My first time to Nightfall. Nightfall is held at the Palm Canyon Resort in Borrego Springs, about 1.5 hours south of Palm Springs. Just taking it easy with my head in a book.

Fred got an RV slip for himself and let me set up with him. Only about 50 yards away is the hotel part of the resort. I got myself a room and could go back and forth as needed. A pretty cool arrangement.

Al got a picture of Fred and myself doing what we do best - nothing :)

A bashful Fred getting all of his cables set.

Fred and his Sprinter. The other guys are from the Riverside group, I think.

Here's my rig. By this time Fred and I both have the exact same equipment. An Orion 190mm f/5.3 on a Losmandy G11 and an SBIG ST-4000XCM camera. The weather was very comfortable during the day, but the temps stayed warm at night. Fred and I could only get our cameras cooled to -12 degrees. Not disastrous, but -24 or so would help improve the images considerably.

Al really did his homework and reserved the best spot of all - a corner spot with the least amount of trees around.

He even brought an electric bike that gets him into town and back.

And there he is... :)

Al has a great setup. He carries all of his gear packed efficiently in his trailer. He does his imaging with the 12" SCT there in the front while he does visual observing with his big 18" computerized Dob.

Al's big Dobsonian. Under really dark skies you can see some extremely difficult to observe objects. It sucks in a lot of light.

Sunset in Borrego Springs, October 2011.