Oregon Star Party 2005

The Oregon Star Party was a definite improvement over 2004! Three out of four nights had clear skies. If you haven't been to this Star Party you're really missing missing a real treat. Located in the Ochoco National Forest in central Oregon the skies are dark and clear. The site is much larger than the Table Mountain Star Party site allowing folks to spread out.

In addition to the dark skies, there is a great speaker list and this year was no exception. Don Macholz (of comet hunting fame) gave a great presentation on comet hunting. While Powerpoint presentations tend to be a drag, Don's was a definite exception! It was hilarious as well as informative!

Astrophotography was also great! While the skies were clear the seeing was also great. One of the nice things about the OSP site is the calm skies caused by the relatively flat terrain on the plateau. It is easily one of the best sites for astrophotography in the Pacific Northwest.

Meade Deep Sky Imager Pro with filter set

While at the Table Mountain Star Party I purchased a Deep Sky Imager (DSI) Pro from Sean's Astronomy shop. The goal was to use the DSI Pro as a guider for a Digital SLR (Hutech modified Canon 20d). After some initial teething problems the DSI performed its role beautifully. The DSI's imagining is a bit noisy, but even with a 5 second exposure it can image faint stars (9th magnitude?). BTW, don't use an USB 1.1 connection -- it won't work!

Attached to a Borg 60mm guidescope on my Stellarvue SV4 (4" apo refractor) and Losmandy GM8 mount it has enabled 6 minute guided exposures! Definitely a great way to get astrophotos on a budget. Check out the main EarthSkyStars web site for astrophotos done with this setup.

I haven't tried imaging with the DSI Pro yet, but I doubt it'll compete well with my SBIG or my Canon 20d DSLR.

Table Mountain Star Party

Attended the Table Mountain Star Party from 8/3/05 to 8/6/05 and had a very good time. The star party (a gathering of amateur astronomers, usually in a dark sky location) is one of the most popular in the Pacific Northwest and has an attendance of 700+ people. The first (Wednesday) and third (Friday) nights were the best nights with the third night the best imaging session I've had in a long time!

Wednesday and Thursday were both impaired by smoke from nearby forest fires. Even the fires had an upside though, the party attendees got to see classic World War II bombers doing fire-bombing duty!

The star party was once again blessed with a wealth of excellent speakers, with Stephen James O'Meara's talk on visual observing the highlight for me. Among Steve's noteworthy accomplishments was the first visual sighting of Halley's comet on its return to the inner solar system. Steve was also one of the first astronomers to see the "spoke" structures in the rings of Saturn.

One of the problems with the TMSP are the vendor booths -- at least it's a problem for my wallet ;-) I bought several books, a Meade Deep Sky Imager (DSI) Pro camera, and lastly a 10" dobsonian reflector! I was getting bored while the computer was doing astro-imaging so I needed a visual 'scope to keep me entertained :-)

Imaging the Sky 2005

I attended the Imaging the Sky 2005 conference, Saturday, July 23. While it's a small conference it's rich in speakers. Richard Berry, The Handbook of Astronomical Image Processing, was the standout speaker was there to discuss the latest edition of his book and software. Later Richard did a comparison of imaging with CCD cameras and Digital SLR cameras.

David Sandage, making his first appearance at the conference, did an overview of the workflow process involved in CCD imaging. It was very interesting to see the process detailed from beginning to end. I'd like to see David give the same talk at some of the local star parties.

The last talk of the day was presented by Doug George, of Diffraction Limited, on Maxim DL. Maxim is one of the premier astro-imaging programs, but is a large, complex application. Having Doug available to demonstrate Maxim's features was great!

Furby's return!

Just heard Hasbro will be releasing an upgraded Furby! Still have two have two of the original models, but I only hear from them when the cats knock them over. Then they start to sing their start-up songs, otherwise they just discharge AA batteries ;-)

The new model has double the memory, can recognize voices, and mimic facial expressions. Unfortunately the memory isn't expandable. Imagine a Furby with an SD memory slot!

Web Design World 2005 -Seattle

Finishing up at Web Design World 2005 at the Seattle waterfront. They saved the best for last! Mike Ninness, from Lynda.com, is a great Photoshop speaker! I've never seen so many useful tips and hints in one sitting! If you get a chance to see him speak, do so.

Televue 24mm - 8mm Clickstop eyepiece

Just bought a Televue 24mm - 8mm clickstop eyepiece while at the Mt. Bachelor Star Party. While it's really a Vixen eyepiece (Orion sells the same eyepiece without the clicks) it's still very convenient. Very nice to stuff one eyepiece in your pocket instead of carrying a Pelican case out to the dark sky sites!

A bit soft at the edges and doesn't have a super large field of view, but as a zoom it works great.