Connecticut Star Party 29
September 27-29, 2019, Goshen CT

By Donna Pursley

It was a beautiful Friday to start CSP this year. The field was set up a little closer to the entrance. We tried to keep everyone closer to each other this year to promote conversations and interaction between the attendees. Everyone loves showing off their scope to someone new.

I do believe that I saw many new faces this year. We also had a number of younger attendees.

After a delicious dinner, we all heading out to the scope field. It was a clear night and everyone was able to observe. It was very dewy, so many were thankful for the additional power this year. The skies were clear till about 2:30am when some clouds passed through.

New this year, we trialed supplying power to the main scope field. Dave Johnson had a quiet generator set up far away from the field, behind the warming tent with a long cord to our power panel. There were people plugged in to take advantage of this new feature. I believe that it was a success so we will continue to supply power for next year.

Because of the location of the generator, we also moved the warming tent closer to the field. I think this also went over very well as there were always people in the tent enjoying the beverages and snacks. Bob Carruthers does make the very best popcorn. It wasn’t all that cold out, but the warming tent is a nice place to sit and enjoy each other’s company.

The first speaker on Saturday was Pete Kanderfer. He spoke on the “Astronomy at Stonehenge.” He gave a good presentation about the pros and cons of the different theories regarding the stones alignments and how they may or may not had been used to predict eclipses.

The second speaker was Glenn Chaple. He spoke about many different variable stars. He discussed the repeating patterns of some different stars and which ones would make the best viewing targets for amateur astronomers.

ASNH President Greg Barker had a short Q&A session for anyone who had any thoughts on CSP. What they liked, didn’t like, etc. It was good to have the opinions of those who actually attend the CSP events.

The forecast was for heavy rain on Saturday night so most people packed up during the day. Saturday was another beautiful day without a cloud in the sky. Many of our participants took advantage of the area and hiked around looking at all the fall colors.

We had a nice crowd for the group photo just before the raffles. Each child under 14 received a huge stack of items to enjoy during the year. The main raffle prize, an Orion 8” Dobsonian (donated by Cheryl and Greg Barker), was won by Gary Zrelak.

Dinner was a huge success especially dessert, which was a build your own sundae with numerous toppings.

For those who ventured out to the Camporee field, there were half a dozen scopes still set up and the viewing was nice until the rain came in.

Thanks to all who attended CSP and we welcome you back again next year!

CSP photos by Shannon Calvert