Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Golden State Star Party - Night 4

The last night was a success - guiding was great and I took images of the Crescent Nebula and the remaining images for the Bubble nebula.

The day was (yet again) uneventful. We had another BBQ in the evening - people here really know how to make beef.

I also took some images of the the camp and its atmosphere:

The whole experience was awesome - I will definitively come back next year. Here are a couple of things to remember for next year:
  • A larger tent - preferably one where you can open the walls.
  • Shoestring Nikon cable, so that I can take wide field images with the DSLR on top of the scope
  • Solar panels to recharge the batteries (no more schlepping batteries over the camp ground) and/or a second battery recharger
  • The Celestron suspension pads
  • A thicker cover for the scope to make sure that it doesn't get so dusty during the day
  • Swiss Army knive (with cork screw!)
  • Larger Astroturf with shorter covering (or maybe I can use the blue tarp that I bought this year)
  • Red screens for phone and tablet
  • Water bottle
Larry and I also talked about bringing the kids next year. It would be great if they get to experience these skies too (just a few days ago Peter asked me why the milky way is called milky -if he were here, he would know!) We thought about some things that the kids could do:
  • They can observe the sky with my 6" scope - the should be able to use the hand control. We can give them a list of objects that they can slew to.
  • We can give them a list of Iridium flares and satelites to observe
  • The quadcopter
  • Kite
  • We can do day trips into the surroundings

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