I had a great time at the Shingletown star party. It
was my first major star party. I thought it ran very
smoothly. I was there from Wed. morning through Mon.
morning. getting in five good nights of observing,
camping, eating, socializing, etc.

My primary *observing* goal was to start and finish my
Astronomical League Binocular Messier certificate. It
would be my first. I want to add firsthand observing
experience to help me in teaching astronomy.

Dates: 25 - 30 June, 2003
Conditions: Dark skies all nights. After twilight I
estimated the skies as 5.5+ magnitude.
Equipment: Celestron Ultima 9x63 binoculars, 5.4 deg
FOV on a paralleogram tripod mount.
Guides: I used the Astronomical League, Messier
Objects: A Beginner's Guide and Astro Cards.
Results: I logged 53. Only 40 are necessary for the
certificate. Some were very challenging; I only
glimpsed a wisp of nebulosity with averted vision.
List in numerical order:
M 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,
M 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19,
M 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29,
M 31, 32, 33, 34, 39,
M 40, 49,
M 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56,
M 62, 63, 64, 65, 66,
M 71,
M 80, 81, 82, 83,
M 92, 94,
M 103,
M 110

Narrative:
I started on Wednesday at 10:30PM working through the
Messiers in Ursa Major and working south, then east
and finally into Ophiuchus at 3:00. I logged 16 the
first night. On Thursday I started with M83 in Hydra
and into the Milky Way in Scorpius. The highlight for
me was seeing (or recognizing) dark nebulae for the
first time. M24, wow! It was a treat to see the open
clusters and nebulae after spending the first night on
galaxies and globular clusters with unresolvable
stars. I finished with M54 & 55 in Scorpius. I was
packing in for the night around 3:00 when I realized
M31 was up. I was stunned by the view as M31 was
clearly visible for 3 deg in the binoculars! What a
treat before bedtime. I logged 22 Messier this night.
On Friday I started with M29 and some of the Messiers
that were near azimuth by the time I went to bed the
previous night. A highlight was identifying M32 and
M110 near/in M31. John Whitehouse and I hunted down
some help for positive identification. I finished the
night with the open clusters in Cassiopeia and M33 in
Triangulum. I logged 12 by 3:00 Saturday morning when
I quit. Saturday was the public star party, so I
switched to the 8" LXD-55 Schmidt-Newtonian. (The
public doesn't want to look through bino's when there
are scopes around.) Between 1:00 and 2:00 I logged
four Messier galaxies in Ursa Major with the
telescope. The last night I was getting tired. I used
the telescope to work on my starhopping. I find star
hopping much more difficult with the telescope than
with bino's. I had bought a Rigel QuikFinder earlier
in the day. It definitely is a big help, but I still
struggled. My surprize was that while using the bino's
to help the star hopping with the telescope I found
and logged M66, 65 and 49 in the bino's. I hit the
wall around midnight and went to bed.

I really enjoyed the star party. My thanks and
appreciation go to Jim Ster who was the driving force
behind the move to Shingletown.

Carpe Noctem!
(Seize the Night!)

Michael Huster
Simpson College


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