star party

The First (and hopefully, not last) Star Party of 2021

 in Blog  tagged Perseid meteor shower / SkyView Acres / star party

This past weekend (Friday through Monday night) I was at my favorite site for astrophotography, SkyView Acres, in Goldendale, WA in my first opportunity to attend a star party this year.  The first 2 nights were not expected to have good weather, and the forecast was largely correct, but this gave me some time to work out some ‘bugs’ that arose from new equipment and software – and from not having done any AP work for a full year! August 12(ish) is the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, so we were a bit early, but still saw plenty of […]

Welcome to Summer!

 in Blog  tagged moon / star party / Stellarvue / Summer solstice / SVX80T

Today (June 21st) is the Summer solstice, so it is now officially Summer.  And the longest day/shortest night of the year. I think that amateur astronomers have mixed feelings about Summer.  It’s annoying that the night is so short (tonight, even without the Moon, it would be truly dark for only a few hours), and you have to stay up pretty late before it starts.  On the other hand, you can stay up through all of it and still get to bed long before it’s time for breakfast.  And usually, you can stay up all night without freezing. I must […]

Light Pollution is No Longer The Problem

 in Blog  tagged fire / light pollution / smoke / star party

The number one topic of conversation at the Oregon Star Party (OSP) this year was that there is no longer much doubt that wild fires are increasing in frequency and size, and that this has a major impact on amateur astronomy.  Nor is there much doubt that this will continue to be more of a problem in the future – at least until all the vegetation on the west coast is lost to fire and there is nothing left to burn. I was at OSP from Tuesday through Sunday and the air was hazy from smoke almost the entire time.  […]