the Friends of Beaver Creek Reserve, contributed the bulk of funds needed to re-locate and re-mount the telescope, and, to construct the observatory building, to which the Eau Claire Electric Co-Op supplies electricity.

Every clear Saturday night from May through October, the Chippewa group hosts public stargazing at the observatory; in addition, an on-site 5-meter dish antenna supports an emerging program of radio astronomy. One can read more about the observatory by visiting the Chippewa Valley Astronomical Society's website at:
www.cvastro.org.
 

Dave Stubasky of Glendale WI displays his c-11 in full auto mode.	Gary Baier of Green Bay, WI, proudly shows off his completely home built 4 inch F/11 Newtonian.  Assembled form PVC stock for  the tube, pipe fittings for the bearings, scrap lumber for the mount,  and an old trailer hitch for a counter weight, the scope proves  that humble appearances aside, it's how well one uses one's  instruments that's important.

So, How Was the Observing?
Those native to northern Wisconsin, or who vacation there regularly, know that local weather conditions often conspire to inhibit many clear nights. But Saturday evening saw the results of the frontal system that had passed nearby the previous evening. Though the dewpoint seemed high, the sky still appeared transparent and steady. The seeing, according to some, was not ideal, but for a visitor who contends regularly with the effects of urban lighting at my residence a dozen miles west of Chicago, I found the sky over the northwoods a delight to observe.
As a slim waxing crescent, the Moon, my first favorite to observe, put in an appearance briefly after sunset and made for a pleasing sight through several commercial scopes on the observing field. Venus. in its gibbous phase, shone brightly but blobby as it neared the treetops. Later that evening. most of the automated scopes on hand one heard whirring from one Messier object to the next, as Starfesters called out their own deep-sky favorites. The Milky Way, extending down below the treetops, stood out like the sparkling  path most of us remember from childhood, when fewer Street lights obscured the night sky.

The Perseids were ramping up later in the evening, and Starfesters let out loud whoops when one or several were spotted. Several bright meteors, like trails of spent fireworks, brought the only intermittent highlights: no great numbers were reported as Northwoods Starfest was held this year the weekend before the usual date for the annual Perseid peak. Dedicated observers kept at it, though, till past 3 am. and well after Orion rose.

By Sunday noon, nearly all observers had packed up and departed: the observing field was returned to its tranquil grassy setting.
This star party makes for a nice weekend getaway, an easy drive by interstate highway, if one is traveling from a major city. If you can't make it to Vermont for Stellafane in mid-August, try Wisconsin for Northwoods Starfest.

Come for the camping, stay for the stars.

Roy Kaelin