The US80/US29 interchange is near the upper left. The power substation appears as a bright white rectangle at the intersection of Macon 69 and US 80. 

What looks to be an airstrip is at the lower left, parallel to, and just north of an east-west county road. Is that it? There's one more zoom level of the above, but I still don't see a house, unless that's it in the trees just north of the western end of the airstrip.

How about any "security" lights?

Russell

I finally met Mr. Hill and took a drive down to the site this afternoon. Yes, you have the airstrip pinpointed accurately. His house is indeed in the trees just north of the western end of the runway. The runway itself is about 1500 feet long (just a guess). As for security lights, there are some on the south side of the road. HOWEVER, I don’t think they’ll come into play if we locate towards the east end of the runway. The strip is cut down some there (sheltered by a small embankment); there are also a number of trees between us and the potential problems. I plan to go out there tomorrow (Friday) evening and get a better look. At first glance, this site has possibilities. Mr. Hill has no problems with us going out there. I’ll send another report tomorrow evening.

Your roving reporter,

Rhon

Joyce and I went out to Cliff Hill’s place last night. He took us all over the property on a four-wheeler so I’ve got a good idea of the layout. There are two possible viewing areas, each with positives and negatives.

Negatives: two security lights to the south .... one sodium, one mercury vapor; HOWEVER, there is a location on the runway where neither is visible because of intervening trees. Fine for summer but we’ll have to see for winter. The runway runs parallel to a dirt road ... traffic on it is light, however. Two red lights are visible to the north, but can also be blocked if we setup right.

(2) look at the northeast corner of the rectangle bordered by the road on the west and the road/runway on the south ... BTW, the runway is 2400 feet long and he’s widening it at the east end ... the east boundary is just to the east where the runway stops. You can see an open area in this northeast section, slightly northeast of a dark patch on the photograph (it’s a small lake). This is a hilltop and is the second possible area.

Positives: no lights (I’m virtually positive of this even though I didn’t go back after it got totally dark). Trees block them in all directions ... not as wide open as the runway, but better than the Snipe’s place and maybe a little better than the old observatory place.

Negatives: relatively difficult to get to, but it can be done ..... cows and all that accompanies them .... we would have to go through a gate to get there and make sure it’s closed behind us ... Mr. Hill is willing to move them to another pasture on star party nights however. 

Recommendations: 

(1) the next star party should definitely be at Mr. Hill’s place

(2) we should set up at the east end of the runway, at least for the time being ... we can re-locate to the hilltop for following star parties if necessary, but I don’t think we’ll have to worry about it until the foliage drops. 

Rhon

Just a quick note to let you know Dave (Burnett) and I really enjoyed last months star party. Since then we have been looking for the best dark sky regions around Montgomery. Last night we traveled down to a co-workers 140-acre ranch in Sandy Ridge.

It’s about 25-35 miles south of Montgomery, which places its light pollution in the northern sky, and far enough away that the dome was quite small. Practically the entire drive down there, no street lights after getting south of Montgomery, and no town centers within 15 miles of the ranch. We had virtually no light pollution whatsoever to the south, east and west! The sky was spectacular! The area we set up was the center of an opening that had some elevation and was far away enough from the treeline that for the most part we had wide open viewing. For about an hour, excited and viewing non-stop, we were looking in and around Scorpius for while, staying away from the "misty cloud cover" to the east... when after an hour, Dave noticed the clouds we were avoiding were not moving very fast at all... I put the binocs up to them and almost fell down! Incredible! The Milky Way—loaded with objects, studded with countless stars everywhere you looked! We stayed for about 5 hours, keeping pretty active the whole time; in leaving, I think we both knew we’d found perhaps the best skies in proximity to Montgomery.  We’re planning to go down again in 2 weeks.

Anyway, we’d like to invite you or someone else from the club to join us for the next trip to Sandy Ridge. I know this would be a longer haul for the Auburn folks, but we’re thinking when one of you see the sky there, that you may find worth the extra time. The owners a great guy—and has never looked through a scope before. He’s committed to joining us the next time we go. I haven’t mentioned any star party intentions to him at this time—as we’d need someone from the club make an opinion on the location first. Who knows... one step at a time!

Rich Brideau brideau@darwinmail.net

Dave & I discussed springing the question of a party on Frank, however we both in agreement that we shouldn’t push it too far too fast.  Certainly we could have 2 people for the next one.  We’re guessing that meeting you folks would disarm any notions of misconduct he might anticipate.  And quite frankly, that if he had the pleasure of meeting you coupled with his very first introduction to the sky, he’d probably get very excited about it.  If, in the course of casual discussion that we mention that the club is always looking for locations, he may make the offer—the idea would be his own.  Ideally, thinking long term, if we take small steps we may be setting the foundation for another permanent site for the club!

[Next] weekend  looks like a ¼ moon rising early evening... so we may be in a holding pattern until next month.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

Richard brideau@darwinmail.net