Santa Cruz Astronomy Club

Sitting here in my hotel room in Blythe on my way home from TSP. It's 107 degrees here - definitely not used to these kind of temps. The last two days at TSP we got rain in the afternoon and into the evening. The ground really sucks up the water and the rain kept the dust down. All together we only had 3-4 good nights out of seven nights, but the Santa Cruz contingent was great company. Can't speak for the other guys, but I think it was a fantastic trip and I'll definitely try to go back again next year.

Well, here we, it's Friday already. Both Wed. and Thurs. night we got skunked. Clouds have been a problem all week for us. Last night we actually got some drops of rain so a bunch of us tore down and stuffed everything into the car just to be on the safe side. Turned out that the thunderstorms that were forecast never really materialized. We're all being optimistic that we'll still get a couple more nights of clear skies before we head on home on Sunday.

Well, I made out here to West Texas for the Texas Star Party (TSP). 1350 miles and two and a half days. Fred, Al and Jeff left earlier than I did and did some sightseeing on the way.

Got here about 2:30 on Sunday – the other guys had spent the night in nearby Ft. Davis and were already setup and ready to go. The Prude Ranch is at about 5000’ so getting the tent put up and the scope stuff up brings on some huffing and puffing. The 80 degree weather factors in as well :) Check out the TSP website to see what the place looks like.

Spent the last three days over in Santa Clara at the Advanced Imaging Conference. My brain is over-full with asto imaging and processing info. There were imagers from all over the world in attendance and everyone had a great time. There were four of us from SCAC - Fred, Jeff, Al and me. The food was fantastic and the venue very comfortable both in the main room and the workshops. The final event was the door prizes.

Just got back from the BBQ at Walters' house. First of all, a great big "Thank You" to Walter and Carol for hosting the gathering. Walter put in a ton of work finishing up repair and remodeling projects around the house and the place looked great. The weather was perfect and the company even better. Walter said he'd received about 16 RSVPs and that was about how many folks we had. Burgers, steaks and chops all smelled great on the barbie. Chris and Miguel brought homemade apple pies for dessert. Add a little ice cream and it was the perfect finish.

Just got back from Yosemite a little while ago. Had a great time up at Glacier Point again this year. Pulled into the campground about 2:00 PM on Friday and got set up right away. It was nice at around 80 degrees. Driving into Yosemite Valley on Hyw. 140 it was 100 degrees. It took a while to get used to the altitude, though. Got a bit light-headed while blowing up the ‘ol air mattress. That gave me the perfect excuse to take a nice nap :)