Uncle Rod's Astro Blog

Last bow? Maybe. Maybe not. You never know, muchachos. I might get back to Georgia’s Indian Springs State Park one of these days. Even if I don’t, I had a good time at most of  the star parties I attended there, a couple of Peach State Star Gazes and a couple of Georgia Sky Views. The Georgia whatsits? Everybody in our part of the country has heard of the Peach State Star Gaze, and quite a few people not in the sunny south also know about the Atlanta Astronomy Club’s big deep sky observing event. But there is another Georgia star party, a much less well-known one, The Georgia Sky View.

In 2002, Peach State decamped for the hills of Tennessee (and, later, to the dark acres of the Deerlick Astronomy Village).  Which left Unk without his yearly visit to the pine forests of central Georgia and lovely Indian Springs near Jackson, smack in the middle of the state. It looked like there would never be another star party there despite the fineness of the site’s facilities. The Peach Staters made it pretty clear they would not be back, no matter how their new venue just over the Georgia-Tennessee border worked out.

Many of us Georgia-Alabama amateur astronomers missed Indian Springs with its cool woods and reasonably good skies, though. No, the location was not perfect and could never be perfect sitting barely 60 miles from metro Atlanta, but the sky was more than sufficient for rewarding deep sky viewing. Like I told y’all in my blog article about the last PSSG at the site, as long as you avoided the Atlanta light dome (to the relatively uninteresting northwest) all was well.

Yeah, quite a few of us missed our yearly star party at Indian Springs. Some missed it so much they decided to do something about it. Those folks were the members of the Flint River Astronomy Club of Griffin, Georgia. I admit I really don’t know much about the organization, but I do know it is made up of some enthusiastic amateur astronomers who’ve accomplished quite a bit despite their status as a relatively small small town outfit. Some of the Flinters decided they would like to put on a spring star party, and that nearby Indian Springs would be the perfect place for it.

Good, old Stuckey's

And that is just what they did in 2004. And again in 2005, when they had Unk up as their keynote speaker. I’d had a lovely time back at my old Jackson stomping grounds and was overjoyed when I was invited up to serve as speaker once again for the 2006 edition, which would be held April 20 - 23.

The Georgia Sky View was not a huge event—maybe there were 50 observers on the field in ought-five when all was said and done. But that was kind of the beauty of the thing: a small, intimate star party that didn’t stress the facilities like the ever-growing Peach State had.  I didn’t have any other engagements on tap for April of 2006, so I was happy not just to say “yes,” but to make a donation to the cause by asking only for the organizers to cover my registration, housing, and meals (if any).

By the time the morning of my departure rolled ‘round, your old Uncle was getting right excited. Not only would I be heading back to the heart of Georgia for a weekend of deep sky observing, I planned to record what I saw with my Meade Color DSI “Deep Sky Imager” camera. I’d had the little CCD cam for a few months and had finally at least partially grokked the CCD stuff and was beginning to turn out some images I thought were kinda decent. I was interested to see what it might be able to do under spring skies that were appreciably better than the ones down in The Swamp.

Bright and early Thursday morning, as close to 6 a.m. as I could stand, I was packed and ready for some hours on I-65 to Montgomery and then east on I-85 to Georgia. What had I packed? My C8, Celeste, my year-old Celestron CG5 mount, my Toshiba Satellite laptop, and the usual odds and ends I take on any star party expedition. In other words, my poor Camry was practically bursting at the seams. Only downer? Miss Dorothy’s increasingly demanding responsibilities at the University meant I would have to do this one solo.

The GSV Field and Unk's EZ-UP.

I maintain that the drive up I-65 is the most boring stretch of road in existence. Worse even than the west Texas segment of I-10 on the trip to The Texas Star Party. It is flat. There is nothing to see. There is nowhere good to stop. Two things kept me going: a book on tape, Stephen King’s The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, and the allure of the Stuckey’s just before Montgomery.

Miss Dorothy and I still stop at Stuckey’s today, even though it’s kinda past its prime. Back in the 1990s, it was great; packed with interesting gee-gaws. Today? The souvenirs are less interesting, but at least they are still serving Dairy Queen fast food—which Unk really craves since they closed all the DQs along the Gulf Coast. A glass of orange juice in a nod to “healthy,” and a fried chicken biscuit in a nod to “tasty,” and I was on the road again.

One thing about the drive to Jackson, Georgia, once the trip up to Montgomery has been endured the rest seems (almost) like a hop, a skip, and a jump. Past Auburn, home of the renowned Auburn Astronomical Society, past Tuskegee, over the Georgia state line, first exit for Newnan Georgia, onto Georgia 16 for a spell on two-lane roads sometimes bedeviled by log trucks and farm machinery, and to the far side of Jackson and Highway 23 and Indian Springs State Park.

The roads were relatively free of slow traffic and road construction patches and I made good time to Jackson. The town appeared to be struggling economically but persevering in 2006, but lord knows what it must look like today after four years of this depression—excuse me, “recession.” Camp Macintosh, Indian Springs’ “group camp” facility where the star party would be held, is only a few miles from Jackson, but the little town doesn’t add too much to the light pollution burden of the site.

What Jackson does do is add convenience; it brings a goodly number of amenities—restaurants, grocery stores, etc.—to within a short drive of the observing site. Being able to scoot up to even a Bill’s Dollar Store for things you inevitably forget is not something to sneeze at, muchachos. Just a few minutes after I passed through town, I was turning into Camp Macintosh, for once not missing the nondescript turn.

The real beauty of Indian Springs was the observing site itself. Camp Macintosh was a wonder as star party venues go. Not only were there clean open-bay-barracks style cabins with clean bathrooms, there was a humongous central building with an institutional kitchen, a space perfect for speakers and other star party group functions, and more clean restrooms (an important feature for Unk at his increasingly advanced age). There was also a smaller building to the north of this “headquarters” that was perfect for vendors, and which had been used for that purpose during the Peach State years.

Just as before, registration was in the front office of that big main building. I cooled my heels for a while before eventually being seen to by one of the star party staffers. Things seemed a little catch as catch can:  “Where do you want to stay? Oh, you want a T-shirt? What was your name again?” I would have been happy in the group cabin, but ended up being assigned to the lodge instead. That large double cabin was where Miss D. and I had stayed the year before, and I figgered it would be just fine. Frankly, though, my treatment at the front gate set off a few warning bells. 

The "Lodge." Jason Voorhees lives just down the street...

As always, first order of bidness was equipment setup. I picked a spot near the center of the field so as to be able to catch both the setting winter stuff and rising summer stuff. It sure was nice to have my choice of field positions, unlike in the Peach State days. It looked like the crowd at the GSV had grown since I was there the previous year, but only a little. I don’t know that I ever heard an attendance figure, but it looked to me to be up from “about 50,” in 2005 to “maybe 60” this year.

OK, let’s get set up. In addition to the C8, Celeste, and her CG5 GEM  mount, there was the camp table, the Toshiba satellite laptop, the big deep cycle marine battery I used to power the power hungry PC (the big Toshiba would barely go 90-minutes on her internal battery), the Meade DSI camera, cables, the EZ-up tent canopy for blessed shade, an ice chest for more help surviving those sometimes brutal Georgia spring afternoons, an observing chair, a couple of lawn chairs, accessory boxes, jumpstart batteries for the scope and dew heaters, and—you-all get the picture. By the time I was done, I was hot and tuckered and was ready to go check-out my accommodations.

Motored over to the lodge, which was just a couple of hundred yards off the west side of the observing field. This was a rustic building not much different in appearance from the group cabins. Inside it was completely different, however, being divided into a couple of “apartments.” Each half featured a bedroom and sitting room and shared a bathroom with a shower. Since it looked like nobody would be in the lodge with me, I could have my pick of either apartment. I chose the front one and threw my stuff on the reasonably comfortable double bed.

Before I left my quarters, I plugged in my little Peltier-cooled ice chest. I bought it one time when a hurricane was threatening The Swamp, since it can be powered by a 12-volt battery as well as AC. It ain’t much larger than a six-pack, but that was all I needed it to cool, a few Colorado Kool-Aids for post-run consumption. One good thing about having the lodge to myself was that there would be multiple outlets available for recharging my many batteries. With no AC on the field, everybody would be competing for the outlets in the group cabins and main building after a good, long night.

One of the highlights of the trip.

How did I fill the hours till sunset? There weren’t really that many. The sun wouldn’t set till after 8 p.m., but by the time I finished setup and was settled in my cabin it was already past five. I made one last check of my field position, and, everything copacetic, I stopped by the HQ building for a look-see. With far fewer people onsite than during the Peach State years, there wasn’t much going on. Back out on the field I was pleased to see my old Chiefland buddy and fellow radio amateur, Tom Crowley, had arrived with his huge RV and huge Dobsonian, and spent a few minutes chatting with him. OK, suppertime.

Thursday that was at the Fresh Air Barbecue. As those of y’all who’ve been reading The Little Old Blog from Chaos Manor South for a while know, my fave BBQ joint of all time is Chiefland’s Bar-B-Q Bill’s. But Fresh Air, which has been in business since freaking 1928, is certainly in the running, and it is most assuredly the best I’ve had in Georgia. It’s right on Highway 23 on the left heading back into Jackson, and it is some kind of good, campers.

Which is not to say it is fancy: wooden tables and benches. Short menu. But the folks there are always nice and the food is always excellent. I know my pork sandwich (on “loaf bread”) was. I supplemented it with a bag of chips—no fries at Fresh Air—a coke, and a bowl of their wondrous Brunswick stew. Y’all, if you ain't had Brunswick stew like they cook in the backwoods of Georgia you ain’t never had Brunswick stew, and if you ain’t had it at the Fresh Air, you ain’t had some of the best Georgia can offer. Nuff said.

After my solitary supper—the non-RVer GSV folks all seemed to be dining on camp-stove fare on the field—I headed to Jackson for the single item I’d forgot. When I am in a cabin at a star party instead of in a motel, I invariably use a sleeping bag rather than bring along sheets, blankets, etc. That’s cool, but I need to remember to bring my consarned pillows with me. I didn’t this time, so I hit the discount store in town for a couple, which cost me less than ten bucks.

The relatively small turn-out meant it was easy to find a good spot on the field.

Then it was back to the field to see what would happen with the sky Thursday night. Tell the truth, I didn’t think much would happen with it—at least not much good. It had been mostly cloudy all the way up, and by the time I was settled-in, the vault of heaven was a depressingly uniform gray. It didn’t look like there was threatening weather in the offing; we were just well and truly socked in. Which was what the dadgum weatherman had predicted. But, as always, Unk was a glass-half-full kinda guy and stayed out on the field till 'round midnight.

By then the weather hadn’t begun to look better; it had begun to at least feel worse, as if rain might be incoming. I secured Celeste with her Desert Storm Cover, covered anything else I thought might need to be covered, grabbed the laptop, and headed for the HQ building. I wasn't the least bit sleepy, and on cloudy Peach State nights I’d spent many a happy hour there shooting the breeze about amateur astronomy. 

The feel was different at this event. Oh, there were some friends hanging out at each-other's field setups, but the communal spirit of the Peach State Star Gaze, one of the best things about that star party, was sadly missing. Not a soul--staff or attendee--did I find in the HQ. On this night everybody seemed to be buttoned up in a cabin, tent, or RV. In part, maybe because somewhat bad weather was clearly in the offing, weather that arrived with the sound of intermittent raindrops and increased to a steady roar as I was wandering lonely in the building that had been so busy and friendly on PSSG nights.

That was that. When the wet stuff slacked off for a minute I hot-footed it back to the lodge. Dang good thing I had some DVDs with me. I was too tired to think about reading and there was absolutely no Internet available. If there had been, I would have checked the weather, but since there wasn’t I just hoped for the best for Friday and Saturday.

At least I was reasonably comfortable. There was no air conditioning, but there were ceiling fans, which were more than sufficient to make a rainy night in Georgia bearable. Put on the DVD of 2001: A Space Odyssey, poured out a little of that legendary Rebel Yell, made it to the point where Hal refuses to open them gull-dern pod bay doors, and your old Unk was off to dreamland big time.

Lodge sitting room.

I was most assuredly not up early Friday morning. I slept in as late as I could since I reckoned there would not be a heck of a lot to do all day. I was right. I was happy to spend plenty of time on the field with friends old and new, but there is only so much Georgia Sun you can stand. I spent a while under my EZ Up with the venerable SkyTools 2, figuring out what I might want to look at Friday night, which, it appeared, might be good enough for visual work if not for imaging. The heavens dang sure were in better shape Friday afternoon than they had been Thursday afternoon, but it was still mostly sucker-hole city and looked like it would stay that way to sunset and beyond.

I snacked my way through lunch on Fritos, dip, and similar BAD STUFF. As much as I’d have liked to have made another run on Fresh Air, I was saving room for the big GSV pot luck supper Friday night. Modeled on the famous Chiefland Spring Picnic, the GSV would provide burgers, dogs, and similar picnic entrees, and us observers would furnish side-items and deserts. Unk’s contribution was a thick-frosted chocolate cake he scored in the bakery of Jackson’s small supermarket.

Supper was great, but the main course was afterwards: the sky and the observing I'd come to Indian Springs for. What I mostly did Friday evening, which did turn out to be an acceptable visual night, was Virgo-Coma, concentrating on the bright Messier galaxies during the often hazy and occasionally clouded-out hours we were given. I managed to collect and admire every one of the spring Ms and some of their brighter NGC kin before midnight, when the clouds came back and appeared to be settling in for an extended stay.

Despite us being clouded out just as solidly as on Thursday night, I still had some hopes, so I took a break, went back to my cabin, and watched a DVD, forgoing the Rebel Yell since I thought we might get a break in the weather over the next couple of hours. The DVD? That was a mistake.

I'd already watched 2001. What else did I have with me? Well, there was Friday the Thirteenth. My daughter Lizbeth and I had been on a horror movie jag for a while, and had been re-viewing our beloved slasher films from Halloween onwards. That was a mistake. "Hmm. Camp Crystal Lake wasn’t a whole lot different from Camp Macintosh, really. And the Lodge looks a lot like Crystal Lake’s Counselor’s Cabin where all that bloody unpleasantness ensued." To make a long story short, I got a little spooked all alone in my cabin in the woods and decided to go back to the field, clouds or no clouds.

Bedroom.

Out there, I trotted around a bit, talking to the few people still hanging in. A couple of times there were some semi-clear patches, but none lasted long enough to allow me to get the scope and her CG5 realigned. I sat out for a while, and, when it looked like there might be some sprinkles, covered Celeste back up and got in the Camry, intending to sit for just a few more minutes—it was barely 2 a.m.—and see if it was really gonna rain before heading back to the Lodge. Rested my eyes for just a second, and when I opened them again it was after four. And it was still cloudy. I went back to my quarters, Jason utterly forgotten.

Saturday found me up at mid-morning. I spent a while working on the presentation I’d give later that day. That done, I wandered Camp Macintosh, walking down to Indian Springs' lovely and expansive lake. After that? Without a vendor on site there wasn’t much to do. You will really learn to appreciate the intrepid astronomy dealers who travel hundreds of miles to star parties when you attend an event without their tables to drool over.

Come time for my presentation, “The Care and Feeding of a CAT (adioptric),” and I was pumped and ready to go on. Whoops. The local person doing the talk before mine droned on and on and ON. Fifteen minutes. Half-an-hour. Finally, the GSV organizers could see old Unk was a mite hot under the collar and prompted this dude to wrap up his presentation. 

I’ll admit I was put out. This person ate into my time, since I was the last speaker and would be running up against sunset. I wasn't overly upset with the GSV organizers, however. They did a fairly good job with the star party. Being able to keep events on schedule is something that requires more than a few years of experience under the belt. 

Anyhoo, when I finally got onstage my admittedly tech-heavy talk went well. There were plenty of SCT users in the audience, and I managed to answer plenty of their burning questions, both with my PowerPoint presentation and during the Q and A after. I was tempted to keep going, but a glance out the big windows showed darkness was arriving.

Just before I was finally able to give my presentation.

If the sky had looked like it had the previous evening, I would have let the questions continue, but it appeared we were finally going get the clearing I’d been hoping for for three days.  I was out on the field quick like a bunny and got my (relatively) new camera, my Meade DSI, ready to go. I had been able to let the CCD stretch its legs under the dark skies of the Deep South Regional Star Gaze the previous October, but I was anxious to let it have a go at the galaxies of spring.

As I was getting ready for my imaging session, a jam session, or at least a concert, was getting underway down at the main building. John Serrie, a prominent keyboard wiz, recording artist, and composer based in Atlanta would be playing for the GSV. While his style of music, New Age, was not exactly Unk’s cup of tea, I was impressed by his talent and professionalism the couple of times I wandered over to have a listen. I even found myself getting into his expansive, “spacey” music.

When it got dark, Unk got down to work. Did a polar alignment with the built-in routine in the CG5’s NexStar hand control, focused my little CCD on a bright star, and began doing the prettiest denizens of the spring sky. Which wasn’t hard with the Meade DSI software, “Envisage,” part of their AutoStar Suite package.

As I’ve remarked before, Envisage ain’t that user friendly, but it will do just about anything except fix the pancakes and bacon. I’d center up a target, focus using the program’s focus-indicator, and tell it to take 30-second exposures (about the limit for the CG5 since I was not guiding) until I told it to stop, stacking the good ones into a final image. Despite having used the software for the last six months, I still found it hard to believe it really could do all that reliably, but it could, and delivered good pictures within the bounds of the DSI Color’s small chip and my meager processing skills.

I captured ‘em one after another: M101, M51, M81, M82, NGC 4565, M63, M64, and a couple more. Who knew when I’d get to use the camera under relatively dark spring skies again? Tell the truth, though, I was somewhat bored. I had nothing at all to do during the exposures. So I began a tour of the field, cadging views from all and sundry, including Tom Crowley, who showed me some mind-blowing sights in his superb big Dob. When I'd finish a circuit and arrive back at my setup, it would be about time to go on to the next target. When the next exposure was underway, I went back to orbiting the field: “Watcha lookin’ at Mister?!”

Beautiful M101

As three in the fraking a.m. came on, my usual “all-nighter” limit then or now, I figured I’d better start wrapping things up. There would be packing and drive back to the Swamp in the morning. But I didn’t want to. Something told me this might be my last visit to lovely Camp Macintosh; if not forever, at least for a long time. I dismounted the camera, mounted a diagonal and a Nagler eyepiece, and backtracked down the path I’d been on all night, visually observing the objects I’d imaged and doing a few more till merciless Aurora began to throw open her gates.

In the morning I still had a hard time leaving. I spent an hour or so sitting in the camp building doing some preliminary processing of my images from the night before to the accompaniment of the approving words of a few of the folks still onsite. I just did not want to leave Indian Springs. Of course I finally went, hitting the road at eleven a.m.

My premonition out on the observing field was correct. I have never been back to Indian Springs either as a speaker or as an attendee. Oh, the Georgia Sky View goes on despite having taken a year or two off here and there over the last six annums, but it can go on without me. While I was treated fairly well, I was a little surprised to be left mostly on my own and mostly unacknowledged by the staff despite my status as their guest and keynote speaker. I don't expect to be treated like a rock star, but a smile now and then and a "Rod, how you doing?  Is there anything we can do for you? Would you like to have supper with us?" sure would have been nice. All in all, I'd say that even given the small turnout, this star party could and should have been better--for everybody, not just Unk.

I’ve often thought about Indian Springs over the years, and often look at the modest deep sky snapshots I took there, but the allure of CAV with its motels and darker skies is just too strong. Still, Camp Macintosh is lovely and star party friendly if you have a group that really knows how to put on a good event--like the PSSG gang definitely did. Anyhoo, you never know; I may get a yen for Fresh Air barbeque again some spring, muchachos.  

Postscript

Frankly, I was a little puzzled by the blasé, frankly unfriendly, treatment I received from the staff/organizers at this event. I am still puzzled by it, actually. I later heard the couple who were the chief organizers of the GSV at the time were divorced not long thereafter, so I'm guessing their domestic problems may have had quite a bit to do with the misbegotten character of 2006.

What is the current status of the event? As far as I know, it hasn't been held in years, not since 2015, and prior to that it had been an on again-off again thing  as above. Sometimes a star party, big or small, is just too much; especially for a smaller club. 

Be all that as it may be, I did have an absolutely great time in 2005. And you know what? Now that Chiefland is in the rearview mirror for me, if somebody organized a spring star party at Indian Springs, I just might pack the truck and head north. Nice facility, decent skies, and the Fresh Air Barbeque would all provide a rather tempting inducement.