Dave Mitsky's Corner

Almost Heaven, West Virginia

By Dave Mitsky

On September 10th and 11th, 1999 my friend and compatriot Sandy Goodstein and I attended the Blackwater Falls Astronomy Weekend, which is held at a West Virginian state park that is striking in its natural beauty. The scenic vistas within the park are breathtaking, as are the namesake waterfalls. On Friday night a group of fellow observers from Pennsylvania drove southward from the Blackwater Falls Lodge to Spruce Knob, the highest mountain in the state. It took us a half hour to reach the top of the mountain from its base.

The night sky was simply superb from the summit at 4863 feet, reaching a limiting magnitude in the upper sixth magnitude range. The summer Milky Way was extremely prominent and its dark lanes and rifts were easily seen. M13 and M33 were visible without optical aid. Telescopically deep sky objects of every variety were fantastic from this very dark site. Of the dozens of DSO's that I observed that night particularly memorable were the views of M8, M20, M24, M17, M31, M42, NGG 253, NGC 6888 (the Crescent Nebula), the Cygnus Loop (Veil Nebula complex), NGC 7000 (the North American Nebula), Barnard 86, and Barnard 142-143 (Barnard's E).

We were to be joined later by a handful of amateurs from various east coast locales. All told the instruments working on the mountain top included a 16" Meade Starfinder Dob, a 15" Obsession Dob, two 12.5" ATM Dobs, my 12.5" Starsplitter Dob, Sandy's Celestron Ultima 8, a Celestron C5, my 80mm Orion ShortTube refractor, Sandy's 70mm Tele Vue Pronto refractor, and Sandy's 8x56 Celestron Ultima binocular.

After about an hour of experiencing what John Denver called "almost heaven", observationally speaking, the whole landscape was suddenly brilliantly illuminated, far brighter than during full moon. Having experienced similar events three times previously over the years, but never in such a spectacular fashion, I wasted no time in jerking my head upward to try to catch the fireball that was providing the light show. This time I not disappointed. Near the zenith I beheld the most brilliant meteor I have ever seen. I noticed no color, saw no train, and heard no sound but some people who saw this brighter than -13 magnitude beauty from the star party at the Blackwater Falls nature center did report the fireball as being green.

Later in the night I observed a shadow transit of Io through my 12.5" Starsplitter Dob and Sandy's Ultima 8. The seeing was surprisingly steady and the level of detail seen in Jupiter and Saturn through a variety of instruments was excellent. I used my 8mm Radian (191x) and a 4mm Radian (381x) that I borrowed from one of our group. The 4mm produced 508x in the Ultima 8 but the image, while somewhat soft, was still acceptable. One of the latecomers was a cometary observer and as soon as C/1999 H1 (Lee) rose high enough in the east he began studying it with his 12.5" Dob. Comet Lee was also readily visible through Sandy's 70mm Pronto.

Using my ShortTube 80 piggybacked on Sandy's SCT I took prime focus astrophotographs of Collinder 399 (the Coathanger), the Double Cluster, M45, and M42.

All too soon the constellations of winter made their debut and marched towards the meridian. As dawn neared, the zodiacal light arced high in the east, followed by a blazing Venus. Soon we began our slow descent from the summit of Spruce Knob, thus ending a truly wonderful night of amateur astronomy.