| CalStar 2023 Al and I arrived early on Tuesday afternoon. We sat and visited for an hour or so while Sam, the official mower, cut the grass around where we would all be setting up our campsites. Check out all of the colors this spring. |
CalStar 2023 There were just four of us on the first night. Al's RV, with me, set up behind him in my now regular U-haul van. Randy, getting ready for a bike ride, checking in with Al before heading out. |
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All setting up his imaging rig. |
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Steve and Jeff
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Bill checking out something on his phone while Jeff gets his tent up. |
CalStar 2023 This year Jeff brought four telescopes of all different sizes and configurations. More on that later. |
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Steve and his two Dobsonian telescopes. The red one on the left lost some bearings on the secondary mirror at the top. Gave him fits the whole trip. But the blue one worked OK. |
CalStar 2023 Ron in his snow suit visiting Bill and Steve. Nights were chilly, to say the least. |
CalStar 2023 Met a new friend this trip. This is Tracy, a new astro photographer. She started in astronomy just a year ago and jumped right into imaging and Pixinsight. Pixinsight is a difficult program to master. So jumping into it as a beginner (and hanging in there) is quite a feat. Kudos to Tracy. :) |
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Just a couple of shots showing that we pretty much had the run of the place for the first couple of nights. |
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Al unveiling his big Dob. His imaging rig is behind Steve. |
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This John brought along his Obsession Classic 20" telescope. |
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Hi Al. :) |
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Planning a night of imaging takes a lot of preparation. Al, hard at work. |
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Jeff with three of his four telescopes. Notice the orange one - the equatorial mount is made from steel pipe fittings. Works like a champ if the latitude is set properly. |
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Ron getting ready for a cold night. The first night we were there it got down to 27 degrees. That was a rough night in the sleeping bag. The second night was better - down in the low 30s. :) It got a bit warmer as the week went on. |
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John and Jeff. |
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Jeff visiting with the other John. |
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This is our neighbor, Randy. Randy really made my day on the last night. He cooked up pizzas and burgers. By that last day I was getting a bit tired of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner - not having a gas stove. |
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| CalStar 2023 Al takes a moment to relax before a night of imaging. |
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CalStar 2023 Steve still trying to fix the bearings on his telescope. |
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| CalStar 2023 Tracy down at the end of the row working three rigs. |
CalStar 2023 Half the fun of attending star parties is checking out everyone else's gear. |
CalStar 2023 David, Jim and Jeff relaxing before getting bundled up for the evening. David, in addition to imaging, is a singer/songwriter with his own home studio. He and I had some great discussions about the challenges of writing, performing and producing our own music. |
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| CalStar 2023 A View of the infield. i think this was Thursday. |
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| CalStar 2023 Now this is camping - the proper caption should have something about chowing down on a pot of beans. Alas, Jeff continued to eat healthy the whole week. |
CalStar 2023 The inside of John's telescope. |
CalStar 2023 M&Ms - the breakfast of champions (and astronomers). |
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| CalStar 2023 Shade is essential during the day at star parties, and John continues to be the go-to guy for a shade cave. John, Ron (with his trusty umbrella) and Jeff. Notice that we all three have a different GSSP t-shirt on. |
CalStar 2023 Vash, Sam and Randy just before we all started to head home. Sam, in the middle did the mowing. Next time Sam says he's going to mow pyramids into the grass. :) |
CalStar 2023 John took this image with his cell phone through the eyepiece of my Lunt 60mm solar telescope. Taking a picture like that is exceedingly difficult to do. Well done! |
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| CalStar 2023 Whenever you're at a star party - the number one rule during the day is to find yourself some shade - even if you have to bring your own. It's a double edged sword - astronomers need to have good horizons, but that invariably means not too many nearby trees. Comfort is the key :) |
CalStar 2023 Well... shade and naps are key :) |
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