In June, the Astronomy Club of East Frisia held its traditional midsummer star party in Zwischenbergen/Wiesmoor and my new DWARF 3 smart telescope arrived just in time to come along.
The event takes place every year shortly before the summer solstice. Admittedly, it’s not the best time for deep-sky observing with a sky that never gets truly dark. But that is not really the point of this gathering anyway.
I arrived on June 18 and stayed until the end. As usual, the field slowly filled with tents, caravans, motorhomes, telescopes and people. And then there was me, sleeping in my little Audi TT camper again. It still gets amused reactions, but honestly, it works surprisingly well. One afternoon, we even did a test run to see if I could open my trunk under someone’s pavilion without wrecking the setup (and yes, I could, there’s photographic evidence. No, I won’t share it unless bribed with cookies 😉 ).
For my first DWARF 3 tests, the Sun was actually a nice target. It was fairly active during the day, so I used the chance to try some solar images and get familiar with the little telescope.
Others had brought telescopes with solar filters too. So I also tried out some H-alpha telescopes. I was fascinated by the Sky-Watcher Heliostar which showed an especially crisp view with plenty of surface detail and prominences.
The days were warm and sunny, sometimes a little too humid for my taste. So there was a lot of sitting around, chatting, sharing food, grilling, laughing and occasionally pretending we were serious, well-organized adults.
Saturday evening, a befriended astrophysicist gave a presentation about the life cycle of stars, which brought back fond memories of an essay I once wrote in school.
Afterwards, we looked at the Sun, talked about filters, new developments and smart telescopes, and somehow ended up grilling again. As one does.
Later, during the short summer nights, I also pointed it at a few deep-sky objects including the Eastern Veil Nebula, M27 and M17. Not exactly ideal conditions, but good enough for a first try. And honestly, not bad for a sky that never really got dark.
I will share the deep-sky results in separate posts, because they deserve a little more space. For now, this is just a small midsummer update: warm days with friends, telescopes scattered across a field, my tiny TT camper between much more reasonable camping setups and the first light of my DWARF 3.