Thanks to the residents of Shingletown (a friendlier bunch of folks you will be hard pressed to find) and the hard work of TAC members (especially Mark and Jim) we had a great time and great skies in spite of the rough conditions.We (wife and child included) had a tough time due to car troubles (service your radiator frequently!) but the KOA across the street from the airport (the viewing site for the party) proved several mitigating factors. We camped in our tent and enjoyed 110VAC, water, swimming pool, deli, petting zoo and video arcade. While some may not consider such luxuries appropriate for camping I have grown fat and lazy and appreciate not suffering for the cause and so will ask your indulgence. The weather was HOT, HOT, HOT, did I mention it was HOT, HOT, HOT!!!! Starting Wednesday at 105 degrees, Tuesday at 117 and around 100 for the rest of the party. Thunder clouds made they sky grim on Thursday but I still managed mundane tasks such as polar alignment and getting the vairous finders and guidescope lined up as well. We did manage some decent visuals on some globular clusters and the nebulas in Saggitarius also were available. Friday and Saturday I managed a few photos. Many thanks go to Mark Wagner and someones laser collimator for helping me finally get collimated and the resulting images were the best to date.
Got some astrophotos towards the bottom of the page. There are some shots of activities and goings ons... particularly in regards to beating the heat, did I mention it was HOT!?
On the road just south of Shingletown we had some overheating problems
(I need a new radiator) so we tried to keep the troops
happy.
We did have fun with the baby and it is never
too early to get good habits started. There
was quite a few scpoes so I got this picture showing the layout
before the crowds arrived for Saturday's
events. While the weather was not 100% condusive to astro activities
it was nice nonetheless.
There were things to do during the day that fit with the program for keeping cool. The is a few small lakes outside of Shingletown.
We all had a good time but were ready to go home
when all was said and done.
And now for the astrophotos ...
My favorite, M109, with some faint fuzzy friends.
From left to right UGC6923 at magnitude 13.9, UGC6940 at mag 16.75!, UGC6969
at mag 15.2
